Pelle the Conqueror

***1/2 out of ****

As I sit down to write my review for Pelle the Conqueror, I first try to consider its plotline and attempt to work from there. To be sure, Pelle the Conqueror contains many ideas, with plenty of subplots and twists along the way. I realize, however, that I cannot remember most of what happens in the film, because it is not a film about what is happening. It is a film about how the characters react to their events, and thus, it is the performances that stand out the strongest. Most movies have characters that are created around their stories. Pelle the Conqueror has a story that exists to strengthen its characters.

And what characters they are! No single performance in this film fails to find its correct note. Every actor seems keenly aware of who they are playing and where their characters are going. Perhaps the greatest compliment I can give the actors is that as I watched Pelle, not one performance stood out. This is because they were so flawless that they didn’t seem like real performances at all, but real, living people, struggling to survive in a stale, often bitter environment.

Well, maybe that isn't true. One performance does stand out about the rest; Max von Sydow as Lasse Karlsson, the father of the title character, has never been better than he is here, and this statement is coming from someone who ranks von Sydow among Laurence Olivier and Charles Laughton as the greatest actors of all time. Von Sydow does not so much perform but allows his character to flow out of every gesture, every blink, every breath. Consider the scene in which he shares a bowl of Swedish strawberries with his son, Pelle (Pelle Hvenegaard). As they eat, Pelle expresses his dreams to flee to America. Now, Lasse is a widower from Sweden who has migrated with Pelle to Denmark in a final desperate attempt to escape poverty and starvation. In this new land, Lasse has accepted the menial job of milking and caring for cows. Their owners treat the cows better than they do Lasse and Pelle: The father and son live in a small, drafty stable room and are helpless to the authority of their providers. Still, Lasse is an old, feeble man, and he is doing the best he can for his son. As Pelle expresses his desire for America, however, the look of disappointment in Lasse's face is clear--Pelle has dreams and hopes that Lasse as a father cannot offer him. At this moment, Lasse realizes that he is losing his son. Also at this moment, we as the audience see no trace of von Sydow; only this helpless, unhappy old man whose only hope in life is Pelle's success. There is more emotion in von Sydow's acting in this one scene than whole movies containing syrupy, "tender moments" that Hollywood prefers to recycle film after film. Von Sydow was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in Pelle, but he lost to Dustin Hoffman, for Rain Man. The Academy ought to read my previous two sentences about a thousand times and take notes.

Looking back, Pelle the Conqueror has a plotline that doesn't really amount to much. As Lasse, Pelle, and the dozens of other workers continue to be mistreated by both their supervisors and terrible weather, just about every moment in the story can easily be predicted, cobbled together from bits and pieces of well-established movie clichés. Pelle is, of course, an outcast who gets picked on at school by bullies who seem to possess no other motivation except realizing that they are bullies in a movie. Lasse at last nearly escapes from his dead-end cow milking duties for a better life for himself and his son, but the devastating results of this escape are completely predictable, as are the outcomes of subplots involving a rebellious worker and the star-crossed lovers.

Still, the script for all of its conventions is completely forgivable because this is not a movie about its story. Pelle the Conqueror is a film in which we allow ourselves to be enchanted by flawless performers and the personalities that they create. When I am watching a movie with characters as well drawn and the acting as rich as they are in Pelle, I couldn't care less about the story, as long as it is within reason and supports its characters well, and it does here. The plot is second to the performers that the movie assembles, and a cast has seldom been better than the one in Pelle.

Cast:
Lasse Karllson: Max von Sydow
Pelle Karllson: Pelle Hvengaard
Rud: Troels Asmussen
Farm Foreman: Erik Paaske
Erik: Bjørn Granath

Miramax Films presents a Per Holst Production. Written and directed by Billie August. Based on the novel by Martin Nexo. 150 minutes. Rated PG-13 for brief sexuality/nudity, violence, and tense situations. Dutch and Swedish, with English subtitles. Original United States theatrical release: December 21, 1988.