Looks like an impeccably staged epic, yet colder and more sterile than the tundra. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jun 13, 2022

There's a seemingly endless number of characters to explore here, but Pelle the Conqueror always brings us back to the father-son dynamic that is a constant source of both compassion and heartfelt disappointment.

| May 6, 2020

As Lasse, Max von Sydow brings his supremely accomplished acting to the role.

| Aug 29, 2017

Director Bille August and ace Scandinavian cameraman Per Holst make the film a visual treat.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 27, 2017

Pelle itself, rather surprisingly, is a natural, organic epic, and one that opens a window on a meticulously detailed bygone world that, by film's end, you might feel as though you've visited.

| Feb 27, 2017

The film is a towering achievement, grueling in its portrayal of a harsh existence yet ultimately an exhilarating experience unlikely to be forgotten.

| Feb 27, 2017

Director Bille August's adaptation of the first part of Nobel Prize winner Martin Andersen Nexo's four-volume novel is genuine life-affirming drama.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 27, 2017

The movie -- ravishingly photographed by Jorgen (Elvira Madigan) Persson -- dazzles with incident but fails to find the human focus to validate a lasting claim on the heart.

| Feb 27, 2017

Without Max Von Sydow's central performance this would be a commendable, if not particularly subtle piece of filmmaking. With it, it's something very special.

| Feb 27, 2017

Beneath the transparent, by-the-numbers schema there are potent elements at play in this work, but unfortunately they go unexplored.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Feb 27, 2017

The chilly, oppressive Danish film Pelle the Conqueror has only one artistic aim: to wrench as much pity as possible from its audience.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 27, 2017

Written and directed by Bille August, Pelle the Conqueror is peopled with the sort of vivid minor characters that lodge in your consciousness.

| Feb 27, 2017

This is an often brutal tale which is boosted by a powerful performance from Von Sydow.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 27, 2017

Pelle the Conqueror is a feature film of epic proportions and a relentlessly unsentimental look at life among the haves and, primarily, the have-nots on a big turn-of-the-century farm.

| Mar 26, 2009

Von Sydow towers above the rest of the cast with an immensely moving, tender depiction of a man cowed by age and servitude.

| Jun 24, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 10, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 19, 2005

Von Sydow was better in Strange Brew, but still rather sweet.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 1, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 19, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 30, 2004