“The Promise” Review

In the midst of WWI, the Armenians faced an unforeseen fate when the Turkish government decided to exterminate their entire race.  Survival Films’ The Promise captures this reenactment on film in order to bring light to one of the darkest times in our history, one that the Turkish Government denies even to this day.

Christian Bale plays the American reporter, sent to cover the outcome of the war in Turkey, when he discovers the truth and almost gives his life for a chance to convenience America that this is real and that one thing still exists in the midst of the war, love, in the form of a love triangle between medical student, Mikael (Oscar Issac), Sophisticated Ana (Charlotte Le Bon) and the journalist, but is it enough to survive in the midst of all the chaos of the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

At 2 hours and 15 minutes, The Promise will have you reliving the fear and devastation of an entire community as children are orphaned, families separated, but one thing remains the same, love.

The Promise came out April 21 in theaters and though it was at the bottom of the box office, it’s a film that all should see as it deals with history especially one that not too many people realize even existed.  The acting is powerful as is the realistic portrayal of the last part of WWI in Europe and Turkey.  The movie is timely for when the genocide of 80 percent of the Armenian population perished beginning in April 1915.

See The Promise before it leaves the theaters.  It will have audiences ravaging over the genocide that happened over a hundred years ago.