The Promise

...but that still hasn't been done justice. "The promise" is slightly better than its predecessor of the same theme, "Ararat". The scenery and settings, specifically of pre-War Constantinople are in fact, breathtaking (if not a bit fanciful). The story is entirely linear and unfortunately falls into trap of turning into a "refugee" movie, similar to "Beyond Rangoon", or the much more masterful "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness"; where the protagonist enjoys a wonderful life until civil conflict forces them and a group of refugees to have to escape somewhere. I think the worst part about "The Promise" is the historical revisionism; The American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (played by James Cromwell) was indeed Jewish, but absolutely no "Schindler", in that he did absolutely NOTHING to save Armenians...not a single one. So, the movie has to invent a fictitious American journalist (played by Christian Bale) so Ambassador Morganthau can "save" him, somehow redeeming his role in the genocide, when the reality was Morganthau was the one who sat around and documented what was happening from accounts flooding his office while doing nothing. Yet, once again, it is a story that needs to be told, so I'm keeping that in consideration in my rating.

God bless all the people who made this fill possible. Not just for the Amermenian genocide perpetrated by the Turks, but for the Greeks and Assyria s also.

On another note, it it completely insane how there are so many 1 star reviews on a movie of this caliber. I guess it helps reveal the evil is still alive to this day when it comes to this subject.

I was curious which version of the Armenian Genocide this movie would tell. A fiction, that 1.5 million Armenians, 500,000 Greeks, and 250,000 Assyrian Christians were victims of a "civil war?" Or would its makers place responsibility where it belongs -- on the leaders of the Ottoman Empire in WW-I?

To this day, the Turkish government refuses to admit the crime and its supporters took great lengths to derail this movie by flooding internet cinema sites with poor 1.5 ratings to discourage Americans from seeing the film. This, despite the courageous efforts of Turkish dissidents and opposition political leaders who have dared to speak up on the ugliest episode in their country's history.

The story portrayed against the backdrop of this crucial period of history is a simple one. A gifted medical student, Michael played by Oscar Isaacs (Inside Llewyn Davis/Ex-Machina/A Most Violent Year) whose acting matches the intensity of the times -- receives his betrothed's dowry to complete his medical education in Constantinople. Michael arrives just as the genocide begins and falls in love with the beautiful Anna, an Armenian music protégé --performed by French-Canadian Charlotte Le Bon (The Hundred Foot Journey/The Walk) who lives with her lover Chris Meyers, an AP reporter determined to expose the genocide (played by Christian Bale (Empire of the Sun/American Hustle/American Psycho).

Director Terry George, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland (Hotel Rwanda/In the Name of the Father/Hart's War) skillfully factors in crises of the heart without trivializing the gravity of the horrific massacre in Anatolia.

I digress here to confess a lesson learned. Coming from a Hellenic heritage scared by 400 years of Ottoman occupation, I expected a larger Greek presence in this movie. My ethnocentric desire to see a Greek army coming to the Armenians' rescue, made me miss entirely the message conveyed in this work. I selfishly asked "...why were my people left out of this flick?" Fortunately, as the end of the movie approached, two thoughts came.

First, the Armenians deserve to have THEIR story told uncluttered by others. Besides, at least we Greeks HAD a country to escape to.

Second, I realized that my people were in the movie and yours were, too. The Cambodians under Pol Pot, Native Americans, the Armenians and the victims of Naziism in Europe: Gypsies, Homosexuals, the horribly so-called "Mental Deficients" the peasants/workers of Russia, and of course, the Jews, are all our people!

Perhaps someday when we realize that our Humanity is all we have to share with one another, such movies will no longer be necessary.

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.

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