The Promise ~ Thoughts on Sacrifice

The Promise

THE PROMISE, an epic and poignant film starring Academy-Award winner Christian Bale, Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Nativity Story), Marwan Kenzari and Charlotte Le Bon.

The PROMISE is a touching story about sacrifice and love.  The film portrays two heroes – one with the courage to stand-up for the truth and speak out against injustice – and the other, a friend willing to pay the ultimate price to do what’s right.

Sometimes it is our friends who are the everyday and little known heroes who strengthen and nourish us.  Their presence is a blessing – whether as a shoulder to lean or as a literal lifesaver.

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Have you ever known a person in your own life who was willing to sacrifice for another? A sacrifice that affected the life of others? I have ~ here is a glimpse at what he gave.

J was faced with a decision he could reenlist or he could get out of the military. He was promised that if he reenlisted he would not be sent into the war zone. J needed this assurance with the promise of his first child on the way and his wife's fragile condition. With the assurances that he would stay where he was for the foreseeable future J signed the dotted line so to speak.

Less than a week after reenlisting J's assurances were gone and he was going to be deployed into the war hot zone. His wife was understandably distraught, but there was nothing that J could do. He had reenlisted and his future was no longer his choice.

But J had a friend - one who saw the situation J now found himself in. R was determined to do all he could to make right the situation J now found himself in. R offered to take J's place in the war and surprisingly his offer was acceptable to those who had the final say in deployment. R experienced the war that J was meant to see and to live. But R did what he did for J, his wife and the child they would soon welcome. R made it through the war but at a cost to his own health. But he did it for his friend and he never expressed a regret for the sacrifice he made. 

Sometimes a simple word of encouragement makes a world of difference in someone's day. A helping hand, a listening ear, an offer of a shared lunch, a warm pot of soup. One may never know how a simple kindness and a smile can change another's world.

“Greater love hath no man than this, 

that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

- John 15:13  (KJV)

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Synopsis:

It is 1914. As the Great War looms, the mighty Ottoman Empire is crumbling. Constantinople, the once vibrant, multicultural capital on the shores of the Bosporus, is about to be consumed by chaos.

Michael Boghosian (Oscar Isaac), arrives in the cosmopolitan hub as a medical student determined to bring modern medicine back to Siroun, his ancestral village in Southern Turkey where Turkish Muslims and Armenian Christians have lived side by side for centuries. Photo-journalist Chris Myers (Christian Bale), has come here only partly to cover geo-politics. He is mesmerized by his love for Ana (Charlotte le Bon), an Armenian artist he has accompanied from Paris after the sudden death of her father.

When Michael meets Ana, their shared Armenian heritage sparks an attraction that explodes into a romantic rivalry between the two men. As the Turks form an alliance with Germany and the Empire turns violently against its own religious and ethnic minorities, their conflicting passions must be deferred while they join forces to survive even as events threaten to overwhelm them.

Promises are made and promises are broken. The one promise that must be kept is to live on and tell the story.

THE PROMISE is directed by Academy-Award winner Terry George (Hotel Rwanda, Hart’s War).

Click here to read about the Special Vatican Screening

Movie trailer: