Pelle the Conqueror (1987)

You need to see that 'jewel' before you die! Outstanding!

The end of the 19th century. A boat filled with Swedish emigrants comes to the Danish island of Bornholm. Among them are Lasse and his son Pelle who move to Denmark to find work. They find employment at a large farm, but are treated as the lowest form of life."Pelle the Conqueror" won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 1988; it was submitted to the Academy by the Danish government, giving Denmark its second consecutive win after "Babette's Feast". Max von Sydow was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, but lost to Dustin Hoffman for "Rain Man".First of all, well done Denmark on the back-to-back wins. Few people discuss the "Danish film industry", but it appears that at least for a few years it was going strong. (I suppose people tend to include it as a broader category, the Scandinavian film industry.) Max von Sydow is one of my favorite actors and he deserves all the nominations and awards he can get. I can accept him losing to Dustin Hoffman, though. "Rain Man" is not just a great film with a great role, but unlike most Oscar movies has become part of our popular culture.

This is a difficult film to review, because it is pretty much all of its ingredients, so the best description of it would either be fifteen pages or fifteen words."The grass is greener" describes the motif pretty well.The usual description leads one to think it is totally about "Pelee", but that isn't the case. Many characters and many plots are in this film.I watched it with some expectations. Max von Sydow is one of the most respected names in acting, and even when he appears in high action apocalyptic films, there is some bit of "thinking" involved.We usually expect Sydow to be involved in works that are "mystical puzzles", such as "The Seventh Seal" and "The Reward".But sometimes, like this film, the film is about "reactions". In fact, two things that I was always conscious of while watching this were the title and the "reactions".Why was it called "Pele the Conqueror"? We come to that at the end.As for the "reactions", that too is a omen of the ending. The characters don't "think things through". They simply react.And that does give a very realistic view of the times and the people. It is a story of the hopes of people on a Scandinavian stone farm in the late 1800s. Don't be fooled into thinking that this is a dull "slice of life" film, though.I am not the most patient viewer, maybe a bit "attention deficit", but this film kept me interested throughout.I could say more, but then I wouldn't know where to stop. Hopefully, this review gives an idea of what to expect. It has good scenery, and is well made. I feel comfortable in saying that nearly everyone will be pleased by it, and most will be more than pleased.

I was expecting the Pelle character to be Max Von Sydow... anyway the boy Pelle hardly measures up to Von Sydow, but this is only one of this movie's shortcomings.To begin, it is much too long. Clip the school scenes. The schoolmaster's role is inconceivably bad and his flock of sex-obsessed children is not only obnoxious but would make Freud himself squirm in his grave. Also, the daughter, and all scenes related to her sub-plot, should be cut. This role adds very little or nothing and seems inserted only to supply the sex/beauty demand. Drop a few other flat characters too---and you drop an hour from the movie.Speaking of "Pelle's"characters, apart from Lasse (Von Sydow), they all seem to share an inert quality. It's as if they inhabit a Scandinavian winter scene painted by a second tier artist--beautifully set, but filled with people as props. Some are too stereotypical, some too gray, some too general---as if belonging to a wide-angle picture and not to a movie. And although the mother and Eric are potentially convincing and interesting characters it's as if their lines have been loaned out to them. In this sense, "Pelle" is too much like a TV movie.Another kind of stereotype is the strong association here of poverty and farms with a kind of animal sexuality. The youngest child to the very old seemed to be defined more by a mindless sexual interest than by any other. I mean since when do 5-10 year old kids gang up on adult sexual behavior? Then there's the baron (and son to a point) who can never pass up a chance to roll in the grass and hay with their indentured farmhands. And does the mutilation material really fit an already morbid movie? I've scored "Pelle" a 6, but believe it closer to a 7 (7.8 needs to be countered) The movie, I think, does have three strengths, with the first overshadowing the other two.Max Von Sydow's acting is exceptional, and it alone is worth the price of the ticket. Whatever problem there might be with his role, he overpowers it. He is utterly convincing as someone fated to poverty on one side and age on the other. Victimization seems to have seeped into his mind, spirit, and body. He calls on no tricks, and never deviates from the character he inhabits whether as a man cowering before the powerful wieldings of his masters, or buckling under one more shattered dream. He is as certain of himself as a proud and determined immigrant as he is as a broken and debilitated man. And he inevitably carries the movie's truth about oppression and discrimination on his back.Photography is another positive. The Danish landscape, the isolated world of a large farm, the centering big house, the natural world of farmland and seascape, and the snowy winter scenes all add realism, romance, atmosphere, and a sense of place which so often seem lacking.Finally it is rare to view so original a father-son relationship as the one portrayed here. It can teeter into sentimentality at rare moments--the boy actor is not Von Sydow---but the unabashed closeness between the two is remarkable. No matter how many falls from grace his failure to defend his son may entail, Lasse is a protective and truly loving father.