So this is by the same director as The Passion of Joan of Arc, and it’s also concerned with historical attitudes toward religion. In this case, though, it’s rather more modern, taking place in Jazz Age rural Denmark.[1] The film does a superb job enmeshing you in the quiet, slow rhythms and conflicts of this place, and it’s a surprisingly affecting picture of the ways in which religion shaped people’s lives.

Until the last ten minutes, when it all goes to shit.

So, the movie is focused on a family, each of whom has their own religious conflict.

THE DAD: Believes a faith different from the townspeople’s faith. (I think he’s more Lutheranish, and they’re more Calvinistish, but it’s vague, at least to me.) He’s been persecuted, living in this community, for many years, and there are long histories of conflict with his neighbors.

SON #1: Was studying theology, but had a breakdown, and now believes he’s literal Jesus, and wanders around giving soliloquies as the voice of God.

SON #2: Does not believe in god, though his wife does, and his father is all up in his grill about it.

SON #3: Is in love with a girl from the village whose dad is a leader in the other church, a real Montague/Capulet thing going on.

And so we follow them through the movie as they get in arguments, and faith divides them. And then son #2’s wife dies in childbirth, and it’s a huge moment of crisis for everyone — people have religious doubts of all sorts, the Jesus-son claims he can raise her from the dead, then collapses unconscious and then runs away, the people in the town say this happened because the dad held the wrong beliefs, &c.

And then we follow that to the funeral, and people have moments of grace and reconciliation: The townsdude apologizes to the dad and son #3 is allowed to marry his girl despite their disagreements, because in the face of death, everyone sees that maybe these religious disputes aren’t worth a hill of beans.

This sounds a little trite in summary, but it’s a well-made movie, and it works.

And then.

AND THEN.

Spoilers for the end of the movie

And then the Jesus-son comes back. He seems maybe sane at first, but he’s not. He’s still blathering on about how he can raise her from the dead, if only someone had true faith, and how it failed before because no-one there did. And a little girl comes up to him and is all “I BELIEVE IN YOU” and he’s all “BY THE POWER OF JESUS ARISE” and the woman who has been dead for at least a day COMES BACK TO LIFE. And the unbelieving son is like I BELIEVE IN JESUS NOW (I mean to be fair: so would I, in that situation), and the disputing old people are like WE ALL BELONG TO THIS CHURCH OF MIRACLES and it basically comes off like a Chick tract.

Allegedly, the director wasn’t even particularly religious and was not intending to make a proselytizing movie, but: well, he did. If they’re not showing this in evangelical church basements all over the country, it’s only because it’s probably too high-falutin’ for them to really embrace, but the basic structure would fit right in there.

Reshoot the last ten minutes so that the lady stays dead and the Jesus-son collapses into a puddle of self-doubt, newly aware of his own human frailty and failings, and this would get a thumbs up from me. Instead, not so much.

  1. That description sounds intrinsically ridiculous, because rural, near-medieval farming towns don’t really seem like they even partook in the Jazz Age, you know? Also, this movie was made in 1955, which you think of as comfortably modern, so it’s hard to believe that a community this old-timey (like, they wear those clown-style ruff collars at times!) could have been only thirty years in its past. ↩︎