Summary
Morten Borgen has three sons. One is an atheist, another is insane, thinking himself to be Jesus, and the youngest wishes to marry the daughter of a fundamentalist. When The eldest sons wife, falls ill and her pregnancy turns dangerous, family ties and faith will be tested.
Release the Hounds
When I sat down for “Ordet” I was super excited mostly because of the way that I ‘discovered’ it.
One of the most exciting thing about being a cinephile, for me anyway, is the hunt. There is a special sort of thrill when you do your research and discover a film that your close friends haven’t seen yet and you get to bring it to them or when you find a film that scratches an itch that only you, amongst your friends, seem to have.
When I saw “First Reformed” earlier this year, I fell in love with it and with one of Paul Schrader’s other great works, “Mishima.” I had to read more about this guy, especially when I discovered he was from my home town.
Then I got to hear an interview with him where he talked about his influences and he mentioned a couple films, including “Ordet.” He even wrote a book on the style of film making employed in it and in “First Reformed.”
I was eager like a kid waiting to be released for summer holiday when I clicked the play button on FilmStruck last week.
The Feast
The film begins as a slow unfolding of the characters and what they believe about the brother Johannes, who has gone insane with theological study and now thinks himself to be Jesus Christ. He wanders the hills spouting scripture and warning people to repent. It is all very embarrassing and sad for his brother Mikkel, an Athiest, and his father Morten, a Christian who wants to take care of his mentally unstable son.
Mikkel’s wife, Inger, who is a little more open minded than he, is pregnant with a second child. Anders, the youngest son has become smitten with a young girl who is the son of the Tailor in town. He is rightly worried father will not approve and enlists Inger's aid to convince him that it would be a good match.
Inger talks with Morten about the match and is dismayed to learn that there is no budging the set in his ways old man. He doesn’t want Anders marrying into the family of some dour sad fundamentalist Christian family.
Unbeknownst to him, Anders is asking for permission to marry the girl even as they speak. However, the tailor doesn’t think the Borgens take their faith seriously enough so he forbids a marriage.
Of course Morten won’t take this affront sitting down and when his daughter in law falls ill due to a complicated pregnancy it seems his faith is to be tested on almost every front.
Dessert
On top of a wonderfully told story, the film is cinematically beautiful. The staging of actors and movement of camera are used to great effect in a minimalist style. Rather than taking away the focus of the film to dazzle the audience with a camera trick that makes you stop paying attention to the actors, Dyer uses the camera to bring focus to the words they are saying and the emotion the characters are feeling.
A beautiful shot or complicated move are simply not as impressive when I feel like that is what I am primarily paying attention to than a film, after which viewing, I am astonished to think back and realize that the camera didn’t stand out all in the way that is common in TV and Movies today.
Digestion
“Ordet” immediately jumped onto my top 100 films list. Why? Mainly it is because of the way faith and spirituality are portrayed.
With many popular films about faith, they seem to be made simply to be a sort of fast food snack for the Christian. Something to turn on, be entertained by, then forgotten about quickly. As such, the characters are shallow and don’t struggle with much. Conversations about God feel like they come scripted from Zondervan Publishing and the resolution of the film is usually so neatly tied up that it would only be slightly more ridiculous if they ended with “And They Lived Happily Ever After.”
With “Ordet,” even though events are resolved, it is not neat. No one viewpoint wins the day. The Christians in the movie can look at events and say, ‘Our God is great and answers prayers,” while the atheist character doesn’t feel in the slightest that his viewpoint has been challenged.
The portrayal of these characters is equally nuanced. The atheist, Mikkel, is far from the mean spirited straw man of “God’s Not Dead.” He is actually one of the kinder characters of the film while Morten is perhaps more the way many of us Christians actually are. Claiming God but also struggling to really believe in a world beset by unanswered prayers and hardships.
Watching the film I found myself asking questions of my own faith and not having easy answers. I wondered if my atheist friends would like the film as much as I did. Indeed, I was happy to find reviews from avowed atheists who said despite the heavily Christian subject matter, they enjoyed the film.
Satisfaction
As is usual, I tip my hand early as to how much I adored this film. I simply cannot describe it without gushing over the many moments I found worthy of praise and I am already anxiously awaiting my next viewing.
I wish it was easier for me to find people who would take my recommendation but this is truly a film for the Christian first and the Cinephile next.
But for the Christian Cinephile, it is transcendent. I dare say for the serious practitioner of faith and the student of film, “Ordet,” is a blind buy.
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