The Water Diviner (2014)
Genre: Drama / War
Duration: 110 minuten
Country:
Australia / Turkey / United States
Directed by: Russell Crowe
Stars: Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko and Jai Courtney
IMDb score:
7,0 (81.074)
Releasedate: 25 December 2014
The Water Diviner plot
"To honour a promise. To find his sons. To make his peace."
In 1919, just after the First World War, a father travels to Turkey. There he hopes to find out what happened to his sons who disappeared after the Battle of Gallipoli, the failed Allied invasion of Australia and New Zealand that targeted Turkey.
Social Media
Actors and actresses
Joshua Connor
Ayshe
Major Hasan
Sgt. Jemal
Lt. Colonel Hughes
Arthur "Art" Connor
Edward Connor
Henry Connor
Omer
Dr. Ibrahim
Reviews & comments
Captain Pervert
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- 4747 messages
- 2124 votes
The Water Diviner is about the battle of Gallipoli in the First World War and especially its aftermath - for one man, who embarks on a search for the remains of his fallen sons.
The events in the film don't really 'live' in Hollywood or Western Europe, but mainly in Australia and New Zealand. In Australia and New Zealand, 'ANZAC Day' is even one of the most important public holidays. Without Russell Crowe in the lead role (and at the helm as director), it might have passed us by.
And that would have been a shame, because it's a carefully made, atmospheric film that doesn't shy away from showing that war is no fun. That is in stark contrast to the sluggish scenes between Crowe and Kurylenko. The latter plays a Turkish woman, who happens to be the only one in the film who walks around without a burqa, and of course she is pretty and cute. Coincidentally.
In any case, the film is rather uncritical: entirely in accordance with modern Western tradition, the non-Western extras on duty (the Turkish/Islamic in this case) are portrayed as noble savages, sympathetic and with a heart of gold, who actually shape the relationship with the Western world. would rather have seen otherwise. The fact that the Ottoman Empire had a centuries-old tradition of violent Islamic expansionism remains unmentioned. It is nice that in the film Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) is briefly mentioned - the man who transformed the decaying Ottoman Empire into the modern and above all secular Turkish state (something that Mr Erdogan is now slowly reversing step by step)
But it doesn't matter that the film takes a relatively neutral point of view. It is above all a tribute to more than 250,000 people from Down-under and that other island who lost their lives at the time. That was a thing there then and now.
Not one that will stay with me. 3 stars
Translated from Dutch · View original
IH88
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- 9780 messages
- 3194 votes
The Water Diviner
Excellent directorial debut from Russell Crowe. Beautiful locations, atmospheric images and an impressive story, in fact there is little wrong with The Water Diviner. The only problem is that the story is a bit too quiet and compelling Connor (Crowe)'s search for his (probably) deceased sons does not want to be.
There are too many unnecessary subplots and Crowe gets too lost in the details. It's great that he wants to show everything in as much detail as possible, but sometimes it feels a bit too much like a history lesson instead of a compelling story. Besides Crowe, Kurylenko is a very beautiful appearance and you can see that she has prepared well for the role. The balance between romance, war and the search for Connor's sons is sometimes completely off, but The Water Diviner is all in all an atmospheric spectacle with strong acting performances.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Don Homer
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- 510 messages
- 1297 votes
Special war drama about the first world war and its consequences from a Turkish and Australian perspective. The latter made The Water Diviner (2014) unique for me. Despite very intense moments, he is somewhat romantic. This may sound strange, what I mean is that it is completely different from, for example, La Piscine (1969) which comes across as much more realistic.
This directorial debut from Russell Crowe starts off very messy and takes a long time to get going. Strong and annoying fragments alternate in the full duration of the film. Then they are surprising, then again (hugely) predictable. The blue mosque was beautiful.
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