yusufpiskin

Honestly, this film has been on my watchlist since 2021, and after the whole COVID-19 mess, I was pretty sure I'd never get to see it.

But unfortunately, it ended in major disappointment.

First off, it's important to point out that this is an adaptation of a book/short story which I haven't read.

Back to the film: the portrayal of 1917 is absolutely stunning. From the color palette to the costumes, even the tiniest background details are handled beautifully. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets an Oscar nod in one of those categories.

But not everything runs so smoothly. Nearly half of the film's most powerful scenes feel like carbon copies of Paul Mescal's earlier work-almost shot-for-shot, moments he's already known for in other films and series.

Why they chose to do that, whether it was director Oliver Hermanus or cinematographer Alexander Dynan, I don't know. But I can say for sure it was the wrong call.

Add to that the weak dialogue and a queer storyline that feels underdeveloped, and the film ends up miles away from where it's clearly trying to go.

That said, the music choices and Chris Cooper's presence earn it some points back.

I knew from the start that nothing bad would come out of Danny and Michael Philippou. So ever since the first news broke about this film, I've felt at ease completely certain I was about to see something good. Hats off to the duo: after Talk to Me, they've clearly continued their path by learning and evolving. That mindset is becoming increasingly rare in today's film industry.

On the Emmy night when Haluk Bilginer announced the award, everyone seemed stunned that Billy Barratt had won, especially at such a young age. But I wasn't surprised. I've been following his career since 2016, and once again, he didn't let me down in this film either.

Beyond Sally Hawkins' masterfully eerie performance, and the triumph of bringing an actor like Jonah Wren Phillips into cinema, Bring Her Back stands out as one of the rare recent films where the viewer can genuinely feel the effort poured into every single frame. At a time when cinema, in general, seems to be abandoning the concept of "craft" and surrendering to AI, the state of horror cinema, frankly, feels even more pitiful.

Long story short: Bring Her Back is the kind of film everyone involved, especially the Philippou Brothers, should be proud to have in their filmography.

The year is 1948. A few years have passed since World War II ended, a war that erupted before the wounds of World War I had even healed. Meanwhile, the film industry, once a tool for wartime propaganda, was busy searching for new narrative expressions.

Even though films were still in black and white, movie theaters remained the best way to add color to life.

The cultural war that began after the great war continued in cinema. American cinema, or Hollywood as it's known, consistently churned out box office hits, yet artistically, it always lagged behind European cinema.

In that same year, while the whole world gave a standing ovation to Vittorio De Sica's Ladri di Biciclette, films like Fred Zinnemann's The Search-shot largely in Germany and with interior scenes completed in a Zurich studio in Switzerland-and many others, remained what we'd call "underrated" today. Of course, De Sica deserved all the accolades and more; that's not the point here.

Despite grossing nearly three times its budget ($300,000 vs. $800,000), MGM, for whatever reason, shelved this epic anti-war film and barely looked at it again.

The film premiered in Turkey in 1958, a decade after its global release. My father watched it when it was shown on state television back then, and that's how he recommended it to me. That's how I first got acquainted with the film.

Fred Zinnemann is, after all, a Hollywood legend. One can only hope that some institution or organization will restore this film and pull it out of the dusty archives, because MGM, now owned by Jeff Bezos, clearly has no such intention.