Posted on 02/10/2024 6:22:46 PM PST by sphinx
...Nikolaj Arcel’s “The Promised Land,” Denmark’s submission for the foreign-language Oscar, has everything you want in an epic film: struggle, romance, period detail, violence, great acting, atmosphere, unforgettable images, a hero played by the great Mads Mikkelsen, a despicable villain and German potatoes. In yet another awards-worthy performance, Mikkelsen plays Ludvig von Kahlen, the 18th century bastard son of a maid and a land owner, who was sent off to the German army as a boy. Having returned to his native Denmark in 1755, Captain von Kahlen (Mikkelsen) has a plan to work the non-arable soil of the Danish “heath” aka the wild Jutland and transform it into farmland....
“The Promised Land” begins as a portrait of a man who will go any any lengths to succeed in his quest. His greatest obstacle is not the sandy, rocky soil. It is his nobleman neighbor, the lord of Hald Manor, Frederick De Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg)....
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
Watch it.
That's all.
Well, maybe not all.
Old fashioned? Yes. Woke? No. The men are men, the women are women, nobody is confused about that. The protagonist is a classic archetype: an old soldier returned from the wars with a desire to build something in the life he has left, a man alone, taciturn, controlled, with a goal, a code, iron discipline, and a fierce determination. Life is hard ... man against nature ... man against man ... man against himself. He begins thinking that his chosen course will be hard but simple, but because his code is inflexible, he will not bend to take the easy path, and the choices become increasingly difficult until they reduce to a simple binary [no spoilers]. Nothing that you haven't seen from John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and innumerable other cowboys, homesteaders, railway engineers and frontier cavalry officers, and Mads Mikkelsen plays the stoic but unyielding man whose hand is forced as well as anyone and better than most.
Watch it, and you will see why so many reviewers call it a Nordic western. It's a fair comparison.
Woke? Again, no. Yes ... all the villains are white men, but this is set in 18th century Denmark, and ALL the characters are white. (Ok, ok, there's a young Romani girl who had been sold to the outlaws, but I am going to make a canonical ruling that the Romani are white -- and anyhow, this character is time and place appropriate and her heritage plays a plot-relevant role, so this isn't stuntcasting.) It is a Danish movie; the language is mostly Danish with a little German tossed in for spice; it is not dubbed, so you will be reading the subtitles. One of the big Hollywood studios might have chosen to raceswap characters and engage in DEI stuntcasting, but there is none of that here.
Sex and nudity? There is one odd moment when our hero rides into an outlaw camp in the forest to propose a deal and a man comes stumbling out of a tent (maybe a latrine?) with his backside momentarily exposed as he pulls up his pants. It's odd because that is the only flash of nudity in the film and seems out of place. Sex? There are [no spoilers] subplots that get slightly complicated, but there are only two intimate scenes, both involving the same two characters, and it's in Denmark in winter on the barren heath; it's cold and they are both fully clothed and under the covers.
Violence? Well, it's a western, right? Evil is done by evil characters presented in the film as unequivocally evil. And justice is done -- in irregular ways because corrupt authority is a large theme -- and not always by whom you will expect. The setting is 18th century Denmark so there are no railroads, deserts, buffalo, or Indians, but the barren heath is as desolate as any patch of western wilderness that ever tempted a hard core homesteader, and the other classic western themes are all there.
The Promised Land premiered last summer at the Venice Film Festival, where it won top honors. It continued to win accolades on the fall 2023 festival circuit and has stellar critics' and viewers' scores on RT. I know that freepers are too sophisticated to place much stock on RT ratings, but I trust that most of you are by now sophisticated enough to know that Sphinx recommendations are the gold standard, and when Sphinx agrees with the critics' and audience scores, this may be a movie to check out. Westerns are a favorite food group on FR, and I don't think fans of westerns will be disappointed. Even if there aren't any Indians or Mexican banditos; bad guys don't all have to dress the same way to play the same role.
This is in theaters now, so if you still get out to the moving picture shows, try to catch this one and cast a vote for a good movie of the sort people say just aren't made today. Freepers sometimes grouse about badly behaved audiences in theaters. Don't worry about that. Movies like this are kryptonite to the idiot demographics. It is not yet streaming. I searched and found one statement that it would be available later this month, but there was no indication of what platforms might carry it. If you've seen it advertised on your platform of choice, let us know. But in the meantime, if your knees are up to it, pretend you are young again and go see it in the theater. It's Danish, so you don't have to violate your oath to avoid Hollywood output at all costs.
P.S. There was in fact an historical Ludvig von Kahlen. I gather that not much is known about him, but apparently he is credited with being the first man to successfully farm the barren heaths of Jutland. At the core, this is a homesteader's saga of turning a wasteland into farms, and doing so against great odds.
Movie ping.
Has anyone else seen it yet?
Mads is The Man.
Looks good!
Looks good. I’ll look for it.
Mads is one of the very few actors that are on my Must Check It Out list. I don’t reflexively watch everything he’s in, but I will at least watch the trailer and read some reviews. He does have a knack for powerful character roles.
I recommended Another Round (2020) to the ping list a couple of years ago. Westerns aren’t the only favorite genre on FR; we have some pretty good discussion on films about alcoholism and related topics. Mads is great in that as well.
I have not.
I'll check it out. I loved Mikkelsen in another Danish flick, Another Round. Watch it if you get the opportunity.
Great flick.
Mads was a big part of why the Casino Royale reboot of Bond saved the entire franchise.
OF COURSE this film isn’t woke, Mel Gibson’s company produced it!
Age of uprising was great, the salvation (another western) seems like a throwback as well and was enjoyable
Valhalla Rising was quite good and very different
Thanks for the ping. Looks like my husband and I would both enjoy this one!
Thanks I’ll check it out. Also check out “Arctic” also starring Mads. It’s about a guy whose plane crashes in the Arctic stranding him. I thought it was excellent
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6820256/?ref_=nm_flmg_i_12_act
It looks like divicast.com has it. That’s a free streaming site. I use it to watch movies and tv series on my computer. It helps to have a good ad blocker. I’ve found it difficult to use divicast on a smart tv.
Btt-will check it out
This looks really interesting. Mads Mickelson is a terrific actor.
I have seen his brother in a number of Scandinavian shows.
Sphinx
Have you listed your recommendations on your FR homepage?
With Link to each movie post?
Better than fr search.
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