Ordet (1955)

not as good as all the hype

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

If other atheists than myself react to this movie as I did, they will find its story of academic interest in the everlasting quest to understand the role that religion plays in human behavior, but they will have a hard time identifying with the motivations for the behaviors of many of the characters. The story concentrates on a Danish farming family in 1925. The main characters are: the father Henrik, a member of a liberal Christian sect; Mikkel, a son who has lost his faith; Inger, Mikkel's wife; Johannes, a son who believes himself to be Jesus Christ; and Anders, a third son. Also, there is Peter, a tailor who is a member of a conservative Christian sect. The characters we get to know well are Henrik and Mikkel. The only notable thing revealed about Anders is that he has fallen in love with Peter's daughter Anne, precipitating a proxy religious war between the two Christian factions. Johannes emerges from time to time spouting quotes from the Bible and other moral admonitions--that is all we know about him, and all we need to know, outside of his having been driven to his madness by studying Kierkegaard. As far as I am concerned the movie could have done with a lot less of Johannes. One takeaway for me was to witness yet once again the power of religion to cause much grief. If religion were removed from the equation here, then I think all of these people would have been much happier.The movie is clearly based on a stage play and it has not been opened up much to make it more than the filming of a play.Given the language barrier for me and the fact that I could not identify with most of the characters, I did not find the acting to rise above average. The women are not given much to go on. Mikkel's wife presents a pleasant, beatific presence and Anders' girlfriend is treated by Peter like property.The birth scene I found excruciatingly painful. Not much was actually shown, but the offstage sound effects and final outcome were horrific.Movies like this leave me in a quandary. I can recognize the quality of the production, but the main message (the value of pure faith to accomplish miracles) is something that I reject. Could any homophobe ever be enthusiastic about "Brokeback Mountain?"I would be less critical of this movie if it had ended with Anne's becoming part of Henrik's family. Instead the movie presses on to a resurrection scene that I found to offer an unsatisfying and quite unbelievable resolution.

From director Carl Theodor Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr), this Danish film featured in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book, and besides knowing the director that was good enough reason for me to see it. Basically this film is a good representation of questions we ask about faith, such as what we believe, whether or not to believe, the reasons and needs for prayers, and our ideas of what miracles are. It is August 1925 in Denmark, where on a farm Patriarch Morten Borgen (Henrik Malberg) has three sons in different situations, good-hearted agnostic Mikkel (Emil Hass Christensen) whose wife Inger, Mikkel's Wife (Birgitte Federspiel) is pregnant, Johannes (Preben Lerdorff Rye) who is crazy or having a breakdown where he believes he is Jesus Christ, and young Anders (Cay Kristiansen) who is in love with and wants to marry Kirstin (Sylvia Eckhausen), the daughter of tailor Peter Petersen (Ejner Federspiel). Petersen objects to the idea of his daughter marrying a man who believes in Lutheranism, i.e. the freedom of black people as protested by Martin Luther King, but Borgen is demanding it because of his pride taking over. Inger has problems during the pregnancy, and a Doctor (Henry Skjær) is brought in to help her and ease the pain, and the night sees all four different views of faith come in to play, including Johannes who claims, as Jesus, that he can heal her, or that when she dies she will resurrect, like the true Holy son did. Of course tragedy does strike when Inger does indeed die from the pain during the labour, and there is a funeral with an open coffin, and it is there that Johannes does ask God to raise her from the dead, and the miracle does occur, with Morten and Petersen rejoicing that she alive, Mikkel regaining his faith and understanding the stillborn son is with the Lord. Also starring Ann Elisabeth Groth as Maren Borgen - Mikkel's Daughter and Susanne Rud as Lilleinger Borgen - Mikkel's Daughter. The acting by many of the players is very good, I personally and particularly liked Lerdorff Rye as the son believing he is Jesus, the story has some very interesting scenes questioning sanity, and it really establishes that religion plays a big part of lives in the world for all sorts of reasons, it is a terrific religious drama. It won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. Very good!

This is a good movie to watch yet not considerably one of the best, among masterpieces, it lacks some dramatic tension but is certainly one of the best movies about faith.Actually this movie shakes once more the old way of living like a believer but not totally believing, like a "half believer". Talk to a normal guy nowadays about the action of this movie and he'll laugh, talk to someone about miracles and will mock you. That's why this movie is so great because it brings right in front of you one of the most difficult topics in a Christian's faith: miracles. And most of us like to mention only as existed once a man who did miracles, to consider the power of faith as being in the past and kept within the time of biblical story, not as a truly, really fact that still exists. This movie is about discovering the true faith and living by faith.

Look I don't know how much the average person can watch this. They are bound to sleep through it as the apostles did as they waited for Christ to finish praying in the olive garden. Personally I watched it twice so far and am bound to watch it again. Every crook and cranny of this film is well studied. For me this is up there with Kubrick's 2001, believe it or not. To the average person it can tend to look boring lest one know how to read between the lines, and yet its so simple and beautiful, I've witnessed the ultimate skeptics(regarding God and religion) get engulfed in this film and enjoy it. I don't need to start bragging on about this film and mention every detail you can find in other very good critiques when you search about this film online, its the ultimate to me and definitely files in my Top 10. I seriously recommend this film to those truly searching meaning in life. This beats any trip to India at the end of the day, if only you had the patience to watch it through. Not only that you are going to need a spiritual microscope. Yes believe the truth can be told, for it to be understood it must be believed.