Småland, Sweden, mid-19th century. A farming family struggle with their rocky, unyielding land, and decide to embark on the arduous journey to new hope in America.Småland, Sweden, mid-19th century. A farming family struggle with their rocky, unyielding land, and decide to embark on the arduous journey to new hope in America.Småland, Sweden, mid-19th century. A farming family struggle with their rocky, unyielding land, and decide to embark on the arduous journey to new hope in America.
- Nominated for 5 Oscars
- 8 wins & 11 nominations total
- Nils
- (as Svenolof Bern)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen filming the scene towards the end, where Karl Oskar walks off to find a better place for his settlement, director Jan Troell forgot to yell, "Cut." Max von Sydow just kept walking and walking, waiting for a "cut", and nobody realized until they took lunch.
- GoofsOn the train west a character shows an American silver coin and yells out it has "In God We Trust" on it. The scene is the 1850s and the motto was not added to American silver coins until 1867.
- Quotes
Arvid: What do you think it will cost to ship us there?
Robert: Around 200 riksdaler.
Arvid: Ya, well, might as well forget it. 200 riksdaler. I'll never have that much.
Robert: You don't have it?
Arvid: I will go anyway. We can travel to America on foot.
Robert: Nah, there's an ocean. You can't go on foot to America.
Arvid: Do you mean there is no way?
Robert: I'm afraid there is not. America is an island.
Arvid: Damned ocean.
- Alternate versionsThe USA television version, retitled "The Emigrant Saga", consists of this film plus its sequel, The New Land (1972), joined and re-edited together in chronological order and dubbed in English.
- ConnectionsEdited into Catalogue of Ships (2008)
Sad to say, because "The Emigrants" is a film that closely examines two very different cultures in an effective and insightful way. A diverse group of Swedish peasants (among them a married couple, a priest, a prostitute, and a young upstart) endure back-breaking labor in their homeland to little profit. They decide to move to the states after being influenced by the exaggerated stories spread abroad (everyone has more than enough food, everyone is filthy rich, etc.). The audience sympathizes with them not just because they endure so much in Sweden, but also because they believe the stories they hear about frontier life in America. Yes, they will obviously have to strive and struggle to survive in their new home, but they are all the more admirable because of their adherence to the American dream.
"The Emigrants" is harsh and often unrelenting in the straightforward way it depicts the realities encountered by the Swedish settlers. The scenes where they travel across the ocean in a small, cramped, and diseased ship are appropriately claustrophobic and terrifying. Later, the family at the center of the story threatens to break up when Liv Ullmann's character, a fragile young mother, loses track of her daughter while hurrying to board a steamboat.
Although most of the characters were better developed in the sequel to this film, "The New Land," Troell's story is very moving in its sincere depiction of how outsiders came to this country to pursue their hopes and dreams.
- Oblomov_81
- Aug 19, 2001
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Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,156,554
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