Max von Sydow Movies
Standing over six feet-four inches tall, the bony Swedish actor Max von Sydow spent much of his acting career portraying stern, oppressive characters. Born to a family of academics in Lund, Sweden, von Sydow studied at the Royal Dramatic School in Stockholm, where he made his screen debut in Only a Mother and married his first wife, actress Christina Olin. In 1956, he moved to Malmö and met director Ingmar Bergman at the Malmo Municipal Theatre. After starring in The Seventh Seal, von Sydow went on to star in more than a dozen films with Bergman, including Wild Strawberries, Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly, and Winter Light. He worked almost exclusively with Bergman's acting company until 1965, when he took the role as Jesus in George Stevens' epic The Greatest Story Ever Told. This part opened the door to American films, where he was often typecast in strong, humorless roles, like the rigid missionary Abner Hale in Hawaii. In the '70s, he went back to Sweden to work with Bergman in four more films and appeared opposite frequent co-star Liv Ullmann in Jan Troell's two-part saga The Emigrants and The New Land. It wasn't until 1973 that he made his first big Hollywood blockbuster with the role of Father Merrin The Exorcist, which he reprised in Exorcist II: The Heretic. Moving to Rome in the '80s, von Sydow had a fun role as Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon, played Barbara Hershey's intense artist boyfriend in Hannah and Her Sisters, and received his first Oscar nomination and numerous other awards for his work in Pelle the Conqueror (1988). After making his directorial debut with Katinka, he worked in several theater projects and a couple of biblical TV miniseries (Sampson & Delilah and Quo Vadis). It was during this time that he was cast as the devil in the Stephen King film adaptation Needful Things, marking von Sydow as the only actor to play both God and Satan. He also appeared in Judge Dredd and Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World. He continued acting sporadically in Hollywood for What Dreams May Come and Snow Falling on Cedars. Moving on to the international circuit, he appeared in Intacto (Spain), Vercingetorix (France), and Non ho Sonno (Italy). In 2002, he co-starred with Tom Cruise for the Steven Spielberg blockbuster Minority Report.He continued to work steadily throughout the decade in projects as diverse as Rush Hour 3, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Shutter Island. Coming nearly sixty years after his earliest film work, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close earned the venerable actor his second Oscar nomination - a Best Supporting Actor nod for his portrayal of a mute grandfather. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- 2011
- PG13
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Based on the novel by author Jonathan Safran Foer, director Stephen Daldry's post-9/11 drama follows the journey of a nine-year-old boy as he attempts to solve a family mystery. Two years after his father is killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks, the curious boy discovers a mysterious key hidden in a household vase and begins an exhaustive search for the matching lock. Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Hanks, Thomas Horn, (more)
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio team up for a fourth time for this adaptation of Shutter Island, a novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River). The film opens in 1954 as World War II veteran and current federal marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner, Chuck (Mark Ruffalo), ferry to Shutter Island, a water-bound mental hospital housing the criminally insane. They have been asked to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), a patient admitted to the asylum after she murdered her three children. As Teddy quizzes Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), the head of the institution, he begins to suspect that the authorities in charge might not be giving him the whole truth, and that a terrible fate may befall all the patients in the spooky Ward C -- a unit devoted to the most heinous of the hospital's inmates. Complicating matters further, Teddy has a secret of his own -- the arsonist who murdered his wife is incarcerated on Shutter Island. Driven to confront his wife's killer, and stranded on the island because of a hurricane, Teddy must unravel the secrets of the eerie place before succumbing to his own madness. Max von Sydow, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, and Jackie Earle Haley round out the supporting cast. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, (more)
- 2010
- R
A nomadic 16th century warrior, condemned to hell for his brutal past, seeks redemption by renouncing violence, but finds some things are worth burning for as he fights to free a young Puritan woman from the grip of evil. Adapted from the pulpy sword-and-sorcery stories by Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E. Howard, the film opens to find Solomon Kane (James Purefoy) and his ruthless band of marauders laying siege to a city in Northern Africa. Beckoned to an enigmatic castle filled with untold riches, Kane soon realizes that his greed has sealed his fate when the Devil's minions decimate his ranks, leaving him alone to battle the infernal Reaper (Ian Whyte) that has come to claim his tainted soul. But Kane cheats death, and upon escaping, learns that his only hope to avoid being cast into the lake of fire is to walk the path of peace. Meanwhile, as Kane makes his way across England, the sinister Overlord (Samuel Roukin) uses his ruthless Raiders to seize control of the country, killing for pleasure and striking terror into the hearts of peaceful Puritans like the Crowthorns -- who generously offered Kane food and shelter on his arduous journey. When the Crowthorns are brutally laid to waste by the Raiders, who subsequently kidnap and enslave their innocent daughter Meredith (Rachel Hurd-Wood), Kane vows to rescue her and prevent England from being consumed by evil, even if it means confronting his family's dark past and sacrificing his immortal soul in the process. Pete Postlethwaite and Max von Sydow co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Purefoy, Max von Sydow, (more)
Director Ridley Scott and actor Russell Crowe reunite for their fifth big-screen outing, a retelling of the Robin Hood legend featuring the Gladiator star in the titular role. A bowman in the army of Richard Coeur de Lion, virtuous rogue Robin Hood rises from an unlikely background to become a hero to the impoverished people of Nottingham and lover to the beautiful Lady Marion (Cate Blanchett). Cyrus Voris, Ethan Reiff, and Brian Helgeland collaborate on the screenplay for a costume adventure produced by Brian Grazer (Frost/Nixon, American Gangster). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, (more)
- 2009
Inspired by director Vittorio De Sica's 1952 neorealist classic Umberto D., Francis Huster's sentimental drama stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as an aged retiree who is forced out onto the street with his dog after his relationship with a wealthy widow falls apart. A cinematic comeback for Belmondo, who previously retired from acting after suffering a major stroke, un homme et son chien tells the story of Charles, an older man who was invited by his lover to stay in the maid's room in her sprawling home. When the woman decides to marry again, however, Charles and his faithful four-legged companion are promptly shown the door. With no place to call home and no means of earning a living, Charles wanders the streets of Paris with his dog as their pair drift towards an uncertain fate. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Hafsia Herzi, (more)
- 2007
- PG13
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An emotionally scarred fifty-something female, a high-profile but haunted British novelist, and a heroic dissident-cum-Soviet psychiatric hospital veteran who all formed an unbreakable bond while help prisoner in a World War II concentration camp reunite for the first time in forty years on the peaceful grounds of a renovated pastoral farm in Jefferson Lewis's adaptation of internationally acclaimed author Matt Cohen's popular novel. Paolo Barzman directs the Canadian production. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Susan Sarandon, Christopher Plummer, (more)
- 2007
- PG13
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The astonishing true-life story of Jean-Dominic Bauby -- a man who held the world in his palm, lost everything to sudden paralysis at 43 years old, and somehow found the strength to rebound -- first touched the world in Bauby's best-selling autobiography The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (aka La Scaphandre et la Papillon), then in Jean-Jacques Beineix's half-hour 1997 documentary of Bauby at work, released under the same title, and, ten years after that, in this Cannes-selected docudrama, helmed by Julian Schnabel (Basquiat) and adapted from the memoir by Ronald Harwood (Cromwell). The Schnabel/Harwood picture follows Bauby's story to the letter -- his instantaneous descent from a wealthy and congenial playboy and the editor of French Elle, to a bed-bound, hospitalized stroke victim with an inactive brain stem that made it impossible for him to speak or move a muscle of his body. This prison, as it were, became a kind of "diving bell" for Bauby -- one with no means of escape. With the editor's mind unaffected, his only solace lay in the "butterfly" of his seemingly depthless fantasies and memories. Because of Bauby's physical restriction, he only possessed one channel for communication with the outside world: ocular activity. By moving his eyes and blinking, he not only began to interact again with the world around him, but -- astonishingly -- authored the said memoir via a code used to signify specific letters of the alphabet. In Schnabel's picture, Mathieu Amalric tackles the difficult role of Bauby; the film co-stars Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze, Anne Consigny, and Patrick Chesnais. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, (more)
In this third installment of the popular action comedy franchise, LAPD Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) and Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) book a flight for Europe and prepare to clean up the streets of Paris after discovering that Chinese triads have extended their criminal influence to the City of Lights. Chinese Ambassador Han (Tzi Ma) is in Los Angeles and about to reveal the details of a clandestine triad conspiracy to the World Criminal Court when an assassin takes aim and pulls the trigger. Though Carter has been demoted to directing traffic at the time of the shooting, Lee is acting as a bodyguard to Han when the bullets begin to fly. Lee quickly gives chase, but hesitates when he realizes that the gunman is Kenji (Hiroyuki Sanada), his old friend from the orphanage. When triads steal an envelope containing vital information regarding the conspiracy from Soo Yung's (Zhang Jingchu) Chinatown kung fu studio, Carter and Chief Inspector Lee race to reach Genevieve (Noémie Lenoir), an underground entertainer who could prove the key to bagging the bad guys. During the course of their investigation, however, triads clash with the French police, threatening to turn the romance capitol of Europe into an explosive hotbed of crime and violence. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, (more)
A Roman warrior on a quest to uncover the truth about Jesus of Nazareth becomes enamored with an Israeli beauty after rescuing the woman from a violent mugger in this Biblical-themed period drama starring Dolph Lundgren, F. Murray Abraham, Max Von Sydow, and Mónica Cruz. A solar eclipse has cast darkness over the Roman Empire, and as the frightened population cowers in fear the earth beneath their feet begins to violently tremble. Having recently heard rumors about a mysterious Jewish savior who apparently transcended death, Emperor Tiberius sends fierce warrior Tauro to Jerusalem to solve a mystery that threatens to dissolve their empire. Upon arriving in Jerusalem, Tauro rescues a young beauty named Tabitha and her frail grandmother from a menacing street criminal. But Tabitha is forbidden to look at Romans - much less speak to them - and now after entering into a forbidden romance with Tauro the end of an era fast approaches. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dolph Lundgren, Daniele Liotti, (more)
An A-list cast, with screen legends Max von Sydow (The Seventh Seal, Hannah and Her Sisters), Diana Rigg (TV's The Avengers, On Her Majesty's Secret Service), andGeraldine Chaplin (Nashville, Remember My Name), highlights this live-action, feature-length adaptation of Johanna Spyri's much-beloved novel Heidi (1880). The picture -- like the book -- tells the familiar story of the title character (here played by Emma Bolger), an orphaned little girl who goes to live with her grandfather (Max Von Sydow) in the Swiss Alps. Shot on location in Switzerland, against a wintry, majestic backdrop, the picture strives to preserve Spyri's sense of the landscape and her rare insight into the perceptions of children, as well as the book's feel for sweeping adventure and lasting sentiment. Paul Marcus directs, from an adaptation by Brian Finch. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Emma Bolger
- 2004
- PG13
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After witnessing the brutal murder of his powerful father King Solomon of the Netherlands, a young heir to the throne begins preparation for his ultimate revenge in director Uli Edel's medivel tale of might and magic. An allied royal court has granted refuge to young Siegfried following the tragic death of his father, and in the following years Siegfried trains to become a formidable warrior as his magical mother Hjordis watches over him with a loving eye. When Siegfried acquires a magical sword said to have been forged from a fallen star, he sets out to slay the fearsome dragon Fafnir and lay claim to the gold that the horrid beast had stolen from the mythical Nibelungs. His victory over the dragon affording him the opportunity to bathe in its blood and achieve invincibility, Siegfried's glory is quickly tarnished when the Nibelungs reappear and demand the return of their treasure. Though Siegfried eventually agrees to bestow the Nibelungs the majority of the treasure, his unwise decision to retain the cursed ring that forms the very core of the valuable booty ensures that he will never experience true love for as long as it remains in his possession. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kristanna Loken, Benno Fürmann, (more)
Based on a short story by the late Philip K. Dick, this science fiction-thriller reflects the writer's familiar preoccupation with themes of concealed identity and mind control. Tom Cruise stars as John Anderton, a Washington, D.C. detective in the year 2054. Anderton works for "Precrime," a special unit of the police department that arrests murderers before they have committed the actual crime. Precrime bases its work on the visions of three psychics or "precogs" whose prophecies of future events are never in error. When Anderton discovers that he has been identified as the future killer of a man he's never met, he is forced to become a fugitive from his own colleagues as he tries to uncover the mystery of the victim-to-be's identity. When he kidnaps Agatha (Samantha Morton), one of the precogs, he begins to formulate a theory about a possible frame-up from within his own department. Directed by Steven Spielberg, who hired a team of futurists to devise the film's numerous technologically advanced gadgets, Minority Report co-stars Colin Farrell, Max von Sydow, and Neal McDonough. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, (more)
Some people are born with good luck, but others try to attain it however they can -- and at any cost -- in this offbeat psychological thriller from Spain. Samuel Berg (Max Von Sydow) is an elderly man who lives beneath a gambling casino on an island off the Spanish coast. In Berg's world, good fortune is a commodity that can be acquired from others, and while would-be gambler Federico (Eusebio Poncela) has a genuine talent for taking good luck from those who have it, Berg's gift is even stronger, and after a long day of absorbing positive vibrations from winning gamblers, Berg steals the day's "take" from him, leaving Federico to plan his revenge. Federico becomes aware of Tomas (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a man who recently survived a plane crash, and is convinced he has even more luck than Berg can overcome; the two become partners, and Federico enters Tomas in an underground tournament designed to determine who Lady Luck smiles upon most sweetly. After Federico and Tomas win a handsome home from Alejandro (Antonio Dechent), a former bullfighter, the pair seems poised to go up against Berg and claim his luck as their own, but Sara (Monica Lopez), a police investigator, is convinced Federico and Tomas are up to no good and begins exploring their bizarre secret world. Intacto received its American premiere at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leonardo Sbaraglia, Eusebio Poncela, (more)
The life of the fabled Gallic leader Vercingetorix is brought to the screen in this epic international production. Young Vercingetorix came of age in 60 B.C., as soldiers of the Roman Empire ran roughshod over Gaul and his father was captured and executed by Romans. A wise and philosophical druid, Guttuart (Max Von Sydow), tells the angry Vercingetorix that he should seek justice by winning freedom for Gaul from the Romans. As an adult, Vercingetorix (Christophe Lambert) becomes a brave and insightful warrior, and at first joins forces with the charismatic Julius Caesar (Klaus Maria Brandauer). But in time Vercingetorix is betrayed by the great leader, and soon he raises an army of his own to defeat Caesar and bring Guttuart's prophesy to life. Ines Sastre also appears as Epona, the love of Vercingetorix's life. Vercingetorix was filmed on location in Bulgaria in both French- and English-language versions. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Christopher Lambert, Klaus Maria Brandauer, (more)
Director Dario Argento, best known for his stylishly bloody horror films, revisits the style and themes of his early directorial efforts in this tense crime thriller. A prostitute (Barbara Lerici) discovers one of her customers has a taste for much rougher sex than she's willing to give him; trying to sneak away from her john, she accidentally walks off with one of his scrapbooks, from which she discovers her client apparently committed a series of unsolved murders almost 20 years earlier. The john tracks down the prostitute and murders her to insure her silence; this awakens in him the desire to kill again, and soon he's once again leaving a bloody swath across Italy. Ulisse Moretti (Max Von Sydow), the police detective who investigated the earlier wave of killings, is brought out of retirement when clues link the new murders to those committed in the early '80s, and the aging cop finds his sometimes foggy memory jolted back to recognition by the growing number of bloody victims. Meanwhile, Giacomo (Stefano Dionisi), whose saw his mother being killed by the murderer as a boy, learns that the killer is back at work, and sets out to investigate the case on his own. Non Ho Sonno features an original musical score by the rock band Goblin, who also wrote music for a number of Argento's best-known films. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Max von Sydow, Stefano Dionisi, (more)
This TNT miniseries stars Alec Baldwin as Robert Jackson, the Supreme Court justice who served as the head prosecutor for the war crimes tribunal that took place in Nuremberg after the horrors of WWII and the Holocaust. The film follows Jackson from his preparations for the trial to the outcome of the trial itself, paying particular attention to the interplay between Jackson and the Nazi thugs he is trying to prosecute. Brian Cox co-stars a Hermann Goering, Hitler's right-hand man, while Christopher Plummer plays British prosecutor Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, and Jill Hennessey portrays Elise Douglas, Jackson's invaluable secretary and sometime lover. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alec Baldwin, Jill Hennessy, (more)
This drama was the ninth in a series of made-for-TV features dramatizing famous stories from the Bible. Solomon (Ben Cross), the son of David (Max Von Sydow), inherits his father's kingdom and becomes the ruler of Israel. While Solomon consolidates power through his marriages, it is his intelligence, sense of justice, and desire to see his people live in peace that earns him the respect and admiration of his subjects. Solomon also stars Vivica A. Fox as the Queen of Saba, Anouk Aimee as Bethsabea, and Maria Grazia Cucinotta as Abishag. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ben Cross, Vivica A. Fox, (more)
Nine years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a small town in the Pacific Northwest still struggles with the troubling legacy of U.S. policies against Asian-Americans. In December 1950, just off the shores of San Piedro Island in Washington, a Japanese-American man named Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune) stands accused of murder after his close friend Carl Heine (Eric Thal) is found drowned in icy waters. As the trial gets under way, with Alvin Hooks (James Rebhorn) prosecuting Kazuo and Nels Gudmundsson (Max Von Sydow) defending him, reporter Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke) covers the proceedings for the local newspaper. It's difficult for Ishmael to view the trial objectively, as his first love was a Japanese-American girl named Hatsue (Youki Kudoh), who later married Kazuo. Now, Ishmael has discovered that, when the Japanese-American residents of San Piedro Island were sent to internment camps during World War II, Carl's mother used their incarceration to scuttle a land purchase by Kazuo's family. This could suggest a motive for murder, but Ishmael is reluctant to step forward with the story. Snow Falling on Cedars was based on the best-selling novel by David Guterson, adapted for the screen by Ron Bass and writer/director Scott Hicks. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ethan Hawke, James Cromwell, (more)
- 1998
In this compelling Swedish documentary, director-editor Jan Troell traces the efforts of three Scandinavian balloonists to reach the North Pole in 1897. The 60-minute film is based on authentic diaries, photos, and letters of the disaster, including materials recovered in 1930 when the remains of the expedition were discovered preserved in ice on a remote Polar Sea island. Norwegian Knut Fraenkel and two Swedes, Nils Strindberg and August Andrie, departed in 1897 in their balloon called Ornen (The Eagle), but little was known of their fate until the items found on White Island in 1930 were taken back to Sweden. Decades later, author Olof Sundblom used the diaries as the basis for his novel The Flight of the Eagle (1967). Jan Troell, known for such award-winning films as Here's Your Life (1968), The Emigrants (1972) and Hamsun (1996), did much additional research before he filmed his Oscar-nominated adaptation of Sundblom's novel, Flight of the Eagle (1983). Starring Max von Sydow, Goran Stangertz, and Sverre Anker Ousdal, the 1983 drama won various awards and competed at the Venice Film Festival. For this memorable and moving 1998 documentary, Troell drew on his experiences making the feature, adding short clips from that film to archival materials (deteriorating still photos found in the ice). New color footage was shot at both the expedition's starting point and its frozen finale. The tragedy is heard from the expedition's participants, brought to life through diary extracts read by von Sydow, Samuel Froler, and Rolf Lassgard. Anita Ekstrom provides the voice of Strindberg's fiancee. Seen in both Swedish theaters and TV, it was also shown at the 1998 Gothenburg Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
Based on a metaphysical 1978 novel by science fiction and horror author Richard Matheson, this romantic fantasy-drama won an Oscar for its expensive and impressive visual vistas depicting an imaginative afterlife. Robin Williams stars as Chris Nielsen, a doctor who has suffered with his artist wife Annie (Annabella Sciorra) through the devastating loss of their children, Marie and Ian, who were killed in a car accident. Although Annie's all-consuming depression nearly destroyed their marriage, the couple rebuilt their relationship and are now living out a comfortable middle age. Stopping one night to help a motorist in a wreck, Chris is struck by a car and killed. At first confused about where he is, Chris meets Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a spiritual guide who helps him to realize he's passed away and that he must move on to the next world. After trying with only limited success to communicate with the devastated Annie, Chris moves on and discovers an afterlife that can become whatever one envisions, where even his pet dog awaits him. What Chris envisions as paradise are the paintings of his wife, and he happily takes up residence there, awaiting the far-off day when Annie will eventually join him. He also meets his children, although they have chosen different appearances than the ones they had in life. Then tragedy strikes when Annie, inconsolable, commits suicide and goes to Hell. Although it is rarely done, Chris insists on traveling there, risking his eternal soul to save the woman he loves. Accompanied part of the way by Albert and a wizened guide called The Tracker (Max von Sydow), Chris finally reaches Annie in Hell, and must convince her of the truth in order to release her from her dark prison. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding, Jr., (more)
- 1997
Originally made for television and directed by distinguished Swedish actress-turned-director Liv Ullman, this provocative drama is a sequel to director-turned-screenwriter Ingmar Bergman's autobiographical Bille August-directed drama Best Intentions (1992). Returning to their roles of Bergman's parents are actors Pernilla August and Samuel Froler; their discussions are divided into five sections that take place over several years beginning on a Sunday in July, 1925 when young Anna Bergman runs into her old friend and mentor Jacob (Max von Sydow) an aged priest. She is obviously distraught about something and soon confesses to him that she has been cheating on her husband Henrik, also a priest, with yet another man of the cloth named Tomas Egerman (Thomas Hanzon). Jacob suggests she immediately end the affair and inform her husband. Several weeks pass and Anna finally heeds Jacob's advice. When her words finally sink in, Henrik becomes angry and begins grilling her for details. Her further confessions make matters worse. The tale then flashes back to Anna's seduction of Tomas, a situation which reveals truths unspoken by Anna in her confessions. The fourth segment of the story is set several years later. Anna visits the now elderly and frail Jacob. The final discussion jumps back to 1907 when the adolescent Anna first met Jacob and this segment reveals a few more truths about the nature of her friendship with Jacob. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Based on an actual event, this made-for-television movie chronicles a delicate international situation that could have derailed Russian-American relations in the 1980s. Martin Sheen and Rutger Hauer star as military leaders on opposing sides, in this edgy drama about the collision between a Russian nuclear submarine and an American submarine off the coast of Bermuda. While the sub crews were dealing with the danger of a possible nuclear accident due to vessel damage, political leaders Reagan and Gorbachev were in the middle of sensitive peace talks. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Martin Sheen, (more)
This powerful Scandinavian biopic chronicles the fall of one of Norway's most respected authors, Knut Hamsun (played by Max von Sydow in one of his most acclaimed performances) who up until WWII was considered one of the greatest Norwegians of the 20th century. At the dawn of the war, the Nobel Prize winning author shocked his countrymen by publicly siding with the Nazis. His wife Marie took it a step further and went to Germany to give lectures. Following the war, both were convicted and branded as traitors. Hamsun attempts to answer the questions surrounding the author and his wife's treachery. By the time the war erupted, Hamsun was an elderly curmudgeon who could barely hear. A profoundly lonely man with hatred of British Imperialism, he was an easy target for Nazi propaganda. His wife Marie, who in Norway is still more vilified than her husband, also had her reasons to support the German party, but while though-provoking, they don't invite much sympathy. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1996
A group of messianic pilgrims abandon their native Sweden and emigrate to Palestine. This fact-based episodic Swedish drama looks at the events leading up to the trek and the immigrants' experiences after they arrive in the holy land. The story begins in Sweden and is introduced by the death of Big Ingmar, the leader of a small farming community. Shortly thereafter, his eldest daughter Karin sends Ingmar's namesake son to be raised by another family so she can control the family farm. Years pass and Ingmar grows up to fall in love with his beauteous "step-sister" Gertrud. But the romance never fully blooms, for Ingmar must leave to earn the money he needs to buy his father's farm back from Karin. About this time, the local village is plagued by a series of ominous disasters that begin with Karin's sudden paralysis. In the midst of the ensuing superstition and chaos, a charismatic, hellfire-and-brimstone preacher shows up, and some family members begin converting to his cause. Karin becomes a true follower when the preacher prays and she is "miraculously" healed. Ingmar eventually returns to find a very different village. With not enough money to buy the farm, he marries a wealthy young woman. Broken-hearted Gertrud immediately joins the preacher's cult and decides to follow him to Palestine to await Christ's Second Coming. Three months after she leaves, a recently divorced Ingmar arrives in Palestine to try to win her back. That is but one story line among many that transpire as the pilgrims struggle with survival in their strange new homeland. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Maria Bonnevie, Ulf Friberg, (more)
- 1995
This extraordinary Swedish documentary takes a spectacular look at the ocean and its diverse islands, ranging from Iceland to the Falklands. As the filmmakers make their journey, they bring to the screen a great sense of history and of the future of humankind. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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