| Eight Deadly Shots | |
| Starring: | Mikko Niskanen |
| Native Name: | |
| Director: | Mikko Niskanen |
| Producer: | Mikko Niskanen |
| Distributor: | Yleisradio |
| Released: | 29 March – 5 April 1972 (miniseries)[1] 1972 (film)[2] |
| Runtime: | 316 minutes (miniseries) 145 minutes (film) |
| Country: | Finland |
| Language: | Finnish |
| Gross: | $3,776[3] |
Eight Deadly Shots (also known as Eight Fatal Shots;[4] Finnish: Kahdeksan surmanluotia) is a Finnish drama film directed, written, produced by and starring Mikko Niskanen. Originally released as a four-part, five-hour miniseries in spring 1972,[5] it was edited into a 145-minute movie by Jörn Donner.[6] The film has generally been called Niskanen's "magnum opus".
The film was inspired by a 7 March 1969 mass shooting incident in Pihtipudas, Finland, in which a smallholder shot and killed four armed policemen who had come to calm him down after he drove his family out of the house in a drunken rage. The film focuses on depicting a fictionalised chain of events leading up to the killings, as imagined by director Niskanen, who personally knew the region where the events took place. The names of the characters were changed.
The production of the film experienced many setbacks. The mass shooting incident was still fresh in the memory and many strongly condemned the film project.[7] In connection with the making of the film, there was almost a life-threatening situation when a bullet almost hit the cinematographer during a gun shooting scene. Both professional and amateur actors were used. Issues with the schedule and budget led executives at Yleisradio to seriously consider calling off the production, but this was averted.[7] [8]
In 2018, the film was selected as part of Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project with the aim of reaching international distribution as a restored 35 mm screening copy and a digital 4K copy.[9]
A Central Finnish smallholder, Pasi, tries to work odd jobs to provide for his family under meager conditions, but also starts moonshining with his friend Reiska and lapses into alcoholism. Pasi's wife is forced to endure and fear his drunken violence, and he repeatedly needs to be calmed by police.
Pasi's wife argues with him about his drinking, he is bothered by recurring physical pains and hangovers, and he develops a bad temper which starts to frighten his wife and children. His family is also humiliated as he gets into a fight, skips a sermon which he disrupts by shooting a gun outside, and is confronted by police who start visiting his home frequently. The film ends with a final outburst in which Pasi scares his family away and shoots after them with a rifle. When police arrive, Pasi shoots the officers dead, goes over to his neighbors' house and tells them to call the police chief. He is sentenced to life in prison.
Eight Deadly Shots has often been considered one of the most esteemed Finnish movies. It was tied for "best Finnish movie" in a polling of film critics in 1992;[10] in 2012, critics voted it the fifth-best Finnish movie.[11] [12] Niskanen won the Jussi Awards for both Best Director and Best Actor.[13] Aki Kaurismäki described the longer, miniseries version as "one of the masterpieces of European cinema". Urho Kekkonen, the President of Finland at the time, also praised the film after watching it with Niskanen in a more than five-hour private screening.[7] [13]
, the man who committed the real-life killings the film was based on, saw the movie in prison and commented on it: "This is so true that it makes me laugh and cry at times. That is how life was back there. My fate in life was so accurately portrayed that it is like ripped from my soul."[7] [14]