The best thing about having a blog is telling people about a film that fell through the cracks, a critical darling that failed financially. Seeming to seal its fate with its original title of “Bastard” when it premiered at the Venice film festival last year, I’ll give this Danish devil its due. It’s a two-hour epic that completely got my attention and just became available to stream since its American debut in February: Denmark’s official entry into last year’s Oscars that naturally didn’t get nominated- “The Promised Land.”
The initial draw into “Promised Land” is its star, Mads Mikkelsen. After making a memorable mark as villain Le Chiffre in Daniel Craig’s first Bond outing “Casino Royale” almost 20 years ago, we’ve seen Mikkelsen pop up in other movies like “Rogue One” and “Doctor Strange” and he’s a consistently good actor. Here, Mikkelsen goes back home to Denmark and uses his tough guy persona to play Captain Ludvig Kahlen, the 18th Century bastard child of nobility thrown into the German army as a child to avoid scandal (his mother was the maid). Earning his army commission after 25 years, he’s got a plan to get a noble title in spite of circumstance: create a farming settlement in the Danish region known as Jutland where nothing grows but heath. This barren moorland is the passion project of the king of Denmark, who wants the land turned into fertile farmland. The officials in Denmark know it’s a fool’s errand to try to grow crops in Jutland’s soil and will not fund Kahlen’s plan despite trying to satisfy the king’s wishes to cultivate the land. When Kahlen offers to fund the farming project himself and, if successful, be granted noble entitlement, the officials agree knowing they’ll never have to make good on their promise. Of course, Kahlen’s got another trick up his sleeve to ensure his success- he’ll grow potatoes as his crop (in Germany, he learned they’ll grow practically anywhere).
Naturally, the Jutland soil isn’t the only obstacle standing in Kahlen’s way. In addition to a group of gypsies known as the Taters who steal anything valuable in the area, the land is overseen by an arrogant a-hole who inherited his wealth named Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg). Like Harvey Korman screaming his name’s ‘Dee Mo-nay’ in “History of the World,” Schinkel insists people address him as ‘De’ Schinkel per his nobility. Since nobody’s around to say no, Schinkel’s the county judge and lays claim to the land. It’s not until Kahlen comes that Schinkel sees any opposition.
Needing workers, Kahlen enlists help from the Taters through a little girl in their group Anmai Mus (Melina Hagberg), a precocious child thief Kahlen catches in the act and uses as a go-between. Kahlen also finds a married couple, Ann Barbara (Amanda Collin) and Johannes (Morten Hee Andersen), who ran away from their servitude and gives them room and board in exchange for their help. Of course, the owner Ann Barbara and Johannes are running from is Schinkel himself, who is none-too-pleased finding Kahlen harboring his fugitives.
Capturing and making an example of him, Schinkel uses toe-curling torture on Johannes in a public display to dissuade others from helping Kahlen. It works- even the gypsy Taters take off. Yet, despite adversity, Kahlen manages a degree of success with the new relationships he’s found with Anmai Mus and Ann Barbara, Needless to say, Kahlen’s success makes Schinkel’s blood pressure skyrocket. Kahlen’s road to nobility is about to bring murder into the moorland.
Directed by Nikolaj Arcel, whose disappointing 2017 adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” with Matthew McConaughey killed any chance of his future American filmmaking, “The Promised Land” is a good movie born under a bad box office sign. Feeling like a cross between “Places in the Heart” (with newly-widowed Sally Field enlisting help to grow her cotton crop) and “Joe Kidd” (where Robert Duvall is a land barren employing Clint Eastwood to get rid of the Mexicans on his land until Eastwood develops a caring corazon), I enjoyed this film enough to take the opportunity to try to get it seen.
With a good supporting group of actors bringing interesting characters to life and a plot you can’t predict, “The Promised Land” indeed holds a promise: don’t overlook the unexpected value revealed in the steps to success. If that’s too altruistic a message for you, just sit back and watch Mikkelsen mercilessly wield frontier justice.