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IMDbPro

The Emigrants

Original title: Utvandrarna
  • 19711971
  • PGPG
  • 2h 31m
IMDb RATING
8.0/10
6.7K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
12,017
427
The Emigrants (1971)
DramaHistory
Småland, Sweden, mid-19th century. A farming family struggle with their rocky, unyielding land, and decide to embark on the arduous journey to new hope in America.Småland, Sweden, mid-19th century. A farming family struggle with their rocky, unyielding land, and decide to embark on the arduous journey to new hope in America.Småland, Sweden, mid-19th century. A farming family struggle with their rocky, unyielding land, and decide to embark on the arduous journey to new hope in America.
IMDb RATING
8.0/10
6.7K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
12,017
427
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Jan Troell
    • Writers
      • Bengt Forslund(screenplay)
      • Jan Troell(screenplay)
      • Vilhelm Moberg(based on a novel by)
    • Stars
      • Max von Sydow
      • Liv Ullmann
      • Eddie Axberg
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Jan Troell
    • Writers
      • Bengt Forslund(screenplay)
      • Jan Troell(screenplay)
      • Vilhelm Moberg(based on a novel by)
    • Stars
      • Max von Sydow
      • Liv Ullmann
      • Eddie Axberg
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 18User reviews
    • 40Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
    • Nominated for 5 Oscars
      • 8 wins & 11 nominations total

    Photos33

    Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann in The Emigrants (1971)
    The Emigrants (1971)
    The Emigrants (1971)
    The Emigrants (1971)
    The Emigrants (1971)
    The Emigrants (1971)
    The Emigrants (1971)
    Liv Ullmann in The Emigrants (1971)
    Eddie Axberg in The Emigrants (1971)
    Max von Sydow in The Emigrants (1971)
    Liv Ullmann in The Emigrants (1971)
    The Emigrants (1971)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Max von Sydow
    Max von Sydow
    • Karl Oskar
    Liv Ullmann
    Liv Ullmann
    • Kristina
    Eddie Axberg
    Eddie Axberg
    • Robert
    Sven-Olof Bern
    • Nils
    • (as Svenolof Bern)
    Aina Alfredsson
    • Märta
    Allan Edwall
    Allan Edwall
    • Danjel
    Monica Zetterlund
    Monica Zetterlund
    • Ulrika
    Pierre Lindstedt
    Pierre Lindstedt
    • Arvid
    Hans Alfredson
    Hans Alfredson
    • Jonas Petter
    Ulla Smidje
    Ulla Smidje
    • Inga-Lena - Danjel's Hustru
    Eva-Lena Zetterlund
    • Elin - Ulrika's Dotter
    Gustaf Färingborg
    • Prosten Brusander
    Åke Fridell
    Åke Fridell
    • Aron på Nybacken
    Agneta Prytz
    Agneta Prytz
    • Fina-Kajsa
    Halvar Björk
    Halvar Björk
    • Anders Månsson - Hennes Son
    Arnold Alfredsson
    • Kyrkvärd
    Bror Englund
    • Måns Jakob
    Tom C. Fouts
    • Pastor Jackson
    • Director
      • Jan Troell
    • Writers
      • Bengt Forslund(screenplay)
      • Jan Troell(screenplay)
      • Vilhelm Moberg(based on a novel by)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • 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
      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

      Arvid: What do you think it will cost to ship us there?

      Robert: Around 200 riksdaler.

      Arvid: Ya, well, might as well forget it. 200 riksdaler. I'll never have that much.

      Robert: You don't have it?

      Arvid: I will go anyway. We can travel to America on foot.

      Robert: Nah, there's an ocean. You can't go on foot to America.

      Arvid: Do you mean there is no way?

      Robert: I'm afraid there is not. America is an island.

      Arvid: Damned ocean.

    • Alternate versions
      The USA television version, retitled "The Emigrant Saga", consists of this film plus its sequel, The New Land (1972), joined and re-edited together in chronological order and dubbed in English.
    • Connections
      Edited into Catalogue of Ships (2008)

    User reviews18

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    8/10
    Swedish filmmaker Jan Troell's categorical pièces-de-résistance
    Swedish filmmaker Jan Troell's categorical pièces-de-résistance, a diptych, 7-hours long saga based on his fellow countryman, the literature titan Vilhelm Moberg's THE EMIGRANTS ensemble.

    Divided into THE EMIGRANTS and THE NEW LAND, this 19th-century epic holds a dear look at the travails of an ordinary Swedish household, the Nilsson family, resides in the Småland hinterland, when (mostly natural) adversity mounts against their livelihood, the eldest son Karl Oskar (von Sydow) mulls over the prospect of emigrating to the United States. A proposition deprecated by his wife Kristina (Ullmann) initially, but when poverty and hunger is aggravated by the premature death of one of their brood, she eventually accedes, joining their emigrating pack are Karl Oskar's younger brother Robert (Axberg), his farmhand friend Arvid (Lindstedt), the family of Kristina's uncle Pastor Daniel Andreasson (Edwall, a straight-up hard-hitter, brilliantly bringing about an air of smug virtuosity that treacherously verges on hubris), who is at loggerheads with the supercilious local parish clergy for preaching to the fallen ones (viz. those who are deemed not worthy of Christian gospel), among whom a former prostitute Ulrika (jazz chanteuse Monica Zetterlund), now a reborn woman, also partakes in the trek with her teenage daughter Elin (played by Monica's own daughter Eva-Lena Zetterlund).

    THE EMIGRANTS itself can be bisected into two halves, before and after the family's embarkment for the state of Freedom, during the former, Troell introduces the hardship and inequity (religious parochialism and mistreatment) with a pastoral equanimity (occasionally lard with invigorating drumbeats) and purveys his main characters with sufficient impetus for their longing for a reset button in an idealized country where everyone is (purportedly) being treated equally and fairly, especially for the young Robert, it is the California gold rush beckons him, and supports him against the cavalier abuse he receives on a daily base when working as a farmhand.

    Once their journey kick-starts, a looming nostalgia begins to sweep the cohort, Troell (who is also presiding over the cinematography department) fixes the valediction shot with a subdued solemnity, no goodbyes, tear-infused eyes, lingering looks are deployed, just a long-shot of the elderly parents seeing their children off in front of their house, incorporating the place into their final adieu, and the impact is ineffable.

    Tellingly, THE EMIGRANTS' most accomplished passage is the ten-weeks trans-Atlantic voyage on a wooden brig, and Troell valiantly re-enacts its sordid state of affairs with swingeing maritime verisimilitude when most passengers are fallen victims of sea-sick, life is snuffed within a two-by-four space, by scurvy or even quinsy (a pertinent reference to today's illegal immigrants' ordeal on the sea). Here Liv Ullmann holds court in two magnificent scenes, one is Kristina's altercation with Ulrika, both actress are emotively unsparing, and letting out their prejudice and retorts once for all, which also presciently serves as a catalyst for their eventually best-friends transition; the other is when Kristina, apparently in extremis, exchanges with Karl Oskar their fondness, as if for the last time, by confessing that they are each other's best friends, a superlative affirmation that true love does exist thanks to the two players' most poignant delivery.

    Once the survivors touches the terra firma but incognita, they are still miles away from where they will start life anew, hopping on the train and later a steamer, than on foot, when they finally reach their destination in Minnesota, their first dream is dashed by a boastful liar who never expect his lie will be debunked in his face, and THE EMIGRANTS finishes when Karl Oskar finds their new land under their new identities, American homesteaders.

    Right picking up where its predecessor leaves, THE NEW LAND takes place entirely in the new land, where the Swedish emigrants forming a somewhat enclave, mostly living among themselves, which brings about a problematic issue about the story's sense of locality and Troell's inaction of alleviate this anonymity, if it is not for the random appearances of the indigenous Indians, one can safely surmise that the household is still live in their homeland, with very similar sylvan exuberance and harsh winter-time, and not much foreignness to interact with, in a way, it takes the shine off one of the story's focal points: displacement.

    Yet, what THE NEW LAND excels in, is that oater flashback of Robert, who manages to stay alive just long enough after a futile gold-digging attempt with Arvid, a sounding slap in the face to the wide-eyed daydreamers, the pair is saddled with the same drudgery and hardship (not to mention Robert's potluck is rooked by deception) that ultimate will cost them both their young lives, here Troell launches a more hallucinogenic experiment in accentuating the pair's delirium and exhaustion when wandering in the desert, to admirable effect. Eddie Axberg has weathered convincingly in honing up Robert's tale of woe, and his final resignation with fate effectually brings a lump in one's throat.

    Life goes on, as Karl Oskar's household finally prospers, a God-fearing Kristina turns out to be benighted enough to risk her own life for the sake of procreation, indoctrinated as a wife's sacrosanct duty, even after receiving the doctor's warning that another pregnancy would become her undoing, together with a less disinterested depiction of a wanton slaughter during the Sioux Uprising, by suggestion that it is at the expense of those white homesteaders' hospitality upon which the Indians conducts their retaliation, THE NEW LAND's luster starts to ebb away, notwithstanding a show-stopping Max von Sydow consistently radiates with plebeian bonhomie, sympathy and mettle from stem to stern of the entire roman-fleuve.
    helpful•4
    2
    • lasttimeisaw
    • Apr 8, 2018

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 8, 1971 (Sweden)
    • Country of origin
      • Sweden
    • Languages
      • Swedish
      • English
      • Danish
    • Also known as
      • Emigranti
    • Filming locations
      • Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota, USA
    • Production company
      • Svensk Filmindustri (SF)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross US & Canada
      • $1,156,554
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      2 hours 31 minutes
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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