686. YOL (1982)

Running Time: 114 minutes
Directed By: Serif Goren, Yilmaz Guney
Written By: Yilmaz Guney
Main Cast: Tarik Akan, Serif Sezer, Halil Ergun, Meral Orhonsay, Necmettin Cobanoglu

WHAT A TURKEY!

Moving right along, baby! I'm pretty proud of myself for getting back on the horse and even staying on the horse after a couple of mildly disappointing pictures. However, if anything is going to knock me off the horse, it's Yol.

I can't get too detailed as far as plot synopsis goes, because to be honest, this is another one that I kind of crapped out on at about the forty five minute mark. The film opens in a Turkish prison, a handful of prisoners set to be released on furlough. They are to be released for a few days, at which time, they'll be expected to return to prison, or force being considered a fugitive from justice. The film follows five prisoners as they are given their temporary release and the truths they face on the outside world. On paper, it sounds like a brilliant film, but you know I'm not going to like it when THE BOOK refers to it as "deeply political". Call it a culture clash, if you will, but I just could NOT settle into this one.

Let's talk about a few memorable scenes though, shall we? How about those shots of the children smoking cigarettes. I didn't think I cared about the children of our future ("teach them well and let them lead the way"), but I'll be damned if that scene didn't disturb me a little bit. All of them giving a little cool smirk after each puff, even though most of them looked too young to even know what "cool" meant.

SPOILER ALERT!

Oh and how about that scene where Seyit Ali's wife freezes to death in the snow? Such a heartbreaking scene among an otherwise boring film. The scenes in the snow are well photographed to boot and when Seyit begins to beat his presumably dead wife with a belt, trying to kid himself into believing she's only sleeping - yeah, super heartbreaking and a marvelous scene. It didn't help, however, that I didn't really give one hoot about the characters. Had I cared, that's the type of scene that would make a man cry. As it is, it was only good enough to break me out of my clock watching and pay attention for a few minutes, before going back to being bored out of my skull. Again, I say, it all looked great on paper - a faux prison movie that focuses on the release of five convicts, whom we then follow and watch how they spend their furlough and continue their life for a matter of hours, before going back to being convicts. Actually, a brilliant story idea, but the execution and the political ramifications made it hard for me to sit through. NEXT!

RATING: 2.5/10  I feel like that may be too harsh, but it's a quarter of a full blown '10' and putting it like that, it seems more than fair. With only thirty two films to go, something brilliant needs to come along real soon!

MOVIES WATCHED: 969
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 32

October 3, 2015  10:24pm