I watched this movie recently with high expectations as I heard that it was top notch. I was disappointed - while its beginning is quite engaging and the story is of interest, it seems to me that the Script was focused too much on attempting to demonstrate the Armenian Genocide rather than tell the story of the people involved. All possible "evil" behaviors were shown such as work camps, railway wagon full of refugees, people beaten/killed in the streets ... It seemed far fetched to me. It seems like only Armenians were "on the road" at that time as the heroes only met "poor" Armenians and "bad" Turks. While Ottomans were a mix of Turks, Kurds and Arabs - focus is again on Turks only. Historically speaking, it is known that most murders were done by Irregular Troops. Having said that, one might say that this is not a documentary so inaccuracies may occur - but then this approach has made the film too much one sided. Not to mention the American behavior (journalist + ambassador) which is the usual "we Americans do not accept this ..." ... this came out as funny and removed credibility. I liked the male lead as he played well his role. He was one of the few strong points of the movie. One low point is for the ridiculous behavior of the leading Lady - imagine back in 1914, a lady sleeps with an American who is a drunk and goes around in bars with him, and is still deemed as honest and worthy to wed the main hero .... sorry, it does not make sense. Maybe for 2014 but not for 1914. So all in all - nice beginning, beautiful cinematography but then it tumbles as it wants to say too much and gets lost on the way. A weak version of Doctor Zhivago. Unfortunate ... Watch it once but do not buy it.
Review of The Promise
