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Pelle the Conqueror is a Scandinavian drama which won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film and a Best Actor nomination for Max (The Exorcist) Von Sydow. Set at the end of the 19th century, it tells of a widowed Swedish farmer who goes looking for a better life in Denmark with his young son, Pelle (a fine Pelle Hvenegaard). Much like Life is Beautiful (1998) the heart of the film is the bond between father and son and their dreams for a better world. Although the photography brings an austere beauty to the bleak coastlands of Denmark, the story, a 150-minute intimate epic, is intense and harrowing; the antithesis of the feel-good father-son relationship of a movie like Billy Elliot.

On the DVD: Unfortunately, rather than the subtitles of the cinema release, this DVD is dubbed for the American market, which significantly diminishes the performances and undermines the emotional impact. This is particularly regrettable given that both subtitled and dubbed versions could exist on the same disc. The only feature is a Photo Library of full-frame screen-grabs. The stated ratio of 1:1.85 is incorrect, the film being cropped from the original cinema 1:1.66 to 4:3 TV ratio. The sound is unremarkable stereo. The picture, transferred from an already imperfect print, is crawling with grain and littered with compression artefacts, making it no better than many videos. Without even a booklet, this release does no justice to a landmark film. --Gary S. Dalkin

Release Date: Jan 28, 2002