The Emigrants

1971 Swedish drama

Rating: 17/20

Plot: A guy travels from Sweden to Minnesota in order to kill a tree.

That plot synopsis might be a spoiler, but so is the Criterion poster which shows the guy sitting with his back on the tree he's carved into. So I'm not going to feel too bad about the whole thing.

"I'm afraid of America. Maybe they're mean to newcomers there."

This is a long movie, and since it has a sequel in which, I'm guessing, the characters watch a dancing chicken, it's only half of the story. Jan Troell takes his time telling the story, appropriate since the journey for the characters is such a lengthy one. There's some focus on the minutiae of these characters' lives, but it's in that minutiae that the characters and their situations really come to life. Troell often allows the imagery to create these characters.

There are so many moments, some very small and some detailing life-changing events in these characters' lives, that I just loved:

The multiple shots of a swinging Liv Ullmann, almost all these perspective shots or ones with a wildly-swinging camera. Later, swinging feet play peekaboo through a barn's window.

Younger brother Robert looking into treetops and the sky, foreshadowing his aspirations. He also drowns a cat, and that's probably a symbol. Troell often uses sound effectively in The Emigrants, and the cries from that cat and the movements of the bag as it floats downstream were haunting. A shoe also floats down that stream. Later, there's another symbolic scenes where Robert, played with boyish indulgences by Eddie Axberg, digs what appears, at least for one unnerving moment, to be his own grave.

There are great landscape shots, my favorites maybe being shots showing the contrast of oxen and the colorless foliage in the backgrounds.

I also like the way Ullmann and Max von Sydow are shot. It's all subtle, but there are some great moments where the framing reflects their relationship or their individual feelings. One example is a conversation between the pair where she is in front of a window with this light drenching her while he is against a harsher wooden wall.

A lot of the shots show, exactly as you'd expect with a title like this, the characters traveling. They travel by ox-pulled wagon (including one very long shot of a wagon slowly approaching the camera along this cobblestone road), by ship, by train, and by riverboat. I really liked a sequence when they're all first leaving the farm, all these swift swerves showing the perspective of people who are thinking that they're seeing their home for the final time. And then there's Robert seeing the ship for the first time, the hope on his face juxtaposed with the dismal sight of this ghostly silhouette of the vessel. On board, Robert and his chubby pal are checking out the rigging--more perspective shots.

Scenes below the ship are harrowing, a part of the ship where a character complains that "In the dark, I can't even see where to vomit."  There are smells that can almost be scene on that ship, but at least somebody had the foresight to bring along a squeezebox. And although there are lice, those lice nearly lead to a hot little cat fight, the prospect which I have to admit aroused me a little bit.

There are some devastating deaths on that boat. There's also a great shot of a thumb massaging the tit on this gaudy mug.

Once they're in America, there are all these quick cuts that show America as slightly less than magical. The imagery's nearly surreal. It's more alarming because of how these characters talked about America in previous scenes, as some sort of fairy tale utopia that an unfortunate "Goddamn ocean" is separating them from. Minnesota is a myth, but when the characters finally arrive in Minnesota, the way they stare at the trees or run their hands through the grass makes me a believer.

That final shot is almost perfect--a smile, a bunch of birds. I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief along with von Sydow.

Another note--there's a lot of religion in this movie. The religious convictions of these characters is either inspiring or foolish. One believes that she doesn't need to study English from a book because she's read the book of Acts and knows that the faithful will be granted the gift of tongues. Another is impressed with America because God's mentioned right on the money. And at one point, a character shockingly gives thanks to God for taking his daughter. The God in this movie is one who appreciates irony as he answers prayers with both rain and lightning.

There's also a bit of sex in this movie, and I'm not just taking about the aforementioned baudy mug or the cat fight flirtation. Robert and the chubby friend ogle girls, Robert's demonstrating a bit of game on the ship, and a few conversations about how much sex von Sydow and Ullmann are having and the consequences of that are in there.

It's so easy to root for the characters in this. I'm almost scared to watch The New Land because I'm afraid it won't be a happy ending for them.