It is not often that I am stumped for words when reviewing a film, but when dealing with the magnificent photography and masterful imagery of Arne Sucksdorff's 1953 nature film The Great Adventure, words fail me and all that is left is experience, untranslatable into words. Part nature documentary and part fictional coming-of-age story, Sucksdorff spent two years filming in the Swedish countryside and another two years in editing. The end result is a glimpse of nature-in-the-raw, eons removed from the Discovery Channel or the anthropomorphic films of Walt Disney.
Depicting four seasons of life in the woods and surrounding farms, we follow a family of foxes, otters, lynx and other animals, engaged in the struggle to survive against the laws of natural selection, and the perpetrations of human beings. Supplementing the film's hymn to nature is the touching story of two young brothers, Anders (Anders Nohrborg) and Kjell (Kjell Sucksdorff), who rescue a trapped otter and, unknown to their parents, hide it in the basement of their home, feeding it by fishing in the nearby frozen lake.
The Great Adventure, a prize winner at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival, has been one of my top ten favorite films ever since I saw it as a child. Unfortunately, it is only available on a Swedish (Region 2) DVD but it is fifteen minutes longer and of far better quality than the long unavailable U.S. VHS version.
Depicting four seasons of life in the woods and surrounding farms, we follow a family of foxes, otters, lynx and other animals, engaged in the struggle to survive against the laws of natural selection, and the perpetrations of human beings. Supplementing the film's hymn to nature is the touching story of two young brothers, Anders (Anders Nohrborg) and Kjell (Kjell Sucksdorff), who rescue a trapped otter and, unknown to their parents, hide it in the basement of their home, feeding it by fishing in the nearby frozen lake.
The Great Adventure, a prize winner at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival, has been one of my top ten favorite films ever since I saw it as a child. Unfortunately, it is only available on a Swedish (Region 2) DVD but it is fifteen minutes longer and of far better quality than the long unavailable U.S. VHS version.