Customer Reviews

ARN (The Knight Templar) Tempelriddaren, Riket vid vagens slut [Imported] [Region 2 DVD] (Swedish)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

A good film in its own right, but still, not the original. I contacted the Swedish producers and they said that there were no plans to release the film in its original shape. The film began life as a TV miniseries, of several hours in length (I think about 6). It was released theatrically in Scandanavia as two films, each about two and a half hours long; and released in this, much shorter, so-called International version, i.e., a dumber, action-oriented version supposedly to appeal to us poorly educated North Americans. Sigh. Since this is likely the only version that will ever be released in Region A, you'd be better off getting it rather than waiting for a (so far purely hypothtetical) longer version. If you have a multi-region blu-ray player, it might be possible to order the two, Scandinavian discs, if you can find them at all, that is.

Reading the Amazon reviews within this release, I was taken aback by the fact that this was a Swedish miniseries and that this dvd release by E1 entertainment is a truncated version. Well, truncated is better than nothing. It is magnificent and harkens back to the old tried and true epics we fondly remember. The director ,Peter Flinth, has given us a grand epic of honor and treachery all focused on the love story between Arn and Cecilia with religion, once again, separating true love. It contains so much passion with some great performances within its structure. You will recognize of course Bibi Anderson as the mother superior and Sven Bertil Taube ( the only other movie I know of his is a guilty pleasure- 'PUPPET ON A CHAIN') as the Bishop also Steven Waddington from 'THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS' as the Grand Master of the Templar Knights. Sorry, I'm a sucker for these type of epics and this one reinforces my belief that other countries are making incredible product. If you want an uplifting, soaring piece of filmmaking with breathtaking photography and a rousing music score by Toomas Kantelinen, click the add to cart button. I just can't figure out why nobody has signed the actor who played Saladin-Milind Soman- to other projects over here. He really steals the show. The release has two great featurettes on the making of the film which brings you up to speed on the production. Highly recommended.

I knew nothing of this film until I started seeing advances on the video release. It's definitely my kind of flick so I thought I'd give it a shot and I'm glad I did.

This is a really good story in the historical epic category. It propounds to be based in fact and, though I don't know how much they had to tweek it for script purposes, it contains certain things that feel true.

Arn is a Swede who falls in love with a woman who is betrothed to another family. He knocks her up so she has to do 20 years in a convent while he has to do twenty years in the Crusades as a Knight Templar. As he himself was raised by the church he's a very serious dude. He was also schooled well in combat by a monk who did time in the Crusades so he can fight with the best of them. He heads off to the Holy Land where he becomes key in winning some battles. His time is up so he heads home to be with his woman but ends up facing a whole new challenge. It seems Sweden isn't all that united and there is a new grab for power he needs to thwart.

This is an Historical Epic in the best sense. Great locations, costumes and lots of extras. You like Arn. He's a cool guy because he's good and devout, but can kick booty if he needs to. You like Cecelia his girlfriend. She's pretty and has a good spirit. It's acted well, shot well, edited well. The music score is good, though maybe a bit too similar to the "Lord of the Rings" score but that's a minor quibble. I also could have used a bit more in the building of the relationship between the two Cecelias, but again, it's a minor quibble. Surprisingly, they spent little effort on the major battle scenes. Were this Ridley Scott or Antoine Fuqua we'd have been dazzled by meticulous staging and swordplay. But here the director just didn't seem that interested. It's as though the battle scenes were no more important than anything else going on. I could have used more there myself but they were good enough to get the point across and move me to the next scene.

This is a good, solid effort. It has all the right things in all the right measure. If you're disposed to this sort of thing then have at it. It's well worth your while.

I'm very disappointed in this blu-ray because it is an edited version of 2 movies! I mostly enjoyed it, but I feel very ripped off. As I neared the end of the movie, I couldn't wait to see the second movie, but then I realized that they edited in the ending of the second movie! The 2 movies are each around 2.5 hours in their own right, and some imbecile cut it down to just over 2 hours! This means that there is lost plot! Lost sub-plots! There are missing characters! There is an entire MISSING MOVIE!

THIS BLU-RAY IS MISSING OVER 2 HOURS OF THE ACTUAL MOVIE!

This is some kind of insulting scam. Never pay more than 5 dollars for this! This is basically just a 2 hour preview. This is NOT what the screenwriter or director intended. Americans are not dumb. We like foreign movies as they are. We dislike chopped edits of what is considered a great epic. We like STORY. We like artistic vision. We hate re-edited, moronic marketing scams of international art.

It felt weird that parts of this EDITED FOR DUMB AMERICANS VERSION was actually in English. It's nice that it wasn't a dub, but was the English even necessary? It was very well acted. It has great cinematography. It has an effective (although clichéd) soundtrack. Stunning visuals. But you only get to enjoy less than half of the full story! Entire battles happen with little explanation.

Please release the original version in the United States.

I'm asking for a 50% DISCOUNT because this is not the product it appears or claims to be. I hope Amazon steps up and corrects the posting for this item. "RE-EDITED SHORTER AMERICAN VERSION" should be in the product's title. Amazon is guilty of falsely advertising this truncated version of the product they claim to be selling.

This is a negative blu-ray review for a beautiful production. The other half of the production IS NOT ON THIS DISC!

If anyone from the production reads this, please post an explanation to why these movies were hacked, and when the original versions are going to be available for purchase by the American public.

This version is an insult to people who bought this film based on its international reputation.

This fabulous production IS available, all ca.258 minutes of it, almost 5 hours, from AmazonGermany, in a 4 disc set, 3 discs for the movie and 1 disc for extras. It's a tad expensive...and it's only subtitled in German. With shipping, I ended up paying about $40...the shipping cost more than the boxed set! The box is handsome and well designed and the video and audio quality excellent.

As the dialogue is minimal, the subtitling was not all that challenging for my 3 years of college German (35 years ago). The story tells itself quite well visually, and the few times the dialogue became somewhat complex, it was easy enough to freeze the picture and work on the subtitles. If anyone is game, it's worth the effort. Keep a dictionary handy. AmazonGermany works just like AmazonUSA and AmazonUK. It's easy enough to click your way through to checkout.

The movie is spectacular. I have to agree with the reviewer who said "Arn" is in the great epic filmaking style of the past. I enjoyed every moment of it. The sets and costumes were impressive and made the time and places recreated very convincing. The battles were well done. Though not full blood-and-guts as a larger budget may have allowed, there was tremendous tension in the battle preparations and the initial assault. Some brief battle scenes and then the aftermath, showing the carnage and slaughter. Very effective. The audio helped tremendously in building the drama.

Beside the many actors reviewers have pointed out, I should mention Michael Nyquist ("The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," etc.) as Arn's father. It was a pleasure seeing him again as I enjoyed the Millenium film trilogy greatly. All the actors were fine and did their work well. Editing was topnotch and the movie flowed easily from beginning to end, inspite of the obvious fadeouts for commercials. The musical score, never overwhelming, was a solid part of the presentation and added great beauty to a magnificently photographed film.

Do yourself a favor and buy an inexpensive all region dvd player from AmazonUSA and start enjoying the many films available from Amazon in the UK (shipping is reasonable), Germany, and France, et al. They have many titles or formats not released in our country.

It's quite sad that a movie that was released in 2007 takes until October 2010 to get a BD release here, especially when it's this good. I guess that's not unusual for European films, especially subtitled ones, which it's deemed by someone to not be mainstream enough for US audiences?
The story was broken up into two movies in 2007, and 2008 originally so to get the "whole" story so to speak, is almost worth the wait, albeit in truncated form.
That being said, apparently the original version ( a truly lavish scale of production by European standards ) was released initially in a Mini Series format running about 6 hours in total, much like the original German version of Das Boot - The Original Uncut Version
To date, no plans have been made to make this version available, and although it is possible to get the original two movies - ARN: The Knight Templar, and ARN: The Kingdom at Roads End on DVD, they are hard to find, and in PAL format, or region 2 coded.

Arn (played by Joakim Nattergvist) is based on the trilogy of books by Swedish author Jan Guillou, and although I have not read the books, I consider this adaptation to be a rare treat for fans of the genre.
It's easy to quickly draw many comparisons with movies like "Kingdom of Heaven", and even the Lord of the Rings trilogy in some ways, partly due to the fact that the movie is so well made. The acting is great throughout, the locations impressive, and the battle scenes are graphic and realistic.
Some will feel that the battle scenes are scant, even though they are done on a grand scale, but the story is about the struggle, not just the fighting.

It's a story of two parts really.
A young boy growing up in 12th century Sweden is taken by his parents to a monastery as he has an illness, and is not expected to reach adulthood.
While there, he is taken under the wing of a monk who previously "served God" in the holy crusades, and he nurtures Arn's apparent natural talent with weapons to teach him the finer arts of fighting, swordplay and archery - something the youngster takes to well, aided by the fact he is naturally ambidextrous.
Historically, much of Europe around the time the movie is set, was not as geographically delineated as it is today, many countries were a loose collection of warring fiefdoms, vying for power, land and the throne, and Sweden was no exception. It is during one such encounter that while defending his fathers honor, he makes an enemy of the powerful Svenger clan.
Against the wishes of his family, the young Arn also falls in love with Cecilia, the daughter of a local family betrothed to the Svenger clan to help cement an alliance between the two most powerful families trying to control the country.
Through lies and scorn he is sent to the Holy Land as a Crusader to do penance for 20 years, while his young bride to be is sentenced likewise for 20 years in a local convent, run by a vicious Abbess, who is sympathetic to the Svenger clan.
Half of the movie centers on her struggle and life in Sweden, and the other on Arn's arduous and battle ridden path through the Holy land.

I'm not going to go into much more detail than that really, and that's about as much information you would get from the movie trailer anyway, so not really a spoiler.

Compressing three books into one movie, that runs just under two and a quarter hours, I'm sure will leave some plot holes for people who have read the books, but to me it felt very complete.
It's also going to feel a little slow to some people, this movie is as much about love and family as it is about fighting and the crusades.
despite these two points, I strongly recommend seeing this movie.

There are those who will be put off by subtitles, although a large portion of the movie is in English. What is particularly well done is that all the characters speak their own language, Arabic, French, Swedish and English, clearly stated on screen with the subtitles, so it's easy to keep up.

There are a few familiar faces US viewers will probably recognize, not least Stellen Skarsgard, but most I'm sure like me will be amazed that they haven't seen Joakim Nattergvist in anything before.
This is top notch acting, whichever way you look at it, from the whole cast but particularly him.
Focused, driven and really believable in the role, he seems to embrace all aspects of Arn's character.
This feels to me like old fashioned story telling, with modern technology kept to a minimum. It feels "Epic"

If you like this kind of movie genre, see this film. 5 stars

After hiring Arn The Knight Templar it was disappointing as I could see that this was a much longer movie. It turn out to be two movies. I would not purchase it as it was disjointed. I have always wanted to see the whole thing. Well you would not believe but down under they have just release a 2 disc bonus 60 minutes extended version. It looks like it is the two films that was release in Scandinavia as each disc as a distinct movie on them that follow on from each other. It was great to watch these two movies and see the whole story. If and when this set is release in you zone or you have a multi zone player Get It as it is a good story well told.

I loved it. Brilliantly done. Yes shortened and thanks to the understanding of the other reviews, from 6 episodes not available here, done in Sweden. It was pure in spirit. There was no hype and no excessive gore. What I love about European movies is the powerful use of the indirect and understated. The starkness of the existence she had to endure. His exile to the Crusade. The power of the church, morality and politics. An excelent example in historical fiction. If you liked Kingdom of Heaven, I promise you will enjoy this. Beautiful

The "original" is two movies, Arn-The Knight Templar (Arn-Tempelriddaren) and Arn-The Kingdom at Road's End (Arn-Riket vid vägens slut). They are both long movies and very good.
This blu-ray is a chopped up version of the second - Kingdom at Road's End, so we miss much of the story about Arn as a young boy.
I was happy to finally buy this movie, but disappointed to find out that it was a montage of the real thing. Also sad because this means it will probably be a while before I can actually get the two originals on Bluray.
Maybe if enough people buy this, we'll get the real deal.

When I first saw the original 2 part movie (complete with subtitles), I thought that the novels were done excellent justice: the setting, cinematography, character and plot development and casting. However, when I bought the DVD, I was quite excited at the prospect of owning my own copy and watching the 2-part movie again, only to be disappointed by the fact that some amateur had edited the movie for "international" release down to one condensed version of the 2 part original I watched.What a crock. To read someone elses's review that they had taken the trouble and contacted the producers and being told that there were no plans to release the original 2-part version, just smacks of arrogance and ignorance of the international market for foreign films by the producers. To the idiot who's idea it was to release this "international" version: take the movie 'Mongol' (2008-Sergei Bodrov) as an example of how to release a historical foreign language epic; you have diluted an otherwise powerful and well written story into some cliched battle movie that insults the intelligence of the international audience. A real pity.