203 - Ordet, 1955, Denmark. Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer.

Saturday, July 22, 2017

203 - Ordet, 1955, Denmark.  Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer.

If someone you loved were to die, would you have faith to believe God to raise her from the dead?

If you have faith, you shall see the glory of God.

So says one of the family members.  Let us see which one.

Morten, the patriarch, has faith.  But he is not sure he has that much faith.  Or that kind of faith.  He just wants to live a good life on the farm and raise his children and grandchildren.

Mikkel, his eldest son, does not have faith.  And he says so.

Mikkel is married to Inger, who lives with the family.  Morten is a widower, so Inger is the woman of the house.  She and Mikkel have two children and are pregnant with their third.

Inger has great faith.  In fact, she might be the one who could believe God to raise a loved one from the dead.

The only problem is that she is the one who dies.

Johannes, the middle son, has faith.  But his faith is a little off.  It is so off that he has started to believe that he is Jesus Christ himself.

Perhaps that is not exactly what Jesus meant in John 11:40 when he said, "If you should believe, you will see the glory of God."  Which Johannes quotes when he poses the question that we have here on the table.

Jesus actually poses the quotation as a question.  Just before saying, "Lazarus, come forth."  At least Johannes understands the context of the quotation.  And he is all in.

He walks the farm preaching, and in fact begins with beautiful passages of scripture.  Until he begins to deviate into nonsense.  Or at least, what the rest of us think is nonsense.  Because he is mad and we are sane.

Johannes has been studying Soren Kierkegaard a little too long.  It has made him mad.

Kierkegaard is Denmark's greatest philosopher and the father of Existentialism.  Yet Dreyer has Kierkegaard's student go mad!  Or maybe Kaj Munk did, who wrote the play on which this film was based.

I read Either/Or twice when I was in grad school.  I hope I am okay.

But enough about Kierkegaard.  Let us continue.

Anders is the youngest son.  He does not really come into the discussion of having faith.  He has love. Love for Anne.  He loves Anne, and he wants to marry her.

But his father says No to him.  Absolutely not.  You need to wait for the right woman to come along.

Until Anne's father, Peter Petersen the Tailor also says No to him.  Then Morten changes his tune. What!  My son is not good enough for your daughter?  How dare you make such a claim!  My son can marry your daughter if he wants to, and you may not ever say otherwise.

Morten is partially incensed because Peter the Tailor wants to convert him--from Morten's branch of Christianity, which is joyful and life-affirming--to Peter's branch of Christianity, which Morten sees as dour and life-negating.

Regardless of all that, this film is extraordinary.  It has nothing to do with Bonanza, but because it features a widower and his three adult sons, it is fun to compare it.

It is about the details of ordinary life.  With each character fully drawn.

We are back inside the house, like in Master of the House.  And we are watching a family live.

And Dreyer is not afraid to show everything.  The details.  The beliefs.  The faults.  The struggles. The failures.

Or to place The Word (the meaning of Ordet) in the mouth of the madman.

Who reasons, "Is it crazy to wish for life?"

They cannot deny him.  So they let him speak.  And he speaks.

In the name of Jesus Christ I bid thee arise.

To which we find out what follows.