The critical look on society that this movie represents is still as valid as ever today, but this movie's way of getting the message across feels really really dated nowadays.However it is a movie that is interesting to watch if you want to explore the roots of Hans Alfredsson and Tage Danielsson, both of who are a pair of the Greats in the evolution of Swedish movie-making. Also worth watching for the performance of Max von Sydow who clearly is miles above all other actors in this movie.The scene with the main character getting stuck in a lake and turning into a sort of aquatic creature is what will stay in my memory the longest. Not because it was well performed or anything, just for the bizarre nature of the entire concept.Some valid critique of society, some lunacy, some mild Swedish "half a butt-cheek here and there" and a couple of so-so jokes does not make a good movie.Still worth watching, if only for historic interest.

This film is overall so-so, it has its ups and downs, including one peek which is to be mentioned as one of the best scenes in Swedish motion picture history, where the cold-hearted father (Von Sydow) throws his son (Gösta Ekman) into a secluded lake, where he gets caught in the soil. We then get to follow the process of how he becomes a part of the lake and the nature. The fact that everything that happens to him, in theory could happen in real life, fortifies the experience enormously. The scene is performed with such elegance and such captivating manners, leaving the audience breathless.

Hasse got serious without his sidekick. Even though this movie has a lot of humour, Hasse is waxing serious in it, and this is what makes it memorable. And the acting - from the cruel Max to the genial Gösta, these are performances which will etch themselves in your mind. Hasse wants to bring us back to nature. He wants us to remember what we've forgot. He was a great comedian with Tage, and a great author too, and here he shows what he can do with film.

I got a really strange but nice feeling when I saw this one. It almost feels like that your watching a sci-fi movie of some kind. I really love the part when Gösta Ekman falls into a lake and lie there for months, and after a while he is transformed into a kind of water creature. 9 / 10