Perfectly adorable

Better Late Then Never

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

An astounding movie, just breathtaking at times. It is reminiscent of another Danish movie, "Babette's Feast," which likewise had religion as its theme, depicting the impact of Christianity on average people. Like that movie, "Ordet" is by no means preachy, and at times it is very funny. The cinematography is remarkable, because the focus is almost always within small, interior spaces; the lighting is stunning, and the editing so coherent that your attention is always focused on the main action. And what is the action? Human life and its imponderable joys and sorrows. The acting represents some of the director's approach to authenticity at its most refined cinematic development. Dreyer has created complicated family relationships and allows them to play out with clarity and an guilelessness rarely seen in most movies. No wonder it has won so many prizes. "Ordet," which means "the word," qualifies as a "masterpiece," though that term gets kicked around too often. It is also a "profound" movie, which means it examines the root basics of human life. It is one of the best movies ever made--at least, in this viewer's opinion.

Carl Theodor Dreyer was one of the most visual orientated directors that ever lived. His movies are often a delight to watch, due to its visuals but I also admit that I'm not a great fan of all of his work. He's praised by lots of people for his well known works but his movies are certainly lacking some of the needs that are required for a movie. His movies just aren't the best paced ones and they are often overlong and slow, with just not an awful lot happening. He masks this greatly with the visual style and quality of the movies but you can only compensate that much. His movies definitely always have some big pros and cons in them, while this movie does however luckily has far more pros.This movie also has the great benefit that it has a great story in it. It's about faith, religion, life and death, science versus faith and whatever more discussions and different perspectives of things this movie brings along. In that regard this movie perhaps feels more like an Ingmar Bergman movie than a Carl Theodor Dreyer movie really. Both directors however have always shown some similarities with their movie its themes, style and characters in it. It's a compelling story, that is being told effectively. It'a obviously all based on a stage-play, which you can tell by the way the scene's are being set up and the story is getting told.Again, it's all rather slow and the movie does definitely take its time to get its story across. It's safe to say that this movie is not just simply for everyone. But it's an ultimately rewarding movie, that is both being effective and powerful.it's cast mostly consists out of non-professionals. Something that often got done around that time for this type of movies. It sometimes works out very well and sometimes it just simply doesn't. This movie its acting gets the benefit of the doubt, since it's hard to judge someone's acting who is speaking in a language you don't understand. A real ultimately rewarding viewing experience.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This is a good movie to watch yet not considerably one of the best, among masterpieces, it lacks some dramatic tension but is certainly one of the best movies about faith.Actually this movie shakes once more the old way of living like a believer but not totally believing, like a "half believer". Talk to a normal guy nowadays about the action of this movie and he'll laugh, talk to someone about miracles and will mock you. That's why this movie is so great because it brings right in front of you one of the most difficult topics in a Christian's faith: miracles. And most of us like to mention only as existed once a man who did miracles, to consider the power of faith as being in the past and kept within the time of biblical story, not as a truly, really fact that still exists. This movie is about discovering the true faith and living by faith.

Time for my annual dose of Dreyer, taken like medicine. Is it fair that Dreyer has a reputation of being turgid, slow, archaic, depressing, theatrical? Well, yes. Look at this. A large part of the time is spent watching people walk slowly from one side of the room to the other. In fact, this seems to be Dreyer's main directorial idea because the rest of the time they just stand there like hatstands. At climactic moments a door may be opened. There is no attempt to vary pace or tone; the dialogue is as stilted as silent movie cards. In fact, this looked and felt like a film made in 1915, not 1955.The film presents a Danish society so insular that subtle shades of Christianity tear them apart. That might be interesting if treated with any sort of subtlety or depth. Not here, where the plot is built with a few huge stone bricks. And we have not one but two of the most morose characters in all cinema. Old Borgen, who has the lion's share of the dialogue, always stares fixedly into the middle-distance while speaking - I presumed he was reading his lines off a card.Dreyer is a man entirely without humour. The mad son Johannes looks like Rasputin with slicked down hair and an immaculate centre-parting; he thinks he is Christ and walks in and out slowly spouting religious twaddle in a high pitched monotone with no facial movement whatsoever. Perhaps Dreyer was paying homage to Ed Wood here. Johannes' every appearance is unintentionally hilarious. If he can't see this, Dreyer really must have something missing. If you're not laughing at Johannes yourself every time he appears, I'm not sure I want to know you.And never have I been so let down by the ending of a film. A literal deus ex machina that I simply found intellectually offensive - all the more so because we can see it coming a long way back but are still led at snail's pace towards it.Painfully sincere, and good for the soul maybe, but woefully unaccomplished. To be enjoyed only by Quakers.