A true story about the dream of one young man to bring his family out of the shame and submission of the Turks in Anatolia. The film covers the beginning of the Armenian and Greek genocide of the early 20th century.
The only time I've ever cried as much as I did in this film was in the Pianist.
The ending left me with a bittersweet taste...What had started off as a selfish journey turned into selfless acts being repaid. It was partially a bildungsroman but so much more...
But the kissing of the ground upon arrival in America?
I mean Elia Kazan (real name Ilias Kazantoglou) was very fond of the idea of America being the place of freedom, of opportunity....hence the short glimpse of the statue of liberty from the ship, whilst many are figuratively and literally surrounded by bars.
I am told that this image inspired that truly spine chilling shot in the beginning of the Godfather Part II.
But I've never been able to align the two images of America in my mind. That which I get from the very history of America (16th - 19th Century 'Indian policy reductions' which in simple terms means ethnic cleansing) and this image we get from books like F Scott Fitzgerals in 'The Great Gatsby'. But perhaps that is the very point. America is simply an image. Nothing more. An image is not tangible...It can be seen, in one's mind...But whether the reality is as we visualise it, is separate to that image we think we see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE6n-Rg8N1w
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