We've come to associate the Holocaust with World War II, but the first World War is not without genocide. Admittedly, I don't recall learning about Armenians and their history in school. Granted, our education systems may not allow us to learn about every single piece of world history given the constraints of time and school curricula, but we have books, movies, and documentary films to help fill in the gaps.
Released in the United States in 2017, The Promise is about the mass persecution of Armenians at the start of World War I. The film stars two of my favorites, Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac, who is actually Guatemalan-American and one of the most underrated and talented actors today. Although the core story of The Promise is fiction, the portrayal of historical events in the movie is mostly accurate.
Love triangles and historical epic films often go hand in hand. Consider movies like The Last of Mohicans, Pearl Harbor, and Titanic, and add The Promise to the list. However, unlike Pearl Harbor and Titanic, whose stories are set against a historical backdrop, in The Promise, it's the events of World War I that primarily drive the film's narrative.
They don't seem to make period drama movies much these days. But The Promise is brilliantly written, cast, and directed, and in my humble opinion, the film should have been nominated for Best Picture.
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