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81 out of 114 people found the following comment useful :-
Reliable, intriguing medieval tale that unfortunately never peaks, 20 December 2007
6/10
Author: ozjeppe (ozjeppe@passagen.se) from Jakobsberg, Sweden

Sweden in the 1100's is the backdrop for the troubled love story between nobleman boy-turned monk-turned-knight templar Arn and neighboring girl Cecilia- before he is sent off to Jerusalem in the crusades and she into a convent- plus the rivalling royal clan struggles for power in the nation. I haven't read the bestselling books which this is based on, and knowing this is a part-saga and soon TV-series to be, I can somewhat overlook the gaps in storytelling.

What I do enjoy is a sound, intriguing (especially the scheming between the church and royal clans) and reliable medieval tale- with heavy doses of romance, monastery/convent dramatics and a little touch of "Kingdom of heaven"- battling in the end- that unfortunately never quite peaks. As a cinephile Swede, I know the country's market a bit, and notice that the filmmakers are SO focused on keeping a safe, steady course not to fail with such a big production ship like this, that they end up with no real climactic cinematic highlights to speak of. Rougher camera-work and sets might've heightened things a bit?

For that reason it's very evenly paced, never boring and quite nicely produced. But with a major flaw: Arn remains very stiff and sketchy as an adult character. We never personally get to know him (he has SO few lines!) as to really understand why Cecilia loves him.

All in all, 6 out of 10 from Ozjeppe

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57 out of 77 people found the following comment useful :-
Poetically made, 3 January 2008
8/10
Author: Marcus Johnsson from Sweden

Once I heard about this movie I felt pride for my country for making such a big production, hoping for it to be able to challenge big productions such as Troy, King Arthur and maybe even 300. I hoped so, but I expected otherwise. I know my epic movies pretty well, and in the trailer some months before release I notices some bass tones of the music score were identical to a part of the Gladiator music. I feared a cheap American epic movie ripoff with flawed actors and fake-looking special effects. Luckily, I did not see what I expected.

Arn has one big difference from the epic movies we know - it is made in a country where an epic movie of this size has never been made before. Naturally, many will expect to see the same of what we've seen in epic movies so far. Many will expect to see a hero or a group of heroes slaughtering hordes of enemies for the pure obsession of it that they call glory, but they won't. What they will see is the tale of the medieval life told in the most simple way. A mother promising away her son to God to serve him. The obsession of power between kings. To get to know your worst enemy and respect him as a man, and to meet anguish of having to kill him on the battle field without really knowing why.

During the first half of the movie at some point the storytelling got a little over hand, which is understandable while the balancing between being informative and entertaining is a hard thing to perfect. Though, it would be a shame going to the theater to see this film waiting for the heads to start rolling to the right and to the left, missing out the whole experience of having an honest story about the medieval life being told right in front of your eyes by common people.

This is the first part of the story of Arn. Now I have my hopes up for the second movie to round up this tale as well as or better than this first part started it.

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20 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent Medieval Film About Honour And Values, 12 August 2008
8/10
Author: intelearts from the big screen

It seems that most reviewers here want sword fights and action.

Arn is more interesting than that: it is a surprisingly complex film about honour and medieval notions of chivalry and values.

We REALLY enjoyed this - the characters are fleshed out and the plot develops at a drama pace, rather than at a dramatic pace. It seems a lot of thought went into the characterization and settings - this did cost $30,000,000 making it the most expensive Swedish film ever - and it did very well at the box office.

Those wanting just action had best look elsewhere those wanting both action and character, and a real exploration of the values of knighthood then this will definitely be your cup of tea and something to savour.

It is kind of like Braveheart in its values, and less like Kingdom of Heaven than you'd expect. Yes, it is quite elegiac, and that fits its Nordic roots well.

Overall, one of the better films about the crusades and the choices made for people living in a time when individual freedom was lost and subjugated to church and kings.

Recommended

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16 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Better than I expected, 20 January 2008
9/10
Author: Christoffer Slotte (JCS-3) from Finland

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I heard this movie didn't get the best kinds of reviews so I decided to watch it while in Stockholm.

...minor spoilers coming...

I was wrong. It was magical and it actually seemed even better a few days after I watched it. Don't expect another Gladiator or Kingdom of Heaven. These movies were fantastic but this one was quite different, but not the least bit less good. As someone here pointed out you will not see big battles like in Gladiator but a medieval epic can be good even without these huge battles, can it not? I am a big fan of medieval action so I know what I am talking about.

Fortunately (?) I never read the books so I can't compare the movie to them. I also liked the actors chosen for the film. They were not too well-known and therefore good choices.

I'm glad the film was shot in Sweden and not in Eastern Europe. The Swedish locations were absolutely right for this film and Romanian or Slovakian locations (who ARE otherwise fabulous) would have been wrong for this particular film.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Loved it - let down by small mistakes - but watch the movie, 28 November 2008
10/10
Author: vanhelsing19 from United Kingdom

OK so I read the reviews and decided to have a look at it myself. As opposed to going into a long and probably boring review:)

For

lovely scenery believable acting good music good values (rare these days)

Against

Suffered from it being too short (should have been an epic and used the other 30mins) Not enough budget (battle scenes fairly poor) Wandered a little at times

At that said - great movie - lovely to see the templars getting a reasonable treatment as they're easy targets some times:)

Go watch it and see for yourself

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31 out of 58 people found the following comment useful :-
Arn-Tempelriddaren, 6 January 2008
7/10
Author: Exeron from Sweden

I must say this one surprised me, it was better than i thought it would be. Joakim Nätterqvist did an awesome performance, i've met him several times since he's my cousins ex so i know him personally and this just what he needed, might this be a new start for a career for Jocke? who knows.

To the movie now...

When title shows up and the beautiful music is being played in the background i'm getting a good felling about it. But then the narrator starts to talk and i have to say he didn't fit in any good, it was just like watching Animal planet. The narrator didn't fit in at all, in fact some people in the audience actually started to laugh, that's rare.

I've heard that some have said that this is the best Swedish movie ever made. For me that's not true, i say that Evil is the best Swedish film. But Arn is just what we in Sweden needed. For all the shitty movies that have been made this was a lift. Perhaps now Sweden will be marked on the map again in film making. Since Bergman died it has been rough for us to get attention in movie making. So i hope Arn goes internationally, due to the fact that they speak more English than Swedish.

But when i've heard from Joakim Nätterqvist that they were gonna re-cut the movie to suit a more younger audience i was a bit worried, i didn't want it to be an Astrid Lindgren movie. But it didn't turn out that way, some parts were actually pretty violent and contained some gore. I've seen worse though but that's something i would like to warn all the sensitive audience's for.

The music for the movie was perfect in my opinion, i don't know who wrote it but my hat goes of for that person.

Arn Tempelriddaren- "Turned out to be surprisingly good!" 8/10

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35 out of 66 people found the following comment useful :-
For those who have read the books - a great disappointment (as expected, I guess). For those who haven't read the book - be aware of that this is not a plain action movie!, 30 December 2007
3/10
Author: kasolno from Norway

1. Trailers and impression from commercials

The movie trailers have given the impression that this is an action movie, with lots of battles fought with swords and spears in addition to dramatic spoken scenes. This have appealed to people that especially enjoy action movies. Those people are greatly disappointed when they after a first introduction action scene, are turned back to calm scenes in the description of the Arn's childhood and youth. I asked myself several times why the makers of this move haven't been so honest and told what kind of movie that this actually is: a historical drama that happens to include some battles? Then the movie would have appealed to the right kind of people: those who like to be seduced by the drama of dialogs and calm scenes. At the cinema I was sitting next to some teenagers that obviously was waiting for the great battles, and while waiting they were talking and "play fight" with each other. They were in addition totally unable to understand the impact of Christianity at that time and were lacking background knowledge of the historical events (just the word "Tempelridder"/"Knight Templar" made them laugh!). My point is that they had been fooled to see this movie instead of some other "Lord of the rings"-like movie.

2. The motion picture

The three books by Jan Guillou about Arn Magnusson are so extremely brilliant in construction of the story and in the build-up of the sentences. The only actions that had to be taken to make these books to a movie-success would simply be to translate the books into a manuscript! This would have given a brilliant drama movie with lots of conspiracies, political plots and a description of the forces that was between the rivaling families (as described in the first book). Unfortunately this movie never reaches an acceptable quality as a drama movie, nor as an action movie, but falls in between as unsuccessful in both genres! The life of Arn and the events in Sweden is told so swiftly and with so little depth that it is impossible to get familiar with the characters and to develop feelings for them. Do people that haven't read the book even get the chance to really understand the drama that happened at this time? Even Arn is described in few details, and it is impossible to understand his deep religiosity (trusting that everything that happens to him is God's will) and respect for all living creatures he developed during the years in the monastery. Instead, Arn is as a grown-up presented with an anxious and frightened look during the whole screenplay in Sweden. I am really sorry that the actor didn't get the chance to get deeper into his character. How would the audience be interested in the rest of the movie, if the feelings for Arn, Cecilia and the other persons are missing? (While reading the book, I even got feelings for Arn's horse! And that tells very much about the greatness of the books, and not about myself as a reader.)

The motion picture is stuffed with to many cliché scenes (children playing and running, Cecilia's joyful dancing in the garden, the free horse riding in the woods, love scenes) in addition to the motion of the camera itself: focusing on something exterior (the sky, tree tops, building etc.) and then slide into the center to capture the people.

3. Music

I am a person that is very fond of classical music, and have also interest in orchestral music in movies. Some music found in movies really has great quality and originality. However, I cannot give the same statement for the music in this movie. The music is too simple and flat! The clichés are so obvious and annoying: all joyful scenes are accorded to "beautiful" music of strings and woodwind. It really made me sick! And the few action scenes are accompanied by brass instruments and complete orchestra in a typical manner. Sorry, but this movie will not give you a great music experience.

Nevertheless, I should remark that I previously have read Guillou's books with great enthusiasm. My similar great disappointment of this first movie is thus inevitably coloring my comment posted here.

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18 out of 34 people found the following comment useful :-
Not half bad., 25 December 2007
6/10
Author: finn-palm from Sweden

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Since this is Sweden's first big movie production you can't but expect it to have a children's disease or two, but in my opinion one can't expect Swedes who haven't shot anything but over-acted dramas in little cottages in the countryside for what feels like forever to faultlessly execute a desert battle on horseback for example. The step away from traditional movie making in Sweden towards bigger productions raise my grade and the inevitable misses bring it down. The sceneries were beautiful and the props were well made, but it was mostly too clean to lend complete credibility to the setting. Acting was not bad and emotional parts was indeed moving and didn't feel awkward or silly. On the downside I think one can easily get the feeling that it is indeed two books compressed into one movie, something that not even all the pretty props could compensate for. Finally the ending leaves you pretty much expecting the story to be continued in a second movie.

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6 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Hollywood adventure with a taste of Swedish drama, 13 July 2008
8/10
Author: Skruttan from Sweden

This is a movie which is very much like a Hollywood adventure, but in Sweden. This movie could have been really bad if it wasn't for the good acting(Stellan Skarsgård, Bibi Andersson, Michael Nyquist, Gustaf Skarsgård, Sofia Helin and more), the wonderful music and some very good fighting scenes. It's nice too see a Swedish high-budget movie that can be seen by anyone who loves epic tales with good drama. Joakim Nätterqvist is surprisingly good in the leading role as Arn and he will probably become one of Sweden's next big stars. This is a very good movie that i can recommend to anyone who likes adventure, epic, drama and Swedish movies.

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A Memorable Swedish Epic!, 6 December 2009
8/10
Author: Tom Erik Høiås from Norway

Impressive film. i expected purely a crusades film. but it is much more. essentially it is about Arn and his life from childhood to adult. eventually finding his true love but this love is forbidden since he has "sinned with the flesh" as those crazy Christians put it. so he is sent away to the crusades where he encounters Saladin, the oppositions leader. and they come to respect one another as men of honor and wisdom. since this film involved severing of limbs and cutting throats i am puzzled why this film got a pg rating when films like die hard get a 18 rating. the answer is purely because the financial backers of the film had pull with the censorship board. after all this is the most expensive film production in Scandinavian history. cant wait to see the sequel.

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