Same plot, different backers- way different themes. 


The Ottomon Lieutenant

The Promise
The Armenian Genocide has been a touchy subject ever since World War I.  

In fact, none of our presidents have ever said the word genocide when referencing it. Why?  

Because the Republic of Turkey (formerly the Ottomon Empire) is our proud partner in the Middle East, where we have few friends.  

And Turkey frequently rewrites history to claim that it was just a small “massacre” -not a genocide.   

Historians tell us it was for sure a downright genocide of nearly 2 million Armenians.  Decades before the Holocaust.  Ordered from the highest levels of the Ottoman Empire.  

The cinema phenomenon of “the law of two,” where two similar movies are made at the same time, has struck again.  Before it was Impact/Armageddon, Volcano/Dante’s Peak and Saving Private Ryan/The Thin Red Line

Now we have The Promise with Christian Bale and The Ottomon Lieutenant with Ben Kingsley.  

Both movies are set in Armenia during WWI.  Both involve love triangles.  Both show the terror of war.  

But The Promise was made by the Armenian-American billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.  Historians have praised its authenticity of the genocide.  And side note: profits will be going to charity, says the Hollywood Reporter.

The Ottomon Lieutenant was produced by Eastern Sunrise Films (ES Films), owned by the son of Turkey’s leader Tayyip Erdogan.  Side note: the son is under international investigation for selling oil to ISIS, says the The Guardian newspaper. 

And as you probably surmise, Turkish propaganda paints the genocide as a small massacre in a terrible war- and a dashing and selfless Turkish soldier as the main character. 

So lesson learned: follow the money and never wholeheartedly believe any claim in fact without corroborating it. 

Including this blog.  (Rest assured this is well researched, but go ahead and check)