Utvandrarna (1971)

Director:

Jan Troell

Writers:

Bengt Forslund (writer)
Vilhelm Moberg (novels)

Release Date:

8 March 1971 (Sweden)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama

Tagline:

a new land...a new hope...a new dream

Plot:

In the middle of the 19th century, Kristina and Karl-Oskar live in a small rural village in Smaaland (southern Sweden)...

Plot Keywords:

19th Century | Emigrant | Emigration | Religious Intolerance | 1850s

Awards:

Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 6 wins

Cast

Max von Sydow	...	Karl Oskar
Liv Ullmann	...	Kristina
Eddie Axberg	...	Robert Nilsson
Sven-Olof Bern	...	Nils
Aina Alfredsson	...	Marta
Allan Edwall	...	Danjel
Monica Zetterlund	...	Ulrika
Pierre Lindstedt	...	Arvid
Hans Alfredson	...	Jonas Petter
Ulla Smidje	...	Danjel's wife
Eva-Lena Zetterlund	...	Elin, Ulrika's daughter
Gustaf Färingborg	...	The Vicar
Åke Fridell	...	Aron
Agneta Prytz	...	Fina Kajsa
Halvar Björk	...	Anders

Also Known As:

The Emigrants (USA)

Runtime:

191 min | Germany:182 min | USA:151 min

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-8 | Norway:12 (1972) | Sweden:11 | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Copenhagen, Denmark

Company:

Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Trivia:

When filming the scene towards the end, where Karl Oskar walks off to find a better place for his settlement, director Jan Troell forgot to yell, "Cut." Max von Sydow just kept walking and walking, waiting for a "cut", and nobody realized until they took lunch.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: On the train west a character shows an American silver coin and yells out it has "In God We Trust" on it. The scene is the 1850s and the motto was not added to American silver coins until 1867.

Quotes:

Robert: No one can walk on foot to America.
Arvid: Not in any way?
Robert: No, not on any conditions... America is an island.
Arvid: ...Damn ocean.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "NileCity 105.6" (1995)

A realistic look at the pursuit of the American dream

When Jan Troell's "The Emigrants" was released in the U.S. in 1972, it opened to excellent reviews and received the honor of being one of the few foreign-language films to receive a Best Picture nomination. It didn't win anything, though, and seems to have been forgotten over the years. Perhaps this is because the public has since found other Swedish films to be more noteworthy, in particular the works of Bille August and the later works of Ingmar Bergman.

Sad to say, because "The Emigrants" is a film that closely examines two very different cultures in an effective and insightful way. A diverse group of Swedish peasants (among them a married couple, a priest, a prostitute, and a young upstart) endure back-breaking labor in their homeland to little profit. They decide to move to the states after being influenced by the exaggerated stories spread abroad (everyone has more than enough food, everyone is filthy rich, etc.). The audience sympathizes with them not just because they endure so much in Sweden, but also because they believe the stories they hear about frontier life in America. Yes, they will obviously have to strive and struggle to survive in their new home, but they are all the more admirable because of their adherence to the American dream.

"The Emigrants" is harsh and often unrelenting in the straightforward way it depicts the realities encountered by the Swedish settlers. The scenes where they travel across the ocean in a small, cramped, and diseased ship are appropriately claustrophobic and terrifying. Later, the family at the center of the story threatens to break up when Liv Ullmann's character, a fragile young mother, loses track of her daughter while hurrying to board a steamboat.

Although most of the characters were better developed in the sequel to this film, "The New Land," Troell's story is very moving in its sincere depiction of how outsiders came to this country to pursue their hopes and dreams.