Rating: C+
Dir: Hakan Inan
Star: Ismail Hacioglu, Sinan Tuzcu, Hande Dogandemir, Kerem Alisik
a.k.a. 49
Turkey has a rather shaky reputation among genre fans, courtesy of more or less unashamed ripoffs, given names in the West like Turkish Exorcist and Turkish Rambo. As we’ve seen though, that’s a little unfair, and this action film is, similarly, perfectly respectable. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and is intent on colouring inside the lines. But it’s technically sound, and has enough energy to sustain what initially seemed an excessive 127-minute running-time. It claims to be based on a true story. While the core incident did happen, information on the specifics is limited in English-speaking media. I suspect, as in many such cases, the words “based on” are doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
It begins in the facts, with ISIS storming the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014. 49 Turkish citizens – hence the original title – were taken from the consulate there as hostages. After 101 days, they were freed. I suspect it’s between these two events that the literary license occurs. In this version, an early frontal rescue attempt fails, and subterfuge is called into play instead. The idea is to kidnap one of the ISIS leaders, forcing a prisoner exchange. Oguz (Hacioglu) is sent undercover into an ISIS camp, to get close enough to the target, Ekrem Baskan (Alisik). Naturally, things don’t go as planned, his identity is exposed, and he must shoot his way out with the hostage. It doesn’t get easier from there.
This feels a little like a Bollywood action film, with a straightforward – one might even say simplistic – approach to good and evil, bordering on the jingoistic. Admittedly, ISIS are perhaps as close to pure black-hat status as any current group in existence. But the final lines are, “Long live our nation. Long live our homeland,” while Oguz has to deliver cheesy dialogue like, “We’ll teach you all that you should not play with the wolf.” It’s to the credit of Hacioglu that these pass muster. Naturally, he has a female sidekick (Dogandemir) to point up the difference between the secular Turks and ISIS. Naturally, she has to be rescued by Oguz, because it’s still Turkey – not exactly a bastion of equal representation.
Outside of Baskan, the ISIS goons are largely unimpressive as villains, in terms of competence. Indeed, at points I was reminded of Four Lions – or when Oguz is making his escape, The Three Stooges. On the other hand, this does not get bogged down in any nonsense involving relationships. The makers know the audience want to see hairy, wild-eyed fundamentalists getting mowed down and blown up by the bus load (literally, at one point), and are happy to deliver. It feels retro, like a throwback to something Cannon might have put out in the eighties. That sentence could be read as a compliment or a concern: which way you skew likely determines how you will respond to this.
This is part of our World in Action feature, covering action movies around the globe.