The Emigrants (1971)

The critic praises the film as a masterpiece that honestly depicts European peasants' desperate emigration to America in search of better lives, highlighting its emotional depth, historical authenticity, and strong performances by Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann.

The critic finds the films a touching study of the symbiosis between Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann and Troell's defining accomplishment. He singles out the intimate, handheld camerawork capturing the hellish Atlantic crossing and the gradual erosion of religious certainty among the emigrants.

The critic views the two films as best experienced together as one satisfying epic and finds the sequel stronger. He singles out the powerful, largely dialogue-free sequence in the second film showing Robert's failed gold-rush journey, cut against his illness in Sweden.

The critic describes the film as a broad-backed nature epic that directly confronts the grim realities of mid-19th-century Swedish emigration and the brutal voyage, praising its earth spirit and resonance despite initial alienation from the stolid characters.

The first half of a two-film adaptation of Vilhelm Moberg's novels, it offers an austere, long, and picturesque recreation of Swedish farmers' hardships in the 1850s as they seek a better life in America. It is very slow but subtly acted and ultimately moving, with Troell's multifaceted role underscoring themes of human courage and dignity.

The critic finds the film a stately, pictorially romantic chronicle of Swedish peasants' emigration driven by hardship, impressive in conception and location shooting but with reservations about its episodic form, lack of emotional impact, and overly simple characters.

The critic calls Jan Troell's epic two-part drama the best expression of the 19th-century immigrant experience, praising the magnificent lead performances by Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann and the director's slow, immersive long takes and Malick-like attention to the natural world.