新大陆

自从人类产生，便一直在移民和殖民，但是，北美大陆的移民具有划时代的意义，它既是移民，更主要的是开拓蛮荒的殖民，第一代移民筚路蓝缕终老在新开拓的土地上，却是一天都没有享到收获的福利，支持他们的唯有“我们的后代将不会对出生在这里感到失望”，—— 这是电影里令人动容的一句台词，为殖民者赋予了神圣的光辉。尽管，当时这些文盲也许仅仅朦胧意识到，他们连英语都说不好，准确的文字表达更加不可能。

随着人类掌握了越来越多的生产生活技术，可供人类开发的处女地却是越来越少，北美大陆就是这样一块地方。我们不要被北美开发之后的其他地区拓荒史迷惑，没有一个地方想北美移民一样是世界各地自由民自发形成的，后来的殖民多多少少被政府引导，获得了政府的资源，从一开始就是成熟地区向蛮荒地带的延伸，不可能产生脱胎换骨的新社会形态。同时，这代北美移民之后，新移民总是在城市登陆开始定居（最大的登陆点就是纽约），获得城市资源，即使是西部大开发也是带着城市资源伸出殖民的触角，新殖民地的生产技术、资源、社会管理方式都来源于已有的城市。澳洲、南非、中南美洲的殖民也与北美有本质的不同。

这部长达三个多小时的电影完整记录了一个家庭的到来和离世，用各种细微入至的小故事小片段把人生串联起来，告诉我们普通人的一生就那么平平淡淡，又最终拼凑出精彩。这个功力太出色了，我们绝大多数的人生就是这个样子，不是说普通人没有高光时刻，而是人生故事从来都不会是前后呼应，一条或几条主线串成因果关系的故事，基本是离散的无逻辑的。我觉得，需要刻意编排因果关系的叙述，后期加工的成分太大，它的人物形象一定是很多杰出人物的亮点汇聚而成，写这样的故事与前者相比容易多了。

电影里为了刻意表现普通人的平凡，居然忍痛将男主排斥到南北战争的漩涡外，等于是将随手可拾的故事宝盒弃之不用，担心传奇故事改变电影平淡人生的基调，然后依然讲情节驾驭得丝滑精彩，这又是一份令人惊叹的艺术功力。

说了这么多，不成章法，就是要表达对电影导演和编剧的敬意，居然电影可以这样拍，电影可以对人类历史做这样深刻的记录，太了不起了。

Swedish filmmaker Jan Troell’s categoricalpièces-de-résistance, a diptych, 7-hours long saga based on his fellow countryman, the literature titan Vilhelm Moberg’s THE EMIGRANTS ensemble.

Divided into THE EMIGRANTS and THE NEW LAND, this 19th-century epic holds a dear look at the travails of an ordinary Swedish household, the Nilsson family, resides in the Småland hinterland, when (mostly natural) adversity mounts against their livelihood, the eldest son Karl Oskar (von Sydow) mulls over the prospect of emigrating to the United States. A proposition deprecated by his wife Kristina (Ullmann) initially, but when poverty and hunger is aggravated by the premature death of one of their brood, she eventually accedes, joining their emigrating pack are Karl Oskar’syounger brother Robert (Axberg), his farmhand friend Arvid (Lindstedt), the family of Kristina’s uncle Pastor Daniel Andreasson (Edwall, a straight-up hard-hitter, brilliantly bringing about an air of smug virtuosity that treacherously verges on hubris), who is at loggerheads with the supercilious local parish clergy for preaching to the fallen ones (viz. those who are deemed not worthy of Christian gospel), among whom a former prostitute Ulrika (jazz chanteuseMonica Zetterlund), now a reborn woman, also partakes in the trek with her teenage daughter Elin (played by Monica's own daughter Eva-Lena Zetterlund).

THE EMIGRANTS itself can be bisected into two halves, before and after the family’s embarkment for the state of Freedom, during the former, Troell introduces the hardship and inequity (religious parochialism and mistreatment) with a pastoral equanimity (occasionally lard with invigorating drumbeats) and purveys his main characters with sufficient impetus for their longing for a reset button in an idealized country where everyone is (purportedly) being treated equally and fairly, especially for the young Robert, it is the California gold rush beckons him, and supports him against the cavalier abuse he receives on a daily base when working as a farmhand.

Once their journey kick-starts, a looming nostalgia begins to sweep the cohort, Troell (who is also presiding over the cinematography department) fixes the valediction shot with a subdued solemnity, no goodbyes, tear-infused eyes, lingering looks are deployed, just a long-shot of the elderly parents seeing their children off in front of their house, incorporating the place into their final adieu, and the impact is ineffable.

Tellingly, THE EMIGRANTS' most accomplished passage is theten-weeks trans-Atlantic voyageon a wooden brig, and Troell valiantly re-enacts its sordid state of affairs with swingeing maritime verisimilitude when most passengers are fallen victims of sea-sick, life is snuffed within a two-by-four space, by scurvy or even quinsy (a pertinent reference to today’s illegal immigrants’ ordeal on the sea). Here Liv Ullmann holds court in two magnificent scenes, one is Kristina'saltercation with Ulrika, both actress are emotively unsparing, and letting out their prejudice and retorts once for all, which also presciently serves as a catalyst for their eventually best-friends transition; the other is when Kristina, apparently in extremis, exchanges with Karl Oskar their fondness, as if for the last time, by confessing that they are each other’s best friends, a superlative affirmation that true love does exist thanks to the two players’ most poignant delivery.

Once the survivors touches the terra firma but incognita, they are still miles away from where they will start life anew, hopping on the train and later a steamer, than on foot, when they finally reach their destination in Minnesota, their first dream is dashed by a boastful liar who never expect his lie will be debunked in his face, and THE EMIGRANTS finishes when Karl Oskar finds their new land under their new identities, American homesteaders.

Right picking up where its predecessor leaves,THE NEW LAND takes place entirely in the new land, where the Swedish emigrants forming a somewhat enclave, mostly living among themselves, which brings about a problematic issue about the story’s sense of locality and Troell’s inaction of alleviate this anonymity, if it is not for the random appearances of the indigenous Indians, one can safely surmise that the household is still live in their homeland, with very similar sylvan exuberance and harsh winter-time, and not much foreignness to interact with, in a way, it takes the shine off one of the story’s focal points: displacement.

Yet, what THE NEW LAND excels in, is that oater flashback of Robert, who manages to stay alive just long enough after a futile gold-digging attempt with Arvid, a sounding slap in the face to the wide-eyed daydreamers, the pair is saddled with the same drudgery and hardship (not to mention Robert'spotluck is rooked by deception)that ultimate will cost them both their young lives, here Troell launches a more hallucinogenic experiment in accentuating the pair’s delirium and exhaustion when wandering in the desert, to admirable effect.Eddie Axberg has weathered convincingly in honing up Robert’s tale of woe, and his final resignation with fate effectually brings a lump in one’s throat.

Life goes on, as Karl Oskar’s household finally prospers, a God-fearing Kristina turns out to be benighted enough to risk her own life for the sake of procreation, indoctrinated as a wife’s sacrosanct duty, even after receiving the doctor’s warning that another pregnancy would become her undoing, together with a less disinterested depiction of a wanton slaughter during the Sioux Uprising, by suggestion that it is at the expense of those white homesteaders’ hospitality upon which the Indians conducts their retaliation, THE NEW LAND’s luster starts to ebb away, notwithstanding a show-stopping Max von Sydow consistently radiates with plebeian bonhomie, sympathy and mettle from stem to stern of the entire roman-fleuve.

referential film: Ingmar Bergman’s FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982, 8.5/10).