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TIME: Almanac 1990s
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<text id=89TT0006>
<title>
Jan. 02, 1989: Hail The Epic-Size Hero
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
Jan. 02, 1989 Planet Of The Year:Endangered Earth
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
CINEMA, Page 94
Hail the Epic-Size Hero
</hdr><body>
<p>By Richard Schickel
</p>
<qt> <l>PELLE THE CONQUEROR</l>
<l>Directed and Written by Bille August</l>
</qt>
<p> Whiteness: the perfect whiteness of an enveloping fog. Muted
sounds: voices, the creak of sails and rigging. Very slowly, the
outlines of a 19th century sailing ship begin to take shape
through the brume. The great image that opens Pelle the
Conqueror turns out to be a perfect emblem for the long,
entirely absorbing work that unfolds: very simple yet
powerfully, mysteriously absorbing.
</p>
<p> That ship carries Swedish immigrants seeking work in
Denmark. Among them are an old man, Lasse (Max von Sydow), and
his young son Pelle (Pelle Hvenegaard). The former is too old
and the latter is too young to be prime prospects for the labor
force in a land that is prejudiced against foreigners. Besides,
Lasse is a recent widower who drinks too much. Although he is
capable of bluster, it is impotent, one more demonstration that a
long, hard life has defeated him.
</p>
<p> They are the last of their ship to be hired, by the casually
sadistic foreman of Stone Farm, which is both ironically and
aptly named. Its holdings, bordering a wild, beautiful seacoast,
are large and fertile; there is nothing stony about them. But
its walled farmyard is like a prison; its heavy gates are locked
each night, and workers are treated like convicts.
</p>
<p> To live thus in the midst of plenty naturally increases the
workers' wretchedness. And their condition mirrors their
masters'. For the farm's owners also live hellishly in heavenly
surroundings. Their home is as handsome as their well-favored
lands. But the husband is a womanizer whose wife literally
howls her misery over his infidelities (and ultimately takes a
just and terrible revenge on him).
</p>
<p> Stone Farm is clearly a microcosm of the world, Eden after
the fall. And Pelle must inevitably lose his innocence as he
explores this ruined Paradise, but not his sense that there
must be more to life than the evils that incessantly assault his
eye, or his inarticulate hope of finding some new Jerusalem
beyond his constricted horizon. This maintenance of faith is,
indeed, his conquest. And it is given force and poignancy by
its contrast with the defeat of his father's ever dwindling
dreams.
</p>
<p> Yes, allegory is quietly at work here. But it is a form of
generalization, and the greatness of this film derives, finally,
from its specificity. Pelle is rich in characters and subplots,
and as the seasons turn, they intersect, diverge and intersect
again, forming a rough, wonderfully textured weave, unlike
anything one is used to brushing against in the modern cinema.
The boy's chief tormentor is a trainee manager, an arrogant
ninny. The figure Pelle most admires, because his courage
contrasts so vividly with Lasse's discouragement, is the farm's
resident revolutionist, risking all, losing all (in the film's
most shattering passage), by boldly leading a short-lived
revolt.
</p>
<p> These little lives, spun out in a time and place far distant
from us, would be easy to ignore. But they are all vividly
played, and Bille August's gifts for austere, striking imagery
and for the short, perfectly shaped scene impart to this film
an epic richness, range and energy.
</p>
</body></article>
</text>