Film Review: A Man There Was (Terje Vigen, 1917)

Second World War wasn’t the first time Norwegians suffered because of their country being involved in a global conflict. A similar event from more than a century earlier provided the backdrop for Terje Vigen (known under the English title A Man There Was), a 1917 silent period drama directed by Victor Sjöström, best known as the film that is considered the start of the first Golden Age of Swedish Cinema.

The film is based on the eponymous 1862 poem by Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen, inspired by real-life stories he had heard while living in the town of Grimstad. The plot begins with Terje Vigen (played by Sjöström) as an embittered old man living alone and earning his living as a maritime pilot. Through flashbacks, we see how he, as a young sailor living on an island, worked hard to provide for his wife and little daughter. In 1809, during the Napoleonic Wars, Norway, due to its personal union with pro-Napoleon Denmark, was blockaded by ships of the British Royal Navy. People were starving, and Terje, in a desperate bid to feed his family, took a small boat, slipped through the blockade, and bought food in Denmark. Upon his return, he was caught and saw how the British captain (played by August Falck) cruelly disregarded his calls for mercy, sinking his boat and cargo while Terje was put in prison. Five years later, the war ended with Norway being brought into a personal union with anti-Napoleonic Sweden, so Terje, like other Norwegian prisoners, was set free. Upon his return, he learned that both his wife and daughter had starved to death. Many years later, Terje was called to help pilot a yacht owned by a British aristocrat who, much to Terje’s surprise, happened to be the same Royal Navy captain responsible for his family’s death. Terje, who had aged beyond recognition, decided to use this opportunity and deliberately ran the yacht aground, later volunteering to paddle the captain to shore in a safety boat. But just as he was about to get his vengeance, the presence of the man’s wife and child made him reconsider.

A Man There Was was made during the First World War, in which Sweden, like Norway, remained neutral, but both countries were affected by the economic consequences of the British blockade of Germany and were fearful that they might be drawn into the conflict. All that made the subject of the film very relevant to the audience at the time. However, even without its historical context, A Man There Was represents a remarkable film from a strictly technical and artistic standpoint. Victor Sjöström, known as an experienced stage actor and prolific director of Swedish silent cinema, used Ibsen’s text as the basis for a simple, relatively short but effective film. Sjöström used islands near Stockholm for location shooting, and with a budget of 60,000 Swedish krona, his film became the most expensive Swedish film of that time. Although not exactly spectacular, Sjöström’s film is quite impressive, mainly due to the director using some innovative techniques and his energetic direction. This included Sjöström playing the same character as both a young and old man, the use of flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks, and action scenes that actually took place at sea, which brought all kinds of technical challenges for the still young film industry. Sjöström also deliberately decided to abandon traditional descriptive intertitles—tools used for narration purposes in the silent era. Instead, he relied solely on Ibsen’s verses that occasionally appeared to comment on the plot. The result is a good, innovative film that served as a solid basis for Sjöström and Swedish cinema to build new themes and techniques. Even audiences unfamiliar with Scandinavian history would recognise the universal themes of love, hate, vengeance, and forgiveness. In 1933, a sound remake, set in the Baltics during the First World War and starring Heinrich George, was released under the title The Lake Calls.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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