A Man There Was (1917)
"Terje Vigen" (original title)

Terje Vigen, a sailor, suffers the loss of his family through the cruelty of another man. Years later, when his enemy's family finds itself dependent on Terje's beneficence, Terje must ... See full summary »

Director:

Victor Sjöström

Writers:

Henrik Ibsen (poem), Gustaf Molander,

Stars:

Victor Sjöström, Edith Erastoff, August Falck

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Victor Sjöström	...	Terje Vigen
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Edith Erastoff	...	The Lady
August Falck	...	The Lord
Bergliot Husberg	...	Mrs. Vigen

Storyline

Terje Vigen, a sailor, suffers the loss of his family through the cruelty of another man. Years later, when his enemy's family finds itself dependent on Terje's beneficence, Terje must decide whether to avenge himself.

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Plot Keywords:

death of wife | year 1809 | starvation | sea | based on poem | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Sweden

Release Date:

25 April 1920 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Man There Was

Filming Locations:

Landsort, Öja, Stockholms län, Sweden

Box Office

Budget:

SEK 60,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Svenska Biografteatern AB

Technical Specs

Runtime:

48 min 56 min 60 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995)

User Reviews

A Punch to the Gut

If this movie had been made in 1923, I'd have been more blasé, but for 1916 it's nothing short of miraculous.

The open-air filming is smooth and well-executed. The emotional rawness is hit hard but never gets overheated. The acting is intense but does not stray into laughable "stagger-and-clutch." Dutiful fidelity to Ibsen's poem may cramp the subtitles, but never interferes with masterful story-telling in the film itself.

There is one sequence, in which a launch from a British warship destroys a fisherman's rowboat and then attempts to hunt down the fisherman while he's swimming for his life underwater, that is an absolute classic that will live in your memory.

This film is short, but very powerful, and worth going the extra mile to see.