Summary
Those who stick around until the end will be rewarded for their endurance, yet this emotionally manipulative drama doesn’t deserve any of your precious time.
The term Oscar bait has come to mean movies that specifically and shamelessly use emotionally triggering subject matter in a manipulative way to help amass shiny, gold awards (think The King’s Speech and The Danish Girl for example). The formula works best if a film targets a certain tragedy, in-vogue disease or disability. Throw in some prestigious talent and you are onto a winner. Godspeed will most definitely not be winning anything come award season, but it follows a similar mentality, cramming a film full of sentimentality and misfortune in the hopes of creating something memorable. That fine line between engagement and manipulation is a tough balance to strike, with the Turkish drama highlighting just how tricky it can be. This is, after all, sentimental drivel that only just about saves itself from obscurity with a compelling end.
Godspeed follows Captain Salih, a war veteran with a prosthetic leg, who finds most things in his everyday life prompt in-depth, clunky flashbacks to those traumatic times he’d sooner forget. Even a child playing hopscotch brings on the soldier’s haunting PTSD. He’s clearly a man on the edge, as the opening scene introduces us to the Captain as he robs a house, stealing money and a gun. Comical sidekick Kerim, his lieutenant and supportive friend, is also along for the ride, with both soldiers journeying across country with the objective of breaking off a wedding. Kerim’s soul mate Elif is being forced into wedlock and the marriage must be stopped. They drive Turkey’s picturesque highways in a vintage car making small talk and indulging in further robberies, heading towards this momentous showdown.
It is part road trip flick, part war movie and part rom-com, with splashes of political and social observations thrown in for good measure. A film that only matches its poor acting with inept writing, all the while aiming for poignancy in nearly all its scenes and failing every time. Take for example, the car they are driving in, Salih confesses, is the very same vehicle that his entire family died in, or a partridge that the disgraced captain steals from a convenience store is later shot dead when Salih finally frees the bird. The film is plagued with these forced and false emotional ploys, which just don’t work. Godspeed continually undermines its audience at every turn, expecting them to swoon over this sickly sweet melodrama, but they should expect more from their viewership.
Whilst on the road, we explore the soldier’s troubled pasts via conveniently placed flashbacks, Salih’s wife Duygu tries to track the fugitives down and the wanted duo bumps into an array of unusual characters. It’s a fast-moving piece that manages to keep you mostly entertained throughout, as we hurtle towards a surprising final third. Here the film defies all expectations and delivers the most shocking of plot twists. This revelation will be discussed in my ending explained article, but believe me, it almost saves the film from all its previous sins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbs-1C6DECE
Netflix’s latest offering is a corny and contrived affair, where the filmmakers blatantly throw everything but the kitchen sink at this tragedy in the hopes of eliciting some kind of emotional response from its tired viewers. Manipulative drama at its worst. A clever twist almost justifies the horrors that proceeded it, yet they cannot go ignored. Watch at your own peril.
What do you think of the Netflix film Godspeed (2022)? Comment below.
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If something doesn’t lack Godspeed is good acting, the acting is one of the best thing of the movie.
Engin Akyurak is fabulous in everything he does. Wish they let us hear the characters own words. Dubbing in Engin’s voice ruins the movie. His voice is so melodic; it becomes another character!
I cannot take your contrived choice of words aiming to be clever seriously. Especially when you claim the Captain “robs a house”. The house he was in was his and he was looking for his wife’s stash of money! The “series of robberies “ non existent. I will just leave it at that.
No veo que es lo malo de que una película sea emotiva, más hablando de crímenes de guerra reales, no todo en la vida son estúpidos superheroes y series de marvell. Excelente pelicula
This is such a poor review.
It’s a very good movie.
This review only said the author ignorance about the difference between a Hollywood movie and foreign movie
It’s slow because it’s required to be so
It’s a story about a friendship that is narrated in a very metaphorical and symbolic ways
Something that Buñuel, Saura , Fellini and many others used before
The acting is excellent Akyürek and Saritaš totally give a great performance and represented the character in a very simple manners
The music and the photography are both beautiful
It will probably be nominated for one of the best foreign movies
Ennyi rosszindulattal átsüt?tt kritikát még nem olvastam. El?ször is tele tárgyi tévedésekkel. Nem tör be sehova, a saját házából viszi el, a gondolom feleségével közös pénzüket, és a saját autóját. Összesen egy fogoly madarat lop el, hogy kiszabadítsa, és a felháborodását mikor lelövik, megérti az, aki látja is – nemcsak nézi – a jelenetet, mikor lelövik a barátját. Az egyetlen amiben egyet értek, a film csúcspontja az utolsó negyven perce. Ennek iígy is kell lenni. De nem ment meg semmit, hanem megkoronáz, ha egyáltalán érti mire gondolok. Legközelebb ha kritikát ír, próbálja el?venni tárgyilagos énjét – ha van ilyen – és ne a kitudja mib?l táplálkozó rosszindulatát.
Javaslom, nézze meg a filmet! Mert amit ebben a “kritikában” írt, az azt mutatja, hogy meg sem nézte! Engin Akyürek és Tolga Saritas mesteri szerepértelmezése, a film forgatókönyve, rendezése, zenéje, mind harmóniában vannak.
A total rubbish review. The acting is great and the story is interesting.
Rubbish review. Very good acting and an interesting story
Whoever wrote this review paid very little attention. TheCaptain, played superbly by Engin Akyurek. DID NOT break into a house to steal money and a gun- it was his own house! How can you expect anyone to believe one word of your frivel if you can’t get the first scene right?
I thought it was an excellent film that will gain worldwide acclaim.