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Victor Sjöström was arguably the most important and influential Swedish director of his generation and The
Outlaw and His Wife, a story of love and sacrifice at a devastating cost, is the director's masterpiece.
Dedicated to a Swedish cinema, the Sjöström's films spoke to the national character and cultural history of Sweden
and he took his cameras out of the studio to shoot against the dramatic indigenous landscape. His films were among
of the most sophisticated and visually powerful productions of his time, not merely in Sweden but internationally.
Ingmar Bergman cited Sjöström as one of his most important inspirations and influences and paid tribute to his
legacy by casting him as the aged professor in Wild Strawberries. In the words of Andrew Sarris: "It is
possible that that Victor Sjöström was the world's first great director, even before Chaplin and Griffith."
Sjöström was a popular stage actor with a long and successful career when he joined Svensk Bio in 1912 as an
actor. He made his directorial debut later that same year and had his first major success as a filmmaker in 1913
with Ingeborg Holm, a social drama that challenged the terrible laws that allowed the children of the
destitute to be sold into forced labor. Terje Vigen (A Man There Was), a 1917 drama adapted from the
epic poem by Ibsen and shot on the rocky coast near Stockholm, established his international reputation.
The Outlaw and His Wife, based on a stage play Jóhann Sigurjónsson, was Sjöström's follow-up to Terje
Vigen. He had previously starred in a successful stage production of the play and cast himself in the lead for
the film adaptation, playing a stranger named Kari who arrives in a small Icelandic mountain town looking for a
job. Sjöström is quite dashing in his entrance, tall and handsome and striking in his trim beard and bushy hair.
Kari is rugged yet civilized, a proud man of great integrity and a secret that forces him to keep an emotional
distance from Halla (Edith Erastoff), the generous widow who hires him to work her farm. Erastoff had starred in
some of Sjöström's earlier films and they fell in love and married during the production of Terje Vigen,
remaining together until her death 40 years later. Onscreen they make a passionate couple, even during the
restraint of their (non)courtship. When Halla gives Kari a quilt for his bed in the bunkhouse, he waits until she
leaves the room and then cradles it tenderly, treasuring this gift privately while remaining cool to her in
person.
Bjorn the Bailiff (Nils Ahren), an arrogant hypocrite, wants to wed Halla for her wealth despite his disdain for
her lowly class origins and her independent will. As Halla falls for the tender and courageous Kari, Bjorn reveals
Kari's true identity: an escaped thief named Terje Vigen, imprisoned for stealing a sheep to feed his starving
family. His secret revealed, Halla confesses her love and they proclaim themselves "married in the eyes of God."
"Love is the one and only law," she insists, and the lovers flee to the mountains and an idyllic existence as
children of nature.
Set in 19th century Iceland and shot against the dramatic landscape of Mount Nuolja in Northern Sweden by Julius
Jaenzen (with some exteriors shot in Iceland itself), Sjöström creates images both beautiful and elemental. Kari's
flashback shows his life on a plateau surrounded by steaming hot springs and geysers, and their mountain home is
built near a cliff with a breathtaking view. But for all its beauty, the elemental power and spiritual purity of
the natural world is also unforgiving. As Kari grimly observes, "No man can escape is fate," and their idyll is
invaded by the jealousy and lust of a fellow outlaw, by the vengeful bailiff's posse, by the elements themselves
as they retreat farther into the inhospitable peaks of the icy mountains. The snows that ultimately claim the
lovers have an elemental force that Sjöström recalls years later in the sands of The Wind. "No filmmaker
before Sjöström integrated landscape so fundamentally into his work or conceived of nature as a mystical as well
as a physical force in terms of film language," wrote Swedish cinema authority Peter Cowie in 1970.
In the film's most startling and devastating scene, a shocking act of desperation from Halla becomes is both a
terrible act of mercy and a pagan sacrifice to the Gods of the mountain. It's as if these free spirits must be
punished for their defiance of social convention, or at least pay for their fleeting happiness. Yet even at their
most miserable they are bonded in love and they die as they lived.
The Outlaw and His Wife was a popular hit and a critically smash. Louis Delluc, in 1919, wrote: "Here
without a doubt is the most beautiful film in the world. Victor Sjöström has directed it with a dignity that is
beyond words… it is the first love duet heard in the cinema." His talent did not go unnoticed and he left Sweden
for Hollywood in 1923, where he directed nine films between 1923 and 1929, including the beautiful The Scarlet
Letter and the magnificent The Wind, both with Lillian Gish. The actress/producer specifically sought
out Sjöström for those projects (the director adopted the spelling Seastrom for his American productions).
Kino's disc, in black and white with light tinting, is mastered from a 1986 restoration by Svensk Filmindustri.
There is substantial damage in some scenes but it is always watchable and in some scenes quite sharp. The score by
Torbjorn Iwan Lundquist is a mix of folk tunes and orchestral movements, overly insistent at times but quite
dynamic and effective. The DVD also features Gösta Werner's 1981 documentary Victor Sjöström, a 65-minute
portrait Sjöström and his career that features generous clips of his films as both a director and as an actor and
a lengthy interview with Ingmar Bergman, who talks about Sjöström's influence as a silent film master and as a
mentor when Bergman directed his first films in the 1940s. Bergman regular Erland Josephson narrates the
documentary.
For more information about The Outlaw and His Wife, visit Kino
International.To order The Outlaw and His Wife, go to
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by Sean Axmaker
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