"Snapphanar" (2006) TV mini-series

Directors:

Måns Mårlind
Björn Stein

Writer:

Niklas Rockström (writer)

Genre:

Action | Drama | History

Plot Keywords:

Resistance | TV Mini-Series | Snapphanar | Noble

Cast

André Sjöberg	...	Nils Geting
Tuva Novotny	...	Hedvig Sparre
Anders Ekborg	...	Gabriel Lejonhufvud
Malin Morgan	...	Svart-Stina
Gustaf Skarsgård	...	Karl XI
Peter Andersson	...	Överste Dahlbergh
Kim Bodnia	...	Mogens Laumann
Jörgen Persson	...	Räddstor
Samuel Hellström	...	Joshua Swartz
Adam Lundgren	...	David Swartz
Dag Malmberg	...	Anders Sparre
Harald Leander	...	Olof Geting
Jonas Karlström	...	Jakob Geting
Niklas Engdahl	...	Mannen med ärret
Jonas Sjöqvist	...	Rosencrantz

Also Known As:

Snaphaner (Denmark)
Vistvagiai (Lithuania)

Runtime:

174 min (3 parts)

Country:

Sweden | Lithuania | Denmark | Finland | Norway

Language:

Swedish | Danish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Filming Locations:

Barbakan palace, Vilnius, Lithuania

Company:

Filmlance International AB

Trivia:

For 30 days after its premiere on Swedish TV, it was made available for free viewing on SVT's website.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Olof Geting tells the story about his idea of marching across the belts, in the flashback after the battle you can clearly see the uniforms the Swedish troops use. They didn't exist in 1658, it wasn't until Karl XI (Karl X Gustav’s son and heir) gave the army it's uniforms and colors.

Another Swedish production down the drain..

But alas, mind you, this could have been a very good movie..

What this film suffers from, and so many other Swedish contemporary films, are the lack of individuality. The glances towards Hollywood are obvious especially in the editing and the cliché's in manuscript. The script is the biggest flaw here. The historical angle (even though a bit resculpted) works fine, but the dialog is absolutely horrible. And as mentioned the cliché's and straight forward plot could have (and has been) stolen from many American adventurefilms. The camera work are very good, the mis-en-scene works fine as well even though the budget was low. Some of the wholeness and flow is disrupted and destroyed from the editing, especially in the fighting scenes. It seems that sometimes the producer has stepped in and said "Too little action here boys, fix that!" The result is just bad version of Matrix crosscutting. Sound works fine as well, works fine on surround. The music tends to be a bit repetitive though. The last twenty minutes plays the same "tick-tock" inspired music that has been in every Swedish TV- production since times beginning. (A pedagogical way to show the viewer that time is of essence. Feel free to get stressed.)

All in all it works as a film made for TV. There are some good actors here but they often get nowhere with their twodimensional characters and lousy dialog.

Biggest plus: A daring try to make film out of Swedish history. Biggest minus: The scriptwriter should be flogged.

4/10