Snapphanar
Snapphanar
| 25 December 2006 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
  • 1
  • Reviews
    mis-5

    Why? Well, where do we start? - The people known as "snapphanar" called themselves "Friskyttar", meaning Free Shooters - snapphane was the degrading expression used by The Swedish.The Costune designer should be put in jail, or at least in historical style education, for using typical 18th century clothing, which is a mistake often seen by role playing amateurs with no money and little knowledge of history, but this was supposed to be SVT's huge expensive great big mega Xmas project...? Hello??!The script is a disaster, the plot is ridiculously easily foreseen and the dialog is embarrassingly bad.There are so many historical errors and anachronisms that lining them all up here would probably crash the IMDb's disc space. artistically I 'm OK with anachronism, but the production team should always be aware of what they do and why. Seems like Snapphanar was made by a bunch of teenagers whose sole historical knowledge comes from many a late night playing dungeons and dragons... which is a wonderful way of starting an interest in history but it just won't do as full education.Dramatically there are also a lot of errors in continuity as well as in credibility. Example: The soldiers guarding the coach with the royal treasure chest seem to be totally unaware of the noise and flickering fire lights coming from the village where the rebels have started a riot. And Svart-Stina, what can you say...? Her outfit on the royal ball is not exactly what one would call discreet. *sigh*Snapphanar is of course to be regarded as a fantasy, a fictitious tale woven and embroidered upon the cloth of authentic history. But it has been done by people lacking too much knowledge. A non-Swede would probably not notice, but the use of Scanian accent in this project is unfortunately, and as many times before, a total disgrace to its audiences. The only actors who actually knows how to speak Scanian - Harald Leander, Per Lasson, to mention some - use accents from a totally different area, but at least they know how to speak it and unlike Jörgen Persson they also know acting. The leading actors, however, André Sjöberg and Malin Morgan (former Larsson), well educated and all, doesn't seem to have had very much time to learn their character's way of talking, there are loads of mal-functious pronunciations that really hurt the ear and is very hard to understand also for a Scanian. Those Scanians living in the Göinge area must feel totally lost and quite embarrassed - I don't think they recognize much. For once it's easy to understand those otherwise pompous Stockholmers who claim that they possibly just cannot understand Scanian Sw3edish. I think not even Scanians understand the gibberish urging from the mouths of Svart-Stina and Nils Getting. Sad.According to SVT ( Swedish Television)'s homepage the shooting of the entire miniseries took 47 days. That's quite fast for such a prestigious project. Especially considering the fact that the directors have worked 2 and a half years on creating the series. Seems like 90% of the time and financial resources have been spent on special effects. They're quite nice. But nothing that we haven't already seen in films like LOTR, Gladiator, Braveheart a.s.o.The same thing could be said about the music that, stuffed like a plum pudding with movie score clichés and with some small exceptions sounds like a total ripoff from anything produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Very Where Eagles Dare, very U.S. Marine Corps, very Hollywood, very full of sound and fury signifying nothing.Pity.

    ... View More
    Sandra Nilsson

    Historically wrong, but the plot is great. Even if the historical facts are wrong the movie is quite good. The movie tells the story of Snapphanarna in Skåne (the southest "state" of Sweden") and the war between Sweden and Denmark during the 17 th century when Skåne became a part of Sweden instead of Denmark. Snapphanarna was a "movement" amongst the citizens of Skåne that were against the swedes overtaking their land and on occasion forcing them to swear their oath to the Swedish king instead of the danish. Party brutal scenes, but probably not the way things happened back during the 17 th century.The word Snapphane was an insult word, snappa in English snatch, and was used as a word of abuse. There were different categories of Snapphanar, normally we count three different, highwaymen, free shooters working for the danish army and many of these were thieves and robbers.

    ... View More
    Fredrik Westlund

    This is one of the best Swedish Movies i ever seen. If you like Vikings/crossbows and swords see it! Denmark attacks scone, no mans land. Sweden defends their self and attacks the Danish troops, they doesn't want Denmark in scone. They might want more land then that. Swedish troops from middle of Sweden, Stockholm does not like people living in scone (skåningar) and they burn and kill those who refuse to fight against Denmark.Rebel groups called "Snapphanar" is growing up to take the fight against the Swedish troops that is burning their villages and killing their wife's and children.I live in Sweden, and i love Sweden. I have never liked Skane, but Swedes was pigs in this movie and i my hate against them growth stronger and stronger during the film. Go Snapphanar, go go go!

    ... View More
    Lars Larsson

    "Bergman is dead, long live the movies!" is the best way I can describe this mini seen at the special premiere opening.Finally Swedish movie makers dare to mix a historic event with fiction and make something more fun, beautiful and exciting than just a Bergman drama or a reality show. But of course, when Måns and Björn do something it's done for the public and not just the critics.What really strikes me is the characters, they are so vivid! Excellent acting makes the story feel true. They seem to be living at that time and place and really bring you in to their world. I can't think of one single actor that could be replaced, they all do it so well.A special note on the music (no pun intended), it's by far the best score in a Swedish movie yet. Buy the DVD if you have surround sound in your home, it will be worth it.I think this mini set a new standard for film making in Sweden, showing that it is possible to make beautiful movies in Europe. And we want more.

    ... View More