MovieChat Forums > Härlig är jorden (1991) Discussion > The message of the movie.

The message of the movie.

posted 18 years ago by ladyrosenred
6 replies | jump to latest

I study movie in school, and we got for assingment to see and analyze this movie.
Anyways, later on our teacher told us what the message of the movie really is; The second world war. Or simply, the fact that we knew what was going on, but did nothing to stop it.
So the first scene in the movie - where a large group of people get scuffed in to a large truck, locked in, and smoked to death with the trucks own exhaust fumes - is really what the whole thing circulates around. The man in the movie even turns to the camera and looks straight at us, as he stands there, watching the truck kill all those people.

So, what Roy Andersson is trying to tell us is that we are all guilty - even the average man.

In another scene we also see, how the son of the man in the movie, gets the word "Volvo" tattooed on his forhead. This is Roys' way of protetsting against all the commersial we allow ourselves to wear - such as expensive clothes with marks on them.

It's a really interesting movie, and it made me think alot. I'd watch it over and over if i could. It's hard not to get touched in any way by it.

[–] Theo87 18 years ago

either your teacher has gotten the message the director wanted to get across totally right or he just watched the audio commentary because that is what roy andersson talks about in it. he also says that in the church scene the main character tries to drink as much of the blood of jesus as he can to make his sins forgiven.

[–] prologuez 17 years ago

Is this released on dvd or how did you get the commentary?
his website says it hasn't been released yet...

[–] Theo87 17 years ago

it's on the Cinema16 collection of european short films - absolutely recommended!
www.cinema16.org

[–] prologuez 17 years ago

Are the other shorts any good?
I've seen the one by Moodysson which I really liked

[–] Theo87 17 years ago

the shorts of lars von trier and jean-luc godard are interesting just because you can see what they've done before they became well-known. tom tykwer's short is really awesome because of it's style. some are hilarious (chris morris's and javier fesser's ones) while i disliked some a lot (jan kounen's or patrice leconte's). all in all it's a great mix and since i think you've already seen quite a few shorts it'd be a good buy. Fridge by peter mullan alone is worth the money.
i'm not done watching the american shorts but so far they seem up to par with the european ones. i haven't seen the british shorts though.

[–] PoppyTransfusion 9 years ago

The film shows also how dull and washed of colour life is when you refuse to see and hear what is happening around you. The man is terrified that when he thinks he has lost his sight, yet he refuses to see. He cannot sleep for hearing screams, which he pays no heed to other than to feel haunted by them.

I think there's a lot more in the film about how we treat one another than just the events of WW2.

I give my respect to those who have earned it; to everyone else, I'm civil.