Customer Reviews

The New Land [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Well worth a million bucks (or star rating) and is the richest realization of pioneer experience ever put to film. The pacing, the cinematography, the patient character development or rather continuation of character unfolding that began with the prequel 'the emmigrants', is an enriching study of human personality in its most basic social and natural settings, ie. real human beings tied to the land and to each other out of fundamental necessity. Every detail of the journey west is bathed in vivid realism. The difficulties of travel and communication continue in this new land until homes are built and lives and cultural ties re-established to replace ones left behind. The enduring marital bond between Max Von Sydow and Liv Ulman's characters,(Oscars aren't good enough) the desire for that better life which drew them to the paradise of Minnesota where the miseries of Indians who must share land that was once their own are soon realized. The youthful will to explore and prosper that cannot be suppressed in Max's younger brother whose artistic temperment misfits him for farm life and drives him to the gold of California and his destiny is one of the most stark and poetic depictions of a sensitive life in the wild west ever portrayed. If you want to know what it was like to have been there- watch this film. Anyone with a shred of curiousity or empathetic appetite for the struggles and accomplishments of our ancestors will be well satisfied with this rare feast of pioneer life. I can only hope the eventual transfer to DVD will do justice to the cinematographic beauty this profound film possesses and deserves.

If any of your ancestors came from any part of Europe by sea, you have to see this. Movie is not new, but is a classic. Was recommended to me by my Norwegian cousins even tho it's about Swedes. You DO NOT notice the dubbed English, believe me. And you want to watch if again and again because movie really captures what the emmigrants went through, both in the old country and here. Definitely a "to own" movie for anyone that likes history and genealogy.

This is one great movie. I would recommend it to anyone interested in American or Swedish/scandinavian history.

What really works about this film is that it truly is "the new land"; 19th century American seen thru fresh eyes. The film is Swedish so has no need to sugar coat things. Along with the beauty of the country and opportunity available to newcomers we also see African slaves in chains, Native Amercians making a last ditch effort to hold on to their land, and native born Amercians only too happy to cheat the newcomers.

The photograhy is gorgeous and the actors are so good I forgot it was "only a movie".

Max Von Sydow was at his best again! This is a wonderfully moving account of a family who left the poverty and misery of noedic Europe behing and came to the new world seeking freedom and independence. It shows the struggles, hardships, losses, grief and joys associated with settling in the northern areas where winters can be extremely harsh. Very Highly Recommended!!!

So it the book by the same name.

This is a marvelous movie about the daily lives of Swedish immigrants to the United States.

The movie is grainly and only for diehard historical fiction buffs.

I agree with many others that have written here: The dubbing makes no sense. (I can read. Give me subtitles.)
September 2009 Update.
I will get the original version - in Swedish - even without the English subtitles.
Search Tip: look for 'utvandrarna dvd' here on Amazon.
Amazon product link: Utvandrarna & Nybyggarna

This is a great movie, but totally ruined by being dubbed. I'm still looking for the undubbed version of this movie and the 2 before this.

Karl Oskar leads his disgruntled wife to the spot he has chosen. Kristina is impressed. They go to work. Karl Oskar fishes and clears the land. Robert catches a rabbit. Kristina makes bread and cooks over an open fire. She gives food to Indian women. The men begin building cabins. Kristina is elated when they are given a cow. At the housewarming, we see in her face that she misses Sweden.

Kristina and Ulrika are now friends, and Ulrika plays midwife when Kristina's baby is born. They drink a toast.

Schizophrenic Robert imagines he shoots and kills an Indian. Karl Oskar has little respect for his brother. The snow scenes portray the Minnesota winter. In the spring, Robert and Arvid set off to dig for gold in California. Ullmann looks sexy at their parting, her long golden hair down on her shoulders.

Ulrika tells Kristina she is marrying a Baptist minister. She models a fashionable hat, and Kristina tries it on.

Karl Oskar struggles to pay the postage on mail from Sweden. Kristina is hit with an attack of homesickness. Karl Oskar consoles her in bed.

The sound of an ax is heard. There are new neighbors fresh from Sweden, religious fanatics unfortunately. Karl Oskar shows his newly planted Astrakan apple tree.

Ulrika brings her husband to meet Kristina. Ulrika, with her dimples, cropped curly hair and upbeat personality is the perfect foil for the serious-minded Kristina. Kristina defends her when the new neighbors censure her for becoming a Baptist.

Karl Oskar gets the ox he desires. His harvest doubles. From his corn field, he espies the returning Robert. Four dream sequences follow in which we learn what befell Robert and Arvid. Robert is crazier than ever. Kristina suspects Arvid's fate when she finds his watch in Robert's bed. It is not long before Karl Oskar is making his brother's grave marker. Robert dies beside a running stream.

The Civil War makes self-defense versus Christianity an issue. Karl Oskar flunks the physical, and Kristina is relieved.

It is Indians, whose presence has been felt throughout the film, who give the Swedes trouble. Karl Oskar and a trapper debate whether the land was stolen or made more useful by farming.

Kristina's health demands that there be no more pregnancies. She feels useless and refuses to sleep alone. To trust God or the doctor!

The Sioux attack Sven Danjelsson's settlement. It is horrible. The only good part is Sven's beautiful wife. She plucks a chicken and laughs with her kids as the feathers fly.

The settlers mobilize. Karl Oskar stays with Kristina who has miscarried. He brings her an apple. The tree next to their cabin measures their years in America. Kristina dies.

Memories and images of old age pursue Karl Oskar to his grave. The family picture at the end shows many descendants.

This and The Emigrants tells the story of Scandinavian settlers in the upper midwest. It was made in the later part of the Nixon administration, and the Swedish director threw in a few apt shots at America and her heritage. But it and The Emigrants still tell the story of people who came here for a better life, and how they more or less found it.

Not exactly a competitor for the Die Hard or Lethal Weapon series.