DIRECTOR: Jalmari Helander LEAD CAST: Samuel L. Jackson, Onni Tommila, Ray Stevenson, Victor
Garber, Mehmet Kurtulus, Ted Levine, Jorma Tommila, Risto Salmi, Felicity
Huffman, Jim Broadbent SCREENWRITER: Jalmari Helander PRODUCER: Will Clarke, Petri
Jokiranta, Andy Mayson, Jens Meurer
EDITOR: Iikka Hesse MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Juri
Seppä, Miska Seppä GENRE: Action, Adventure CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mika
Orasmaa DISTRIBUTOR: Europa Corp. LOCATION: Germany RUNNING TIME:
110 minutes
TECHNICAL
ASSESSMENT: 3.5
MORAL
ASSESSMENT: 3.5
MTRCB
RATING: PG 13
CINEMA
RATING: PG 13
Finn Oskari (Onni Tommila) faces what every Finnish boy dreams of
on the eve of his 13th birthday: to prove himself a man by surviving
a day and a night in the wilds, catch game, and do his father proud. It doesn’t
matter if he can barely bend his bowstring, let alone hunt for deer on his own.
Meanwhile, Moore (Samuel L. Jackson),
the President of the United States of America is on his way to a G-8 summit meet
when Air Force One is suddenly attacked by missiles. He is promptly ensured
safety through the escape pod by Morris (Ray Stevenson), head security officer,
before the plane crashes on to the forest floor where Oskari is. The young boy
finds the President and drags him along his solitary pursuit only to discover
that Moore is being hunted by a psychopath with the help of his trusted
security aid. Will Oskari prove
himself and bag the biggest game of all?
Big Game opens with a spectacular and
breathtaking sweep of what is supposed to be Finnish mountains and woods (it’s actually
Bavaria, Germany). The awesome opening sequence alone makes your movie ticket
worth it. There is great chemistry between young Onni Tommila and Samuel L. Jackson
who both wear their characters with a delightful and solid performance. The
action sequences are well choreographed and the musical score heightens the
thrill of the adventure. Some parts are ridiculous but the dialogue has wit and
it has lots of fun. Plot holes and the war room scenes leave much to be
desired. In spite of its flaws, Big Game is a great package of
adventure, humor, and ingenuity that somehow works and manages to inject real
inspiration without being preachy.
Big Game actually parodies current conceptions
of what it means to be a man. It presents a bumbling president, a rich
psychopath, a corrupt secret agent, an incompetent intelligence team, a
well-meaning but unenlightened father, and a male community whose criterion for
manhood is survival in the wild and a trophy kill. Instead the film shows man’s
greatness in the capacity to forget himself and his pursuits in order to help
another human being in need. When he surrenders posturing to getting his hands
dirty, and valiantly defies any thought for self-preservation to save another,
then he becomes a man.
There’s one poignant scene in the wilds when Oskari weeps not
because his father made sure he’d be successful. He realizes that even his own
father did not believe in him. He throws caution to the wind, and stands up to
the challenge surprising even himself. As always, the temptation is to strive
and struggle for power, possessions, prestige and position. Big
Game teaches us, without any allusion to God or Jesus, the true measure
of a man: “Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of
Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as ransom for
many.”
