When these two 3-hour Swedish films opened in
Denver in the early 1970’s I would have been about 14. I honestly can’t believe
my parents thought it was a good idea to take me to six hours of subtitled
historical drama, but it is even more surprising that I sat through it, and
remembered it fondly. I was thrilled to see that Criterion released them
together in one package, and, that after three decades I would be able to
revisit this experience. I spent the better part of my day off with Swedish
farmer Karl Oskar (Max Von Sydow) and his bride Kristina (Liv Ullman) as they
try to succeed in their native Sweden, but failing that, emigrate to mid-1800’s
America and help settle Minnesota.
The first movie The Emigrants finds Karl
Oskar toiling on his Father’s farm working like a dog, barely making ends meet,
and finding it almost impossible to feed his new and growing family. At the
same time, his brother Robert and other relatives are finding the Swedish environment
of conservativism and religious piety oppressive. They start talking and
reading about North America and the promise of freedom and success in the
United States. Braving the emotional and financial consequences, a group of
them decide to leave their home and make the voyage to America. That’s a neat
little synopsis of the first three hours, but it does nothing to convey the
overwhelming beauty and power of this great movie. Filmed with loving attention
to detail, director Jan Troell puts the dirt under your fingernails, makes you
smell the bread baking, and puts the thought in your mind and belly that this
will be the last bread of the winter because the harvest is bad. Troell’s movie
is in a class by itself. It’s hard to think of another movie that so vividly
takes the audience into the lives of simple people so effectively. There is
little romanticizing of their plight, everything is shown with a matter-of-fact
clarity which conveys both the pain and drudgery of their existence, but also
offers a fleeting, bittersweet glimpse at a not so distant past free of
technological intrusion and environmental annihilation. The scenes and one’s
emotions fly from backbreaking toil to exhilarating natural beauty with the
fluency of life itself. The cinematic achievement is profound. Like so few
movies (Boyhood is one of the only others that comes to mind), The
Emigrants and its sequel The New Land actually capture the huge
artistic ambition of showing a life lived.
The lengths of these movies might seem gratuitous,
but as they unfold, it becomes clear that this is the only way to portray such
overwhelming scale. The sequence showing the boat journey from Sweden to New
York is forty minutes of harrowing aquatic nightmare, and when it ends you feel
a physical relief as the actors set foot on solid ground. Likewise, the final
scenes of The Emigrants show Karl Oskar trekking through unsettled
Minnesota looking for the perfect spot to settle. Without any dialogue, it is
actually possible to lose yourself in the fantasy of discovering America. It is
one of so many beautiful and emotional moments. If you love this country, and
believe its inherent greatness is connected to its natural beauty and those who
first settled it, this is a rare experience.
Many
social issues are also tackled in these movies. Especially in The New Land, timely
themes of immigration, racism, sexuality, class warfare, dirty business and Native
American rights are shown, again with the seemingly spontaneous intrusion of
true life. Perhaps because everything is from the Swedish perspective, rather
than the jingoism we often see in modern Hollywood, it is possible to reflect
upon these issues from multiple perspectives. The story climaxes with twin tragedies.
First, younger brother Robert heads west to participate in the gold rush. He is
exposed to greed, disease, theft, and death, before returning to the
disapproval of his own family. It is the Horatio Alger myth in reverse. Then
comes the controversial telling of a massacre (part of the Dakota Wars) of many
of the settlers by the Native Americans who originally inhabited the land the
Swedes were settling. A series of horrifying scenes of violence, retribution
and execution bring in to focus one of the more unsettling aspects of the
founding of our country and the treatment of its first citizens. Again, it is
the non-Hollywood perspective that lends these scenes such veracity and makes
them so hard to ignore or forget.
The Emigrants and The New Land are incredibly
important films to see at this particular moment in America’s history. The
ambitions of these films are as big as America’s endless horizons, yet they
focus on the small details of humanity we all share. The endless vistas of this
new country tamed by the tiny voice yearning for home.
- Paul Epstein
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