Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

edwagreen For a variety of reasons-economic, social and religious force residents of a Swedish area to leave and come to America.Liv Ullmann received a best actress nomination for the Oscar and I really don't know why. Yes, she had some good emotional outbursts at times, but she was often difficult to understand. Perhaps, she could have used some tips from Loretta Young, who gave us an authentic Swedish accent in 1947's "The Farmer's Daughter," and got an Oscar for it.Ullmann is married to Max Von Sydow who really uses her as a baby making service. She is constantly pregnant throughout the film.The real top acting honors in the film go to the harlot and deacon, both forced out for their religious views.Other than lice, death and general malaise, the scenes on board never are riveting.

Erik Konze Jan Troell, has truly captured the feeling of what inspires people to emigrate and the subsequent hardships that await in the land of hope. True masters of the craft, Sydow and Ullmann, are superb in their performances. They truly pull you into the time, the frame of mind and thus make you feel like you are sharing their voyage. A great film that is everything a film should be - moving. It is a mystery why this film did not win an Oscar for best foreign picture, best actress and best actor - though with all fairness, with both Caberet and The Godfather in the running, it would have required a miracle. If you should have the luck of stumbling onto this film at a rental shop, thank Fellini's ghost - grasp it and head for the check out.

tangoviudo Even without 40 minutes of its original running time (trimmed by the idiots at Warner Brothers, who couldn't see American audiences sitting through a 3-hour film), "The Emigrants" is one of the greatest films ever made in Sweden - and probably the finest so far about the immigrant experience.Troell's film was also the most expensive production to date (1971) in Sweden, which outraged many Swedes and made them attack the film quite unfairly. Box Office receipts worldwide, however, persuaded Hollywood that Troell was "bankable" and gave him a few shots at at fame and fortune ("Zandy's Bride" and "The Hurricane" - the latter to have been directed by Roman Polanski just prior to his banishment from America). Luckily, Troell failed in Hollywood and went back to Sweden.

furienna I just want to thank my grandmother (my mother's mother) for buying these four novels some time during her long lifetime and letting me inherit them after her death three years ago. Even though I haven't read all way through them since 2000, I still appreciate having them in my collection, and Grandma even saved me some bucks by letting me inherit her copies. I might also add, that these books were among the few ones, that her husband (my grandfather and my mother's father) ever even looked into, according to Mum. Vilhelm Moberg sure is one of our greatest writers over here in Sweden of all time. If we move over to the movie, it's really good at following the books. I hate it when film-makers do unnecessary changes in the story, when they turn novels into movies. But fortunately, Troell actually followed the books really well. And I really understand, that Vilhelm Moberg wanted him and no one else to make these novels into movies.The first movie, "Utvandrarna" (The emigrants), is thus a really great movie adaption of the two novels "Utvandrarna" ("The emigrants") and "Invandrarna" ("The immigrants"). It's about how some people from Småland in Sweden decide to emigrate to America in the year 1850. We have Karl Oskar Nilsson, who decides to move to America with his wife Kristina and their children and his younger brother Robert. Even though Kristina was reluctant to leave Sweden, Karl Oskar convinces her to emigrate after their oldest daughter dies, so that the rest of the children can have better lives. Robert is forever marked by how he was treated by his master, when he was a farmhand, and wants to leave for the free country in the west, where servants can't be treated badly. Robert's friend Arvid is accused of having sex with a cow and wants to get away from that nasty rumor and follow Robert to the golden land in the west. Kristina's uncle Danjel and his wife Inga-Lena has to flee Sweden because of religious reasons. The former prostitute Ulrika and her illegitimate daughter Elin don't have anything to lose either. Jonas Petter, a neighbor of Karl Oskar and Kristina, just wants to get away from his unhappy marriage. After a hard journey over the Atlantic, these people come to Minnesota, where there already are a lot of Swedish people.The story is continued in the movie "Nybyggarna" (The new land).