Spiritual Movie Review by Jacklyn A. Lo – The Eternal Road.
The Eternal Road ( original title “Ikitie”) is a great period film with a masterfully told story about Spiritual Choice and beyond.
Uniqueness
The uniqueness of the film is that it does not show a superhero, but an ordinary guy, like many of us. However, this common person was capable of choices that not everyone can afford.
Spiritual Choice
Two things are most impressive in the story – the Spiritual Choice of the protagonist (Jussi) and the fact that the United States never asked Stalin about the fate of the American Finns. These Finns came to the US several decades ago in the hope of a better future, having learned the language they integrated into American society. However, blindly believing in Stalin’s propaganda, he emigrated to the Soviet Union to build a “Workers’ Paradise”. Almost all of them were killed on the orders of Stalin.
Reason
As always, there is a way to improve the plot. It would be great not only to show a portrait of Stalin hanging on the wall but also to explain why the “father of the peoples” ordered them to be killed.
After all, these innocent, but naive people sincerely believed in him and came from afar for a better future.
Freedom & Hope vs Cowardice
And the reason was that the cowardly Stalin, who followed the Values of Darkness, was afraid of any manifestation of Freedom and Hope that emigrants could bring with them from abroad.
It would be nice to show how Stalin paranoidly wanders around his huge residence in search of a safe haven. After all, he is terribly afraid of losing his physical life and tries to prevent any attempt on his life. That is why he never slept twice in a row in the same room.
Revenge
Jussi’s Spiritual Choice is shown at the end of the film when he meets the enemy of his life Kallonen. Jussi has a knife to take revenge on this low man responsible for the death of innocent people, including his young son and wife. However, Jussi, who has gone through hell, remains free from the dirt of revenge and leaves Kallonen alive.
Self-development
In the film, unfortunately, this episode is shown briefly, without an actual dialogue between Jussi and Kallonen, and yet, Jussis’s Spiritual Choice is a culmination of his self-development.
Indifference
And of course, you are wondering – if the United States of America had opened a case about the massacres of national minorities in Stalin’s Russia in the 30s, there might not have been subsequent repressions and killings on a national basis, as happened in subsequent history and happening right now? And was indifference the choice of the nation?
Poster©IMDb
Movies with similar issues: Kyle XY (TV Series 2006-2009)
More Spiritual Movie Reviews – Jacklyn A. Lo
Check Out the Featured Screenplay Melissa
Explore TV-Series Redemption