Some more errors

I can't really answer to what you wrote since I don't live in Mennesota nor my parents didn't come to the US from other countries during the period this film takes place.

I just want to write about what you wrote about the story. You say that the 1920 story should have been settled before it jumped to present time.

I thought the story was settled.. when Olaf and Inge didn't lose their land and tried to get married (after getting the documents from Germany) they couldn't. Then they talk to the minister and in the end Inge convinces him enough that he tells them to come to the church. I think he performed the ceremony so that Inge and Olaf would be a wife and a husband. (maybe they didn't get married officially on the paper but they were married spiritually.)

It is a story about the land and people who lived there. From Lars' point of view the film tells how the land meant for Olaf and Inge. When he needs to decide if he should be selling the land or not he remembers what Inge told him. And the story concludes with his decision. I didn't think it was necessary for the story to be laid out clearly and explain every single thing. I liked its subtleness.




Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

I think the title of this post needs to be revised somewhat from "Some more errors..." to "Some more pathetic nit-picky Minnesota pansies, who need to get a *beep* life and a MAJOR *beep* clue, but feel the need to bitch their illegitimate concerns to show how 'smart' and knowledgeable they are about *beep*

Oh NO, the corn is "anachronistic"! The *beep* YOU SAY...I don't believe it! What the ever the hell should we do? Do you think we should ban the movie? Also, given the fact that this was a independent movie, on a shoe-sting (or would you prefer threadbare?) budget totally doesn't absolve the movie-makers. They should have hired like 40 people, or however the hell they seeded the damn Earth back in the 1920's to avoid such a cataclysmic *beep* This way the movie would probably have been only 20 minutes long, but who needs all that filler crap, when the corn is represented properly?

OMG! Actually you're right...I'm sorry...it was a threadbare existence -- HOLY CRAP! -- there is NO way Inge would ever ever take a phonograph outside. INCONCEIVABLE! Why did Ali Selim deceive us like this? Time traveling corn, outside phonographs!

And bankers ALWAYS have people's interest at hearts here. There is NO way, not in a bagillion million years, would a banker be immoral, profiteer. The hell with "Sweet land" and "A Wonderful Life".

And how could we forget the lace curtains? *turning into the Hulk* "DAMN YOU SELIM!"

The fact that her Grandson "Lars" helps Inge bury Olaf on THEIR property; and the fact that some random guy calls her "mom" makes me wonder: Did Olaf and Inge ever get married? I, like CC Borester, don't feel resolved, because me am no see dem mawwy! :(

Go watch Transformers and rave how brilliant that is! *beep* idiot!

I think Superman's response was over the top and unnecessarily rude. So I'm going to say basically the same thing, just with more common courtesy.

I think your problems with the film are indeed nitpicky. You can make the same criticisms for just about any movie made. There are always anachronisms, there are always small plot holes, etc. The point of the movie was not complete historical accuracy. Getting hung up on this stuff is pointless and joyless.

Also, as to your German prejudice comment, emotions about groups of people are always much more complicated than it seems like they should be. The Swedes hated the Norwegians, the Norwegians hated the Germans, the Italians hated the Irish, etc etc. Coming together with different cultures, trying to live in the same communities, having different religions and habits and food and viewpoints creates tension and prejudices and ignorance. The war was just a concrete explanation for the prejudice, but the feelings themselves arose from many different issues. I'm Minnesotan as well, and have heard of prejudices like these from older generations in my family (my Grandpa's parents were Swedish and Norwegian gasp! the scandal!).

As the director said in the DVD commentary, the film is a poem, not a documentary. It's told from the stand point of Lars recalling stories his grandparents told him. So, things are going to be more brightly colored than in real life, a bit neater in real life, and of course Lars is going to visualize a corn field as one he sees.

Given that the film only had a budget of $1 million, i thought they did a wonderful job with what they had to work with.

merciful heavens, Brewster, you are a really dim bulb.
Clearing land in MN happened just like anywhere else. there would have been bog or wetlands that were 'tiled' to drain the moisture and there would have been large public drainage ditches that were hand dug. ever been in this area? it is part of the Des Moines lobe from the glaciers that drain into lakes like Okoboji, IA.
cutting down the cornstalks was exactly how you would have harvested the corn, if you hadn't the machinery to have a 'binder' that would bunch the stalks together to allow the corn to dry before it was 'shucked.' check out some regional artists renderings such as Grant Wood's 'Fall Plowing,' and you will see bundles of corn.
your concern for the allowance for nice things for the farmers is not accurate. my mother's parents immigrated from Sweden just after the turn of the century. my grandfather worked for another immigrant until he could get himself established, and then his younger brother came over. the brothers married sisters who came over together and came to this area because of childhood friends who had immigrated before them. they had a war economy that had provided them with nice things and machinery and after coming out of a war economy with high prices, they would have owned their own farms. my grandfather rented one half section of very fine farm ground and then purchased another eighty and rented that to another farmer.
the hometown banker was already established as someone who was greedy and he would have jumped at the chance to get another person's farm. Olaf hadn't farmed that long and still had to use horses. my parents were married in 1938 and they used horse drawn equipment when they started because of lack of money and the machinery was horse drawn used machinery was cheaper to purchase. and they establish a huge farm in their lifetime.
if you are from MN, perhaps you should read some literary work written at that time by Rolvaag and get a correct perspective.

<<Technical point: I think the corn itself may be anachronistic...>>

Considering they weren't harvesting corn...

(Psst: Read the credits. It's based upon a short story entitled, "A Gravestone Made of Wheat")