Film Review: "Pelle The Conqueror" (1987)Based on the Danish novel "Pelle Erobreren" from 1910 written by Martin Andersen Nexo (1869-1954) and adapted by Writer/Director Bille August in tedious work unfolding the story of a father, portrayed by heartbreaking fragile actor Max von Sydow as the character of Lasse, and his son Pelle, performed by career-sacrificing actor Pelle Hvenegaard born in 1975, given the title-given character a face to strive through a film that balances the lives of master and slave, poverty and riches on a farming entity at the end of 19th century Danemark, where father & son get lured to in order to survive in a life full of beatings, constant fighting and a few kisses along the way by finding happiness in the tiny little moments where life makes sense.Director Bille August skillfully turns a bible-like script with all its beats, blocking movements and vocal lines already prepared for the indulging cast, led by Swedish actor Max von Sydow born in 1929, who strips his soul in this picture to the raw of an shattered existence of a slowly dying man, who despite alcoholism and constant states of insolvency keeping his head high to lead his son to an existence of an higher society under the banner of embarrassment, bullying torture and ongoing hard-working hands. It is quiet moments in "Pelle The Conqueror" that lifts the film to an accomplished literature adaptation, enduring the test of time of now 30 years after principal photography by Jörgen Persson, who captures the essence of a streetlife before the Industrilization of the early 20th century in earthy brownish color and connecting camera movements in order to fulfill a string of eventful moments, keeping the suspension arc at an attention-demanding level for the audience to follow the evolution of the main characters, who experience life a follow-up of lessons until death with chances to settle down along the way. So become the strongest scenes in the picture, when the character of Lasse has been invited by Madame Olson to get served with a decent meal after weeks of sleeping in the barn accompanied with a grateful cup of high-quality liquor in order to conclude the visitation with kiss toward a relationship that never fulfills itself and Lasse remains a man broken by life, yet with the relentless drive to present his son Pelle with a better life, which eventually happens for the teenage boy in getting promoted on the farm to a foreworker of employees, who deal with pigs, cows and hens that his dream of immigrating to America burns like a flame in his heart that for the spectator becomes the eternal struggle of survival evident; the impossibilities of being too old as the character of Lasse or too young as in the case of Pelle to confront such a life-changing, root-annihilating endeavor."Pelle The Conqueror" initially premiered in Sweden on December 25th 1987 before conquering the Cannes Film Festival 1988 in its 41st edition under jury president director Etorre Scola (1931-2016), which led to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Feature on March 29 1989, building the counterpart to the fairy-tale like Best Picture Winner "Rain Man" (1988) directed by Barry Levinson, establishing a controversy with international spectator in which world one likes to dive into by reflecting two pictures as mirror for a generation born in the 1980s, where all fundamental conflicts in life result out of the constant complaint of a current situation as between the characters of Raymond & Charlie in "Rain Man", portrayed respectively by actors Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, and the close to mutiny raging foreworkers led by actor Björn Granath (1946-2017) in the role of Erik on the farming estate in "Pelle The Conqueror", which shares further dark secrets of fetus river burials, planting wild strawberries from Sweden on a plain for taste, Cognac-drinking estate owners to kill the pain of a meaningless existence and an extreme bullying attack of whipping nature to stripped child skin, leaving the picture in a mesmerizing state to prevail time itself.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

The opening scene that has a ship appearing out of the fog raises expectations that this will be artistically filmed, and those expectations are met. On that ship are Lasse and Pelle, father and son, who are emigrating from Sweden to Denmark at the end of the 19th century. They have dreams that they will get work and have a better life. On arrival the immigrants are subjected to scrutiny by the local farmers for work and Lasse is found to be too old and Pelle too young by all but one final farmer who takes them. This scene is filmed in a way that presages hard times ahead. So, the early scenes set the tone for the rest of the movie.The story proceeds as a sequence of episodes that are experienced primarily through Pelle's eyes. The life on the farm is similar to what might have been seen on a plantation in the American South before the Civil War--the farm owners live lavishly while the workers are treated almost like slaves. One of the saddest scenes for me was where the workers were hoping for some special meal at Christmas time, but what they got was the usual herring. At the dinner table, where about twenty workers were seated at a long table, there is seen a single fish on a tiny plate in front of each.Max von Sydow plays Lasse as an old man who tries to maintain some dignity, but he doesn't have the strength to put up much resistance to the plight he finds himself in. Life on the farm is a sequence of humiliations and disappointments for him, all lived out in front of his son. This is not to mention the disappointments of Pelle as well.I liked that the personalities were not sugarcoated. Lasse is seen to have a problem with alcohol and is not always pleasant. It was surprising to see Pelle give up his single krone to a bastard son of the farm owner in order to administer a thrashing to him, even though he like him.Pelle was the subject of extreme discrimination by his schoolmates who mocked and abused him. The dark side of the human soul surfaces at a young age.Times must have been tough in Sweden in the last half of the 19th century given the number of Swedes who emigrated. In its filming and subject matter this movie is reminiscent of Jan Troell's highly recommended classic films about Swedish emigrants, "The Emigrants" and "The New Land." At the end the future for Lasse looks bleak and the future for Pelle could be good or bad. With his final scene director August takes a page out of Truffaut's "The 400 Blows."

I guess I can write a complete book as a review of this film. I can't even believe such a story could so perfectly complete every point of what a perfect film must be and an excellent story and a perfect lesson of wisdom and life in the same time, just 150'. It's one of the top five best films I've ever seen. I could only compare it with the all wonders of mankind throughout History. I'll never forget many scenes of the film (even my usual absolute lack of memory) and the magic night I saw it with my family (that time 2 boys of 9 and 12 years, and my wife) we got stared from start to end, in complete silence, enjoying every moment in full expectation, the kids understood perfectly all the film, also my wife and me (of course I cried for me in silence). We saw the film in the LCD screen of my PC in my office room; we were first having the new LCD monitor, not so comfortably sitting, and a little close to the screen, but all that didn't mind. We got one of the deepest gathering unforgettable emotion of our whole family lives. Advice: Watch the film in calm silence, better in Winter, better by night, not in bed. Expect some day justice is made to the film, director and actors, giving it the celebrity it deserves.

This is an excellent film. I enjoyed a long time ago with my ex-boyfriend Jean Michel Fidler-Damiani. He is Czech-German-French a before and after Hitler. Thsi movie will move you: it will spin your strawberries and will wipe your cream. You will grow old as a cookie with this classic and beautiful film. Now, it snows in the movie so you will have to bring your go-go's: do not let Bo Derek disappoint you: she does not appear in the movie, instead Max Von Sydow, the respectable and respected actor, features in this film like a star. Bring your Tita and enjoy your ride in this Magic Mountain! Bring them to the swimming pool and get hot in this Ice-Age film from one of the Poles, if I am not wrong, Finland. Adolphe Hitler would have liked it if he would have not fallen into -Florida's- defensed. The defenses of bots fantasy are: it is the story of a father and a son who defend their land for their future, for their interests.