The Promise

Should be required viewing in every high school Social Studies class to show the dangers of alternative facts and disputed leadership and the necessity of individual moral fortitude. History forgotten is history repeated. Every viewer will be forced to examine what they would be willing to sacrifice, what actions would they take, what can or can't they live with? While the romance is beautiful and an obvious audience draw, it is the beautiful photography and the Oscar caliber acting by Oscar Issac earning my score. How sad is it no studio would touch this subject requiring the private funding of an Armenian billionaire?

I saw this movie at the Sonoma International Film Festival, and although I felt like it could have been edited tighter, it was an amazing story that I'm glad that I experienced. The acting was great, the period costumes and sets were flawless, and the story that it told was heartbreaking and needed to be told. I doubt there was a dry eye in the house (my wife and I certainly cried).

Me and my lack of history knowledge, new nothing of this situation. I fell across the film by mistake. It was a great film about a terrible time. Highly recommend this film to all ages. Everyone plays a great part. I look forward to future films from the directors The promise Can't fault any of film

It's a shame that this film's IMDb page has effectively been hijacked by trolls because it covers a politically sensitive topic. Over 90% of all voters have either given it 1 or 10 stars, clearly attempting to sway the rating one way or another without actually watching the film and judging it on merit. 'The Promise' doesn't actually focus on the Armenian genocide itself, rather it is set during the final years of the Ottoman Empire and centers for the most part on a developing love triangle involving the main character.

Looking at this film objectively and without joining the many others in disputing its historical accuracy, I thought 'The Promise' was an impressive and well-made drama film. The plot is engaging and well-constructed and is effective in balancing the telling of historical events with an emerging romance. It also looks great - the production and cinematography is excellent and it features some stunning scenery. Unfortunately the genuine ratings and reviews for this film have been drowned out by so many one-line one-star fake reviews.

If you've studied WWI a bit, you'll know that while the Ottoman Empire was crumbling a group called the "Young Turks" decided that Turkey would rid itself of everyone not Turkish. If you agreed to convert to Islam, you might be spared. So much happened and on such a large scale that you could easily do a mini-series, so the film is a little long and some conflation of things was necessary. It is not unrealistic that Armenians could escape from one situation and then simply find themselves driven from one horror to another. Yes, some Armenians were worked to death by the military, some escaped and tried to hide out, and yes, a few thousand were rescued off of Musa Dagh (a mountain), close to the Mediterranean Sea. Bottom line, this film manages to convey the horror of being hated simply for who you are and targeted for extermination. Oscar Isaac is just phenomenal, and the rest of the cast is very good. The incredible atrocities are played down, fact is if they showed the viewer even 15% of what happened in detail, it would make it hard to attract viewers. The genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and other non-Turks is well documented and supported by historians in general. It's a historical fact. The only historians who try to downplay or deny there was a genocide are usually being supported financially by the Turkish government. Those who did not die were largely women/girls who were handed off to Turkish families. I would guess that a large portion of Turks do in fact have an Armenian grandmother or great grandmother. After years of the Turkish government threatening the diaspora and attacking anyone who insisted that this happened, it is extremely heartening that this film has been made.