The Ottoman Lieutenant

Joseph Ruben's film strives to be a lush romantic epic in the tradition of David Lean while also painting a highly debatable historical portrait of the Armenian genocide instigated by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Infatuated young American nurse Lillie (Hera Hilmar) travels to Anatolia to aid an idealistic doctor (Josh Harnett) who is laboring in a hospital for the poor. Arriving in Istanbul, Lillie almost immediately bumps into a handsome lieutenant (Michiel Huisman) in the Ottoman army, leaving her torn between the doctor and the soldier, while the hospital's gruff founder (Ben Kingsley) looks on in dismay. This romantic triangle unfolds against the backdrop of the Ottoman offensive against the Armenians, which is here depicted as an understandable reaction to the rebellious Christian minority's collusion with Russians preparing to invade the Muslim Empire. The lieutenant believes that however justifiable such a policy might be from the perspective of national security, the operation must be managed humanely—and he intervenes when a group of his comrades undertake a massacre of innocents. The suggestion of rough equivalency in the conduct of the Ottomans and the Armenians—effectively exonerating the imperial policy—is a troubling subtext in this film that is already deeply flawed as an old-fashioned melodrama. Although set in a fascinating time and place, this is not recommended. (F. Swietek)