Poverty, loss, revenge, and man's inhumanity to man are the themes that propel director Victor Sjostrom's film TERJE VIGEN (1917) (listed here under its English title A MAN THERE WAS). Sjostrom portrays the title character in this adaptation of a poem by noted author Henrik Ibsen. Terje is a sailor who supports his small family in Norway. A blockade by the English navy causes Terje to undertake a dangerous voyage to get supplies for his family, but he is caught and imprisoned. When he learns of his family's death from starvation, he becomes a broken man. One day he comes unexpectedly face to face with the captain responsible for his imprisonment, as he and his family are caught in a violent storm. What choice will Terje Vigen make?The story is told in approximately one hour. Modern filmmakers could learn much from the economy and concision of these early features. The narrative is straightforward, simple and unadorned, with no padding or extraneous subplots, and the story is told most effectively. It uses title cards sparingly, and in a very interesting fashion. Lines from the original poem are displayed on the screen, then the action described in the lines takes place, and the viewer is able to follow from there. The actors do fine work in this film. Sjostrom proves to be a fine actor in the lead role, imbuing his character with dignity, sorrow, tenderness, anger, and many other emotions. The supporting cast is also effective, particularly Bergliot Husberg as Mrs. Vigen. The actors show restraint and naturalism in their parts, largely avoiding the tendency towards big melodramatic gestures that marked contemporary theatrical productions. Equally notable is the cinematography, which depicts both the beauty and the dangerous ferocity of the sea, as well as the starkness of the island landscapes. Sjostrom made very effective use of the Norwegian scenery, causing nature to become a character in its own right in the film. Tinting adds to the moody atmosphere. The camera is mostly stationary, according to the custom of the time, but the shots are very well composed, like paintings. In addition, the film is well edited, not allowing shots to go on longer than necessary. This film was definitely very moving and memorable. TERJE VIGEN is a compelling and concise tale of the effects of man's inhumanity to man, and of the dilemmas that individuals face when tempted to cast compassion aside. It is rendered effectively through succinct scripting, heartfelt and naturalistic acting, and artfully composed cinematography. It is definitely a masterpiece of silent cinema. SCORE: 10/10

bizarre, lyrical intertitle cards--perhaps in original language it was This silent film might take a bit of getting used to as you watch it. That's because the intertitle cards are written in a very odd and lyrical manner--one that makes reading them a bit difficult at first. It's as if some poet decided to write them. Now I have no idea how close these are to the original cards, as the current copy we have of the film was made from a German print. Were the original cards written like this? And how much was lost in translating it to German and then English?Victor Sjöström starred in and directed this film. Few Americans today would recognize him or his name but some might remember his as the aging professor in Bergman's "Wild Strawberries". However, in the silent days he was a HUGE star--directing and starring in lots and lots of films. A few of them still exist today and the ones I have seen are very well made.This is the story of Terje and it begins around 1810. Sweden and Britain are at war and the British fleet is blockading the coastline. As a result, the common folk are hungry and Terje goes to sea to smuggle in food. However, it's risky business and he's eventually captured. The British Captain is a tough man and has no pity--sending Terje to prison for five years. When he is released and returns home, he learns that his beloved wife and child have died and Terje spends years pining for them. Then, out of the blue, he is handed an opportunity to exact revenge upon the Captain. What's Terje to do? Well, see the film for yourself!All in all, apart from a ridiculously improbable scenario at the end, the film was exceptionally well made and compelling. A very good early silent film and one that fans of the genre should see.

"Terje Vigen" is one of the best films of the 1910s. It's extraordinarily well crafted for 1917, with some brisk, modern editing (e.g. the capture scene) and, especially, outstanding photography throughout. In this respect, the only slight criticism I could give the film is that it's rather short, at about 53 minutes on the Kino DVD; regardless, the pacing is good. The intertitles from Ibsen, despite whatever is lost in translation, I think also add to the film's rhythm and mood.Most of the drama takes place outside, at sea, which avoids some of the dimensional and framing awkwardness, or theatricality, of shooting indoors that so afflicted early filmmakers. Much of it also occurs at night, and the reconstructed blue tinting is very good. Moreover, director Victor Sjöström and cinematographer Julius Jaenzon's photography is not only naturalistic; they make nature into the defining presence of the picture. They do so quite economically, too. Reportedly, the location was less than ideal--settling for the closer and calmer shoreline of Stockholm rather than the real Norwegian island and including in the story a man-o'-war and village, both of which they show very little of. Yet, they didn't need them.Sjöström seems to have been one of the first to make nature a central character in his films in a significant way and returned to the conflict between man and nature in such films as "The Outlaw and His Wife" (1918) and "The Wind" (1928). In "Terje Vigen", it's not only the warship or its commander that challenges and affords him, or provides the plot, but also the stormy waters, the foliage that disguises him and his boat as part of the natural environment, the isolation of the island, the entrapment of the sea. Nature as a catalyst and reflection of the plot and character development become most evident in the film's climax.To top it off, Sjöström plays the lead, Terje Vigen, in a restrained and convincing performance, especially in his transformation from robust youth to embittered and isolated old man. There's no wonder upon seeing these early performances in his own films that later he would so easily fall back upon acting after his directorial career ended. By 1917, however, Yevgeni Bauer and D.W. Griffith were the only two directors to my knowledge to display such mastery, although for very different uses, of the art form.

'Terje Vigen' is probably the purest example in Sjostrom's work of the conflict between the natural world and civilisation. It is this theme, his facility with action narratives, and his privileging of monumental landscapes that bring him closer to the American Western than his most famous compatriot and pupil, Ingmar Bergman.'Terje' is based on an epic poem by Ibsen, a writer most famous for his plays. The plot is simple enough - Terje Vigen is a salty old sea-dog in the early 19th century, tired of a hard, marine life, who settles down to blissful domesticity with his weaving wife and young child. After five years, however, the Napoleonic Wars break out, and the resulting blockade by the English forces the small community into starvation. Vigen decides to row to a village across the sea to smuggle food for his family; evading the English naval lookout on his way out, he is captured on his return, and thrown into jail for five years. Returning a forgotten man, he finds his house occupied by strangers and his family long dead. He becomes a broken, reclusive lighthouseman; one stormy night, he rescues his captor with his family. Will Vigen get his bitter revenge?'Terje' features sequences still unequalled in sea dramas - Vigen's clambering onto the huge yardarm to unfurl the sail; the entire smuggling sequence, from the silvery ripples of the water as Vigen rows away from his wife, radiating away from her towards his doom, to his first evasion from the navy, hiding in an improvised hole, to the terrifying hunt, a brilliantly edited suspense sequence, with one man, old Vigen, chased by a crew of young professionals, to the messy, tortuous climax, Vigen struggling and diving, being shot at by frankly inept sailors.These action scenes, in which the natural world is an impassively fierce presence, are contrasted with the domestic - the scenes where he greets his wife and first meets his new child and plays with it are as touching and believable images of family life as anything in cinema ('Thomas Graal's first child' confirms Sjostrom's rare facility with children), while the communal scenes of near-famine are harrowing.But there is no easy split between nature and civilisation - Vigen's house is ominously framed by the vast sea, while his adventures on the waves are provoked by domestic needs. Neither is there a simplistic dichotomy between the 'truth' and 'honesty' of nature, and the hypocrisy of society. The latter might cause the murderous war and Vigen's imprisonment, but it also tempers Vigen's warped nature in the aftermath of his loss, where the sight of a family checks his destructive urges. The film closes with an astonishing image, a lingering shot of his family's grave overlooking the sea at sunset. It has an immense, metaphysical, enigmatic, uncanny impact, somewhat frightening in its restfulness, that is closer to Bergman (the sing-song, ye-olde-Englishe translation of Ibsen's verse in the intertitles are unintentionally, distractingly comic)