Audience Member
"Ben Hür Adam"! This is sort of like that, in that it's a religiously charged, epic biopic, only it's not nearly as long or, well, as interesting. Some would figure that "Ben Hur" wouldn't be quite as interesting, because it's over three-and-a-half hours long and over 50 years old, but it does have the distinct advantage of not being entirely is Turkish. Now, that isn't to say that this film isn't interesting... although it is to say that I'm the only jerk out there who finds this film interesting, but then again, just I and some dude in Turkey are the only ones who saw this film. Man, they... as in the only people who have heard of this film, keep going on and on about how this film opened at number two in Turkish box offices, but this is Turkey we're talking about, and even by those standards, this film didn't make number one. That's a shame, because I find this film adequately engaging, at least more so than, um, Hüzzi-Hüzza Yahtzee, or whatever the name of my fellow viewer of this film is. Shoot, maybe you should take his gibberish over my words, because this film must not be too interesting if this is the best opener I can come up with, and sure enough, even I find intrigue challenged.
This film isn't quite, well, competent to do a lot of things especially sharply, so it should come as no surprise that this film does just about nothing uniquely, following a formulaic and ultimately predictable path that can't even justify its length. You all should know how much I enjoy long films, so you can understand my excitement about seeing how this film fills its runtime of roughly two hours and three quarters, and how disappointed I am to find little outside of repetition, because as if directorial dry spells aren't enough to slow down momentum, Mehmet Tanrısever's, Mehmet Uyar's and Ahmet Chetin's script, in addition to the story concept itself, do enough damage to momentum. What separates this sprawling biopic dealing with a great social figure from something like "Ghandi", or "The Greatest Story Ever Told", or "Malcolm X", or all sorts of dramas of this nature, is a shortage on a sense of consequence, for although the conflicts and scope are distinguished, this film is too much about Said Nursî wandering about, and not enough about what Nursî was fighting for, thus leaving the repetition of the storytelling to border on monotony. The structure of the film is distancing enough, but what truly loosens your investment is the film's cheesiness, found within a surprising amount of cheapness to technical value, and within what I assume is trite dialogue, made all the more contrived by lapses in the subtlety of Tanrısever's efforts as director. It's hard to not appreciate the sheer ambition that Tanrısever pumps into this project, and yet, such ambition leads to sentimentality and other forms of overemphasis on conflict which struggle to compensate for shortcomings in momentum, only to end up stressing the final product's other shortcomings. There's something almost propagandistic about this film's storytelling, and that establishes a sense of dramatic laziness which, when backed by questionable structuring, betrays what potential there is to this surprisingly minimalist, and ultimately underwhelming epic. That being said, the film is far from a waste of time, for ambition does meet inspiration on a number of occasions, to bring life to subject matter of considerable value.
Said Nursî was a controversial visionary who opposed tyrannical social oppressions in order guide people to artistic and spiritual enlightenment, and although his story is a familiar one which is held back enough by its boasting only so many urgent conflicts, it remains worthy, and it would appear as though Mehmet Tanrısever, returning from a hiatus of an almost whopping twenty years (He's the Turkish Terrence Malick, folks) realizes this, arguably too much, taking on this film with too much ambition for you to ignore the natural shortcomings, as well as with enough inspiration to help in immersing you into the value of this subject matter. The immersion value is certainly helped by the art direction, which, quite frankly, is lacking in this period drama of little attention to setting detail and scale, but has its share of highlights to attract you, though not as much as Yildiray Gürgen's and Tevfik Akbasli's score. The soundtrack gets a little contrived at times, and it's rarely, if ever all that original, but it is haunting in its beauty and in its resonating with more genuineness than a lot of the storytelling aspects, being about as consistently effective as the acting. There really isn't much for the performers to work with, but for what they've been given to do, they do more than this drama probably deserves, with emotional and naturalist portrayals that is particularly human within the efforts of worthy leading man Mürşit Ağa Bağ. Bağ's realized charisma embodies Said Nursî's presence of wisdom and good-heartedness, - and how it evolved through the years - and helps in driving the drama, yet still cannot do so alone, for Tanrısever needs to keep his own efforts realized enough to breathe life into this drama which runs such a risk of falling flat. Tanrısever, at least as director, seems to try too hard, and the final product ends up falling a great distance shy of a potential whose limitations are actually emphasized by Tanrısever's overambition, and yet, Tanrısever never allows pacing to fall so greatly that entertainment value is completely lost, being kept fair enough to hold you over until the genuine dramatic highlights. There are some moving moments here, and I really wish that they were more consistent, as there is depth to salvage in this project which is still done enough justice to engage the patient adequately.
All in all, the film takes too long to tell a formulaic and repetitious story with a solid hint of cheesiness and sentimentality, thus, the final product fails to pick up enough momentum to soar, even though there is still enough inspiration to score work, acting and highlights in direction to make Mehmet Tanrısever's "Hür Adam: Bediüzzaman Said Nursi", or simply "Free Man" a decent, if flimsy ode to a great figure of enlightenment in relatively modern Turkish history.
2.5/5 - Fair
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/23/23
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