the promised land movie review

The Promised Land

“The Promised Land” is about ten movies in one. It’s a history lesson with a central figure driven by an impossible quest. There are bands of outlaws, sadistic aristocrats, and downtrodden peasants. There’s a little romance, a lot of torture, as well as a feisty runaway child. Historical epics like this really aren’t made anymore. There are so many different chapters of the central conflict it makes the final confrontation inevitable and therefore a little predictable. However, there’s still unexpected space, and the film takes its time, allowing for character development and emotional connection. It’s a wonder that “The Promised Land” works as well as it does.

Directed by Nikolaj Arcel , the film takes place in 18th century Denmark, when agricultural reforms cracked the rigid social hierarchies, where the rich lived in luxury and the “little people” were practically in a state of serfdom. Mads Mikkelsen , in his second collaboration with Arcel, plays Ludvig Kahlen, a man who hauled himself out of obscurity to become a Lieutenant in the Army. At the film’s opening, he is destitute, living in a poor house, and dreaming of developing a piece of land on the Jutland “heath”, a land deemed untameable. The Danish King is determined to settle the area. The royal court doesn’t want this and neither do the landowners, but the King grants Ludwig permission to settle a patch of land, promising him a noble title if he succeeds. Ludvig wants that title.

The heath soil is so tough Ludvig can barely dig a hole. A young pastor (Anton Eklund), supportive of the project, offers Ludvig help in the form of two runaway tenant farmers, husband Joannes ( Morten Hee Andersen ) and wife Ann Barbara ( Amanda Collin ). Ludvig takes them on with hesitation. People will be looking for them. It’s an uneasy situation. Meanwhile, the nearest nobleman, Frederik de Schinkel ( Simon Bennebjerg ), wants to run Ludvig off the land. Frederik, at first glance, seems silly and frivolous, but he is eventually revealed as a sadistic monster. He doesn’t even try to “play” Ludvig. It’s open warfare from the start. Ludvig also contends with roving bands of outlaws in the nearby forest. To top it off, a runaway child ( Melina Hagberg ) shows up on Ludvig’s doorstep and basically refuses to leave.

All of this is a highly fictionalized account of real events. Ludvig Kahlen was a real person, and the heath settlement with all its complications was a real event. Ida Jessen’s best-selling novel The Captain and Ann Barbara is the basis for the film adaptation, co-written by Anders Thomas Jensen and Arcel. There has clearly been a lot of fictionalization. It feels like this material could have been a bodice-ripping melodrama in less intuitive hands. But “The Promised Land” has control of its narrative. What’s most surprising is just how much character development is accomplished. Mikkelsen’s performance is a marvel, really. Haughty at first to Johannes and Ann Barbara, and downright mean to the child, Mikkelsen suggests depths which Ludvig attempts to conceal. What is this man’s pain? What is he looking for? Or running from? At times, tiny flickers of human emotion appear at the corners of his eyes, or his mouth, softening him. These moments carry more weight because Ludvig is normally so inexpressive. Amanda Collin is very strong as Ann Barbara, whose character development may be the most radical in the whole film.

Rasmus Videbæk’s cinematography captures the landscape in all its moods, lingering on the impenetrable fogs, the nights of howling wind, the glaring sun, the dark fairy tale forest filled with dangers. The interior of De Schinkel’s estate is lit by hundreds of candles at night, the effect reminiscent of Kubrick’s gorgeous “ Barry Lyndon “. The costumes ( Kicki Ilander ) and production design ( Jette Lehmann ) are unobtrusive and feel extremely lived-in.

The conflict in “The Promised Land” is intense and Frederik is so despicable he borders on a cartoon villain. There’s a sameness in the escalating fight that gets repetitive after a while. What really holds interest in the film is Ludvig’s character development, and the characters of the makeshift family around him. I cared about these people. They seemed real. “The Promised Land” is so successful at what it attempts to do I felt exhilarated when the first fragile seedling popped up above the earth. It’s a reminder that a film needs to get the big things right—events and conflicts and obstacles—but it needs to get the small things right too. If a film gets the small things right, then a potato sprouting in the dirt will read like the miracle it is.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O’Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master’s in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Mads Mikkelsen as Ludvig Kahlen
• Amanda Collin as Ann Barbara
• Simon Bennebjerg as Frederik de Schinkel
• Kristine Kujath Thorp as Edel Helene
• Gustav Lindh as Anton
• Jacob Ulrik Lohmann as Trappaud
• Morten Hee Andersen as Johannes Eriksen
• Magnus Krepper as Hector
• Søren Malling as Paulli
• Morten Buus as Settler
• Anders Thomas Jensen
• Nikolaj Arcel

Director of Photography

• Rasmus Videbæk

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‘The Promised Land’ Review: Coaxing Crops From a Wild Land

Mads Mikkelsen stars as a soldier with little money but big ideas who gets royal approval to try to conquer a vast shrubby expanse.

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By Manohla Dargis

The Danish drama “The Promised Land” takes its old-fashioned remit with enjoyable seriousness. Set in the mid-18th century, it is a classic tale of haves and have-nots filled with gristle and grit, limitless horizons, scenes of suffering, reversals of fortune and cathartic recognition. It has sweep, romance, violence and spectacle, but what makes it finally work as well as it does is that it largely avoids the ennobling clichés that turn characters into ideals and movies into exercises in spurious nostalgia — well, that and Mads Mikkelsen.

Mikkelsen stars as Capt. Ludvig Kahlen, a war veteran with little more than a frayed uniform and a well-polished medal on his chest, who sets out to cultivate the heath in Jutland, the peninsula that makes up most of Denmark. There, on a vast shrubby expanse thought untamable yet beloved by the Danish monarch, Kahlen hopes to work the land and establish a settlement for king, country and himself. Over time, as seasons change and visitors come and go, he does just that, building a new world and cultivating the ground in a laborious, engrossing process that the director Nikolaj Arcel charts with ease and gripping drama.

Written by Arcel and Anders Thomas Jensen, the well-paced story briskly takes Kahlen from the poorhouse to the royal palace minutes after opening, establishing the reach of his ambition. (The movie is based on the novel “The Captain and Ann Barbara” from the Danish writer Ida Jessen.) There, he seeks permission to build on the heath from the king’s advisers, a collection of imperial rotters in wigs and satin breeches who agree to his request only after he pledges to pay for the endeavor with his military pension. In return, Kahlen wants a title, a manor and servants; effectively, he wants to become one of them.

Mikkelsen is excellent, and inexorably watchable. He almost always is, whether he’s infusing life into a cardboard Hollywood villain (“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”) or having a palpably rollicking time playing a rampaging hero (as in the entertaining action romp “Riders of Justice,” written and directed by Jensen). Mikkelsen’s severe good looks are a crucial part of his appeal, as is the sense of menace and intrigue that certain beauty brings with it. Mikkelsen knows how to complicate his looks and he’s particularly adept at amplifying its menace by withholding readable emotion, a technique that turns his face into a mask you anxiously wait for him to drop.

Kahlen soon reaches Jutland alone on horseback, and the story begins to take flight, as does the camera. With boundless aerial views that establish a sense of place both geographic and emotional, Arcel at once conveys the land’s immensity (and harsh grandeur) and emphasizes the titanic effort of Kahlen’s enterprise (and its loneliness). In both sun and rain, he repeatedly bores into the ground with a hand-held auger to gauge the quality of the soil, feeling, smelling and all but tasting the dirt. With every twist of the auger, he steadily underscores his will. By the time he finds what he needs it’s as if the heath had finally surrendered to him.

There are many more hurdles to come, mostly from other people, and a little hail. Arcel populates the story fairly rapidly after Kahlen decides on a location and with assistance from some locals, including a priest, Anton (Gustav Lindh), who help procure some workers. A supposed folly becomes reality. Kahlen builds a house, burns the heather to prepare the land, fends off outlaws that come creeping in the dark and forms a de facto family with a stray, Anmai Mus (Melina Hagberg), and a runaway servant, Ann Barbara (a spiky Amanda Collin). He also makes a fast, dangerous enemy of the royal next door, De Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg), a depraved noble with a melancholic cousin, Edel (Kristine Kujath Thorp).

With Mikkelsen as the story’s anchor, “The Promised Land” builds steadily and gracefully, drawing you in with drama and a welcome old-school commitment to rounded characters, moral clarity and emotionally satisfying storytelling. Arcel occasionally overloads the movie and some of the characters work less well than others, notably Anmai Mus, a wee charmer with a toothy smile who mostly exists to soften Kahlen’s edges. And while it’s understandable that both Edel and Ann Barbara would gravitate toward Kahlen, the dueling romances push the movie into predictability, something that Mikkelsen — with his slow-burn charisma and beautifully retrained performance — never does.

The Promised Land Rated R for bloody violence. In Danish and German, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 7 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic of The Times, which she joined in 2004. She has an M.A. in cinema studies from New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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‘the promised land’ review: mads mikkelsen smolders magnificently in nikolaj arcel’s gripping historical epic.

The Danish director and star of the Oscar-nominated 'A Royal Affair' reteam on this Nordic Western about a low-born military man determined to cultivate the wild Jutland heath against daunting odds.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Mikkelsen plays Ludvig Kahlen, who defied his humble roots by rising to the rank of captain and being decorated for his military service in mid-18th-century Denmark. A proud man with drive and ambition, he submits a proposal to cultivate the barren Jutland heath and start a settlement there, a potentially lucrative project dear to the King that has defeated many men before Ludvig.

The bean-counters at the Royal Treasury scoff at the idea of pouring more money into what they see as a lost cause. But Kahlen offers to finance the venture with his soldier’s pension, asking for a noble title and an estate with servants in return. Given that the bureaucrats see no chance of success, they agree, figuring they can keep the King happy with zero outlay.

With nothing but a horse, a tent, a pistol to protect himself from bandits and a few tools to hack away at the hard ground, which is believed to be nothing but sand and rocks covered in coarse heather, Ludvig sets up camp and weathers the harsh elements. Eventually, he finds soil, which can be mixed with clay from the seaside to grow potatoes, a crop he has imported from Germany.

De Schinkel makes it difficult for Ludvig to find the laborers necessary to prepare the land for planting. But a young pastor (Anton Eklund) brings him a runaway couple, Johannes (Morten Hee Andersen) and Ann Barbara (Amanda Collin), who have escaped De Schinkel’s cruelty; Ludvig agrees to provide them with work and shelter, despite the legal risk. He also strikes a deal to employ the outlaws living in the woods, including an orphaned young Roma girl, Anmai Mus (Melina Hagberg), disparagingly referred to as a “darkling” and believed by the superstitious Danish peasants to bring bad luck.

Based on Ide Jessen’s 2020 historical novel The Captain and Ann Barbara , the script by Arcel and Anders Thomas Jensen lays out the exposition with brisk efficiency and incisive character definition. The film draws us into the mounting challenges faced by Ludvig as De Schinkel and his cronies play increasingly dirty, enlisting a group of murderous thugs to help when Kahlen begins making progress. A heartless display of vindictiveness by the landowner at the harvest ball is horrifying in its barbarism, underscoring the petulant tyrant’s belief that he can make his own laws.

Collin shows real fire in the role of a woman who has endured degrading treatment and vowed never to submit to it again, while Mikkelsen brings solemn depths to a taciturn man whose plan to get ahead is obstructed almost at every turn. Even when responding with burning indignation to De Schinkel’s most unscrupulous tactics, Mikkelsen’s performance remains measured, with Ludvig’s emotions largely internalized to great effect.

Arcel directs with a sure hand that balances the poignant strain of an outsider family struggling to stay together with the treachery of an antagonist whose ruthlessness has no limits, yielding tense action just as Ludvig appears to have succeeded in his endeavors.

Elements that could have lurched into melodrama — Ludvig’s flickers of romance with Edel, for instance, which complicates his understanding with Ann Barbara — are reined in by the disciplined direction and strong ensemble, and even if the villainy at times risks becoming overripe, it makes the payback all the more satisfying. This is a big Nordic Western that maintains its gravitas throughout as reality constantly reminds Ludvig that hard work and honesty are not always rewarded.

Cinematographer Rasmus Videbæk’s widescreen compositions give imposing weight to the rugged landscape; Jette Lehmann’s production design points up the contrast between the humble structures built on the desolate heath and the pompous grandeur of De Schinkel’s residence, Hald Manor; and Dan Romer’s robust orchestral score fuels the film’s epic sweep. The Promised Land is a terrific story driven by skillful writing and strong performances. There’s an art to bringing vitality and modernity to historical drama, and Arcel shows a firm grasp of it.

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‘The Promised Land’ Review: Mads Mikkelsen Grows Potatoes When the Chips Are Down in a Rip-Roaring Historical Drama

A commoner-turned-captain is locked in a grisly land battle with a dastardly nobleman in Nikolaj Arcel's entertaining, broad-brush epic, lent weight by its ever-reliable star.

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Also hard and rugged and forbiddingly beautiful? Denmark’s Jutland Heath, a vast, sprawling expanse of near-barren land depleted by Stone Age farmers, where only a rolling rug of mauve-brown heather survives its sandy soil. Introductory title cards explain an 18th-century government policy of inviting foreign settlers to cultivate the land, with little success. “The heath cannot be tamed,” reads the final one — a pretty irresistible opening salvo, practically begging the viewer to ask “Or can it?” as the imposingly upright Kahlen stomps onto the scene.

It’s a solid if back-breaking plan, and would proceed steadily enough if not for the unseemly envy of neighboring nobleman Frederik De Schinkel (Bjenneberg), a petty local despot who insists, despite Kahlen’s permission from the King, that this scrubby land belongs to him. Raging, irrational spite is a driving dramatic motive in Arcel and Anders Thomas Jensen’s screenplay, adapted from Ida Jessen’s 2020 novel “The Captain and Ann Barbara”: Political particulars and conflicts of the heart are slowly sanded down to a pleasingly classical duel between pure good and pure evil, instigated when De Schinkel — Ann Barbara and Johannes’ former master — recaptures and gruesomely tortures the latter to death.

With the bereaved Ann Barbara staying on as Kahlen’s housekeeper as the other workers desert, and plucky Romani orphan Anmai Mus (Hagberg Melina) doggedly forcing her way into the household, a tender makeshift family unit takes shape. Were it not for the hysterically deranged lord across the moor sporadically tormenting the good farmer and slaughtering his help, “The Promised Land” would almost play out as a kind of Scandi “Little House on the Präirie,” with affecting everyday concerns of health, hearth and home countered by an escalating blood feud of far more outlandish fictional proportions.

Elsewhere, the top-heavy script also takes on matters of racial prejudice (as Kahlen’s German migrant workers superstitiously shun the dark-skinned Anmai Mus) and squeezes in a curtailed love triangle between Kahlen, Ann Barbara and De Schinkel’s gilded-caged cousin Edel (Kristine Kujath Thorp) — subplots that scarcely have room to breathe amid all the brawny, bloody back-and-forth. But it all just about hangs together, in part because Mikkelsen’s wounded, watchful performance bridges the film’s gung-ho heroics with its more soulful ambitions, and in part because Arcel — comfortably back on home turf as a director, after 2017’s drab Stephen King adaptation “The Dark Tower” — has a pleasingly sturdy, old-school feel for grand-scale period filmmaking.

Much like in Arcel’s 2012 costumer “A Royal Affair,” “The Promised Land” fills out its wide screen abundantly but not fussily. Shooting largely in the Czech Republic, Rasmus Videbæk sweeping, burnished lensing makes the heath a scraggly Nordic desert of year-round autumn tones, save for when snow is layered onto the scenic drudgery. The frilliest excesses of Jette Lehman’s rich production design and Kicki Ilander’s costumes seek only to highlight the showy grotesquerie of the rich; heroes are shot and clothed in shades of burlap and timber. One amusingly unsubtle composition pits Bjenneberg’s seated fop, a vision in pastel satin at a table bedecked with molded jellies, against Mikkelsen on literal horseback — good bastard towering over bad, highlighting that “The Promised Land” is finally nothing so much as a Danish Western, built on black-and-white moral binaries and a yee-haw sense of intrepid adventure.

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (Competition), Aug. 30, 2023. Running time: 127 MIN. (Original title: "Bastarden")

• Production: (Denmark-Germany-Sweden) A Magnolia Pictures release of a Zentropa Entertainments production in co-production with Zentropa Berlin, Zentropa Sweden, Film I Väst. (World sales: TrustNordisk, Copenhagen.) Producer. Louise Vesth. Co-producers: Fabian Gasmia, Katja Lebedjewa, Lizette Jonjic, Tine Mikkelsen.
• Crew: Director: Nikolaj Arcel. Screenplay: Arcel, Anders Thomas Jensen, based on the novel "The Captain and Ann Barbara" by Ida Jessen. Camera: Rasmus Videbæk. Editor: Olivier Bugge Coutté. Music: Dan Romer.
• With: Mads Mikkelsen, Simon Bennebjerg, Amanda Collin, Kristine Kujath Thorp, Hagberg Melina, Gustav Lindh. (Danish dialogue)

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The Promised Land

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Time Out says

The most gripping film about potato farming since The Martian , this Danish period epic has Mads Mikkelsen on imperious form as a former soldier on an impossible mission to cultivate the bleak and forbidding landscape of Jutland. 

The title – its grabbier Danish name ‘Bastarden’ captures the film’s fierce spirit better – refers to a scrubby peninsular in the country’s western fringes. It’s so barren, everyone in the 18th century court of Frederick V has all but given up on it. Fortunately, there’s one thing more weathered and rugged than this forbidding landscape: Mikkelsen’s desperate army veteran Captain Ludvig Kahlen. This dogged and down-on-his-luck character has a pitch for the bigwigs: he will cultivate the land for the crown and in return, the king will ennoble him. It’s a safe bet for the crown. ‘The heath cannot be tamed’ is the received wisdom.

Early scenes, framed in widescreen under leaden skies, see Kahlen grinding fruitlessly away. He builds a homestead, hiring a pair of escaped servants to help, and forlornly tries to coax life from the dead soil. Danish filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel lets us feel the biting wind on Kahlen’s back and sense the fatigue, before ramping up the stakes with an old-fashioned villain. Enter Frederik de Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg, extremely hissable), a local landowner who takes a jealous interest in the farmer’s progress, eager to maintain the status quo in his corner of Denmark.

The Promised Land makes for a gripping man-versus-wilderness survival story with unmistakable political undertones, but it’s also nimble enough to allow romance to blossom under its slate-grey skies, when the sweetly abashed Captain catches the eye of his steely new hire (Amanda Collin) and de Schinkel’s poised fiancée (Kristine Kujath Thorp). 

It’s the  most gripping film about potato farming since   The Martian

Mikkelsen communicates his character’s gradual softening via the tiniest expressions. It’s a masterclass in less-is-more minimalism and wins you over to a man who can be a bit of a basterden himself when you first meet him.  

The talented Arcel has had a rollercoaster decade or so, veering from the Oscar-nominated acclaim of A Royal Affair (a Danish period piece set a few years later) to the 15-percent-on-Rotten-Tomatoes ignominy of his Hollywood blockbuster, The Dark Tower . Here, he’s crafted a kind of Danish The Last of the Mohicans that’s full of passion and political conviction. It should stand the test of time almost as well as its rugged hero.   

In US theaters Feb 2 and UK cinemas Feb 16.

Cast and crew

• Director: Nikolaj Arcel
• Screenwriter: Anders Thomas Jensen, Nikolaj Arcel
• Mads Mikkelsen
• Amanda Collin
• Soren Malling

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The Promised Land review: an immersive historical epic

“Director Nikolaj Arcel's The Promised Land is a visually stunning, thoughtfully made drama.”

• Mads Mikkelsen's quietly captivating lead performance
• Rasmus Videbæk's visually rich cinematography
• Nikolaj Arcel's sturdy, unobtrusive direction
• An ending that doesn't hit with as much weight as it should
• Several underdeveloped supporting characters

The Promised Land is a brutal, unforgiving drama about the danger of ambition and the greed that seems to drive so many who are already in power. I found it oddly comforting. As strange as that may sound, the film is a rare beast in the world of contemporary moviemaking. It’s a modestly budgeted, well-constructed historical epic made with such clear care and craft that one feels permitted to sit back and let it take you wherever it wants. Once upon a time, period dramas like it used to be far more common than they are now. In 2024, they seem reserved for directors like Martin Scorsese ( Silence ) and Ridley Scott ( Napoleon ) — masters well-versed in bringing history’s lost worlds to life.

For that reason, The Promised Land feels like a bit of a miracle. The film, Danish writer-director Nikolaj Arcel’s follow-up to his underwhelming 2017 Stephen King adaptation , The Dark Tower , isn’t the most narratively sophisticated drama you’ll see this year. The story it tells is broad in both its scope and emotions, but the spell it casts is frequently mesmerizing. With one of the world’s greatest actors as its lead, The Promised Land also grounds itself in a taciturn and yet quietly, beautifully expressive performance.

Based on a book by Danish author Ida Jessen, the film stars Mads Mikkelsen as Captain Ludvig Kahlen, a poor officer of the German army who, in the wake of his retirement, seeks permission to try building a farm in the fields of Denmark’s expansive heath. If he succeeds, he’ll not only be the first man to do so but also be granted the kind of property and noble title he’s spent his entire life trying to earn. His limited funds make it difficult for him to recruit enough workers for the job, though, and he quickly finds himself in a rivalry with Frederik de Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg), a nearby landowner who has no interest in cultivating the heath but is concerned with the impact that Kahlen’s efforts could have on his wealth.

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Their rivalry serves as the dramatic heart of The Promised Land , and the increasingly violent, petty nature of it inevitably calls to mind the feud between Daniel Day-Lewis’ merciless oil baron and Paul Dano’s egotistical preacher in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood . Arcel’s film, which is based on a screenplay he co-wrote with Anders Thomas Jensen, never reaches the same thematic and barbaric heights as Anderson’s 2007 masterpiece, but de Schinkel and Kahlen’s battle over control of the Danish heath does prove to be fertile material for The Promised Land to explore its themes of class, greed, and reckless ambition.

Like There Will Be Blood , Arcel’s historical drama makes the most out of its barren environment, which seems to stretch on forever in every direction. The director and his cinematographer, Rasmus Videbæk, fill the film’s first act with shots of Mikkelsen digging alone into the surface of the heath’s inhospitable fields. The framing and depth of these images both emphasize the seeming futility of Kahlen’s efforts to bend nature to his will and invite you to get lost in The Promised Land ‘s untamed 18th-century landscapes. Meanwhile, the B arry Lyndon -esque use of natural light sources throughout de Schinkel’s ornate country manor just further adds to the film’s immersive qualities.

As he pushes ahead with his plans, Mikkelsen’s former army officer grows gradually closer to his few supporters: Ann Barbara (Amanda Collin), an escaped servant of de Schinkel who agrees to help Kahlen in exchange for safe harbor; Anton Eklund (Gustav Lindh), a well-meaning country priest; and Anmai Mus (Melina Hagberg), a mischievous little girl who comes to view Ludvig as a father figure. An unlikely family forms between the four misfits, but it’s a credit to Arcel and Jensen’s screenplay and Mikkelsen’s withdrawn performance that The Promised Land never veers into overly sentimental territory.

The film holds onto its harsh edge all the way through its runtime — delivering a third act that is admirable in its emotional and dramatic messiness. Behind the camera, Arcel resists the urge to spell out the movie’s climactic beats too explicitly. Instead, He chooses to linger repeatedly on Mikkelsen’s face — the actor’s impassive expressions make way for his eyes to subtly communicate his character’s increasing exhaustion and desperation. Although Arcel delivers a bloody conclusion to the constant threat of violence that permeates throughout The Promised Land , too, the filmmaker successfully finds the right balance between horrifying brutality and gruesome catharsis.

The movie ultimately continues on a few minutes longer than it needs to, and its ending doesn’t land with as much emotional weight as is intended, partly due to the underdeveloped nature of several of its supporting characters — namely, Collin’s Ann Barbara. Thankfully, The Promised Land never makes the mistake of overplaying any of its final moments. It goes out on a quiet note that reflects its protagonist’s overly mannered demeanor and elegantly rejects the unwavering resolve he holds onto for much of its story.

It’s a final wrinkle in a film that is about as straightforward and unshowy as they come and which is content to remain at an understated key for most of its story. Those who check out The Promised Land will, in other words, likely find themselves immersed fully in a historical epic that delivers everything it promises, as well as a little more.

The Promised Land is now playing in theaters.

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As the rest of Dominik’s bold, imperfect film proves, Blonde is not just about the recreation of iconic moments, nor is it solely about the making of Monroe’s greatest career highlights. It is, instead, about exposure and, in specific, the act of exposing yourself — for art, for fame, for love — and the ways in which the world often reacts to such raw vulnerability. In the case of Blonde, we're shown how a world of men took advantage of Monroe’s vulnerability by attempting to control her image and downplay her talent.

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Set around 60 years before X, West’s new prequel does away with the por nstars, abandoned farms, and eerie old folks that made its predecessor’s horror influences clear and replaces them with poor farmers, charming film projectionists, and young women with big dreams. Despite those differences, Pearl still feels like a natural follow-up to X. The latter film, with its use of split screens and well-placed needle drops, offered a surprisingly dark rumination on the horror of old age. Pearl, meanwhile, explores the loss of innocence and, in specific, the often terrifying truths that remain after one’s dreams have been unceremoniously ripped away from them.

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The Promised Land Reviews

For all its lapses in portraying romance, The Promised Land is still an inspiring, relentlessly gritty tale of one undying determination, an indomitable will to achieve the impossible against all odds.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 26, 2024

Terrific cinematography (Rasmus Videbaek) and utterly convincing production design (Jette Lehmann) mark this intimate epic.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 5, 2024

Thrilling, shapely, pleasingly nasty epic, a ravishing Danish Western with savagery in its trim bones. Mads Mikkelsen is the sulk center screen, handsome visage made for melodrama... Pride kills; Mikkelsen thrills.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Jul 4, 2024

Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Arcel join forces again to tell a fantastic story of hardship and family in a time when nothing was assured.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 3, 2024

Set against a background of high and wide vistas to the sound of roaring winds, a primal drama with impressive performances from Mikkelsen and the cast that offers another powerful foundation story for our time

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 28, 2024

There are times in the impressive Danish historical drama The Promised Land where Dr Lecter peeks from the eyes of the main character...

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 27, 2024

The film hums along with a steady, well-judged momentum, underscored by a pot-boiling feeling that it’s arcing towards some big climactic event

Full Review | Jun 23, 2024

A romance, a critique of privilege and greed, a big sweeping drama with Mads Mikkelsen stoic, pained, selfish, loving, grizzled, and fierce… another brilliant slice of Denmark’s best.

Full Review | Jun 21, 2024

A conventionally entertaining historical drama more in line with the works of Kevin Costner than, say, Jean de Florette.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 21, 2024

A film that builds toward a rousing and romantic conclusion, capping the kind of sweeping, old-fashioned movie we don't see enough of anymore.

Full Review | Jun 20, 2024

Featuring some great cinematography, the film isn’t all that keen on subtlety, preferring to repeatedly hit us with emotional wallops that justify Kahlen’s crusade and his unflinching approach to dealing with violent adversaries.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/6 | Jun 20, 2024

Mads Mikkelsen’s meaningful looks mean business in a soil-tilling drama dug from Danish history.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 20, 2024

This tale of taming barren land for the 18th century Royal Danish Court is more stoic western than a justification of exploitation. Indeed, it makes pointed observations about privilege, power, injustice and cruelty.

Proof they can – and do – still make them (period dramas) like they used to (at least in Europe), this is one of the best reasons of the year so far to visit a cinema near you.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 19, 2024

… knows exactly when to let the shot linger in the moment to best capture the micro-expressions of Mikkelsen’s famously expressive features.

Full Review | Original Score: 18/20 | Jun 17, 2024

No new ground is broken, but the drama is nevertheless fertile in the absorbing, smart and consistently well-directed and -acted The Promised Land.

Full Review | Jun 3, 2024

In its interrogation of civilization versus barbarism, the film provides penetrating insight on the nature of true savagery.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 4, 2024

In “The Promised Land,” the countercultural twist is that when the gunslinger protects others’ family, he betrays and endangers himself.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2024

The script, which adapts Ida Jessen's 2020 historical novel, is incisive... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 20, 2024

A thrilling historical drama that works on a visceral, intellectual and emotional level, and that immerses us in a world that feels very foreign, but that in several aspects, unfortunately, is still very similar to ours. Full review in Spanish.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 16, 2024

'The Promised Land' Review: Mads Mikkelsen Makes a Meal out of Epic Danish Western

• Mads Mikkelsen delivers a magnificent performance that brings life to a grim historical epic set in a familiarly harsh world.
• The film explores the flaws and complexities of its real-life protagonist, Ludvig Kahlen, making his journey feel more truthful and earned.
• Mikkelsen's quiet grace and commanding presence remain as captivating as ever, offering something a bit more amid the familiar story.

Whenever a movie needs a leading man who can bring a commanding presence defined by grim stoicism, buried compassion, and slivers of menace, it’s hard to think of a better actor for the job than Mads Mikkelsen . His latest, Nikolaj Arcel ’s historical epic The Promised Land , is a more personal work that clearly means a lot to him , especially when viewed in comparison to the quite uneven franchise films he’s gotten caught up in as of late. In many regards, his new Danish Western feels distinctly old-fashioned in both its tone and Mikkelsen’s measured approach to the material. It is a grim historical epic that, while not without its moments of lightheartedness, is wrapped up in a cold blanket that provides no protection from the harsh world it inhabits as composer Dan Romer 's sweeping score washes over you. The film is beautiful to behold in many moments, but, much like how our own lives can be defined by striving for something approaching stability only to discover there is no underlying ground, it is also consistently bleak.

The Promised Land

The story of Ludvig Kahlen who pursued his lifelong dream: To make the heath bring him wealth and honor.

At first viewing when it screened at the most recent Toronto International Film Festival , Mikkelsen’s committed performance leaped out even as some aspects of the narrative remained a bit stiff with the film's progression. Months later, as The Promised Land gets a wide theatrical release through Magnolia Pictures , such moments fade away, and it all mostly comes together when resting upon its lead’s shoulders. Much like the character he plays, Mikkelsen does a lot with very little, giving life to a barren world that is often defined by death and suffering . It is in his piercing stare that we are taken into the entire interior world of tumult he is trying to contain. When it emerges, we observe a portrait of a largely unknown chapter in a cruel history and the otherwise ordinary man who made a place for himself in it. It is this and Mikkelsen's performance that ensures the film resonates despite its setbacks.

What Is 'The Promised Land' About?

In 1755, we meet Ludvig Kahlen (Mikkelsen), who is trying to build a life for himself in his home of Denmark after serving in the German Army. With little other than the clothes on his back, he sets his sights on the remote Jutland Heath to cultivate and make it hospitable for a community to inhabit . When he seeks permission to do this, he is not taken seriously as this undertaking is believed to be too challenging for even those of high status, let alone someone who is considered to be nobody. Undeterred, Ludvig sets out to do the impossible. He will have to contend with not only a harsh environment but also Frederik de Schinkel ( Simon Bennebjerg ), a brutish buffoon of a man who owns the land around him and considers Ludvig's efforts to be a threat to his control. With limited options, Ludvig will rely on those like couple Johannes Eriksen ( Morten Hee Andersen ) and Ann Barbara ( Amanda Collin ), two laborers who fled the abysmal treatment of de Schinkel to survive. Also joining in on this is the young Anmai Mus ( Melina Hagberg ), a Roma girl who has been orphaned and has nowhere else to go. Other familiar machinations will come to threaten all they’re building, though it is in this core group of characters where The Promised Land reveals its soul.

There could easily be a version of this film that falls into more conventional broad strokes where Ludvig is a flawless underdog against the forces that would seek to keep him down. While you do get invested in his mission, this is not because the film has sanded down his many flaws. It recalls how the recent film The Settlers did not shy away from the realities of what the people living at this time did in the name of “progress,” although it may not do so as boldly as that film. The Promised Land certainly hits more familiar emotional beats, but there is always that more complicated darkness lurking underneath. When Ludvig first sets out, there is a callousness with which he treats the others he relies on. Mikkelsen, in a fascinating recent interview in The New Yorker , apparently pushed for these rougher edges to remain present from the beginning of the film, and it pays off. His Ludvig feels like a real person that you see being ugly and mean in often unflinching fashion against the landscape's gorgeous yet haunting backdrop. There is truly a sense that he would throw just about anyone under the bus, or horse, for his own gain. It makes his gradual shift towards being more compassionate an earned one. It doesn’t feel like The Promised Land is reaching for being superficially “inspiring” as much as it is truthful about who this man may have been .

Indeed, in one particularly upsetting development about midway through, Ludvig reveals that he is more than willing to toss aside his values to assuage the racist prejudices of others. The film exists not to canonize its lead as much as it does to cut deeper into him, just as he does the land . Fellow Raised by Wolves appreciators bemoaning the unfortunate end of that show can rejoice in seeing Collin give another strong performance here, as Ann Barbara exists as a crucial counterbalance to Ludvig. Despite a rather melodramatic development that could have easily proven disastrous, she is no mere foil, and her eventual actions shine a light on his shortcomings and kick off an unexpected yet fittingly bloody upheaval in the story. In many regards, the film is subsequently less engaging when Collins is not at the forefront, but she makes the most of the screentime that she gets. Of course, when we are back with Mikkelsen, he takes the final steps with the same confident stride with which he began.

Mads Mikkelsen Is Magnificent in 'The Promised Land'

As the film downshifts ever so slightly, it builds to more melancholic notes that start to ask broader questions about why it was that Ludvig set out to do all this. Even as he achieves much of what he hoped for, we can see the toll this has taken on his soul in Mikkelsen’s eyes. Though he plays his character as an outwardly gruff man light on divulging his emotions, we see doubt creeping in about whether it was worth the cost. Just as he always has, Mikkelsen remains in command of every move, bringing a quiet grace that contrasts perfectly with the grim world his character is fighting. Even as the story hits some familiar beats, he gives it the necessary fury and force. When the film then proceeds to ride off into the proverbial sunset with the entire world behind him, it provides a more complicated coda that raises just one more question to chew on. In the end, history may remember men like Ludvig, but The Promised Land moves us to reflect a bit more deeply on what it is that this was all truly for .

The Promised Land sees Mads Mikkelsen giving a magnificent performance that helps to complicate its more familiar elements and offers a bit more to chew on.

• Both Mads Mikkelsen and Amanda Collin give outstanding performances, bringing life to a grim world defined by death and suffering.
• The film doesn't simply canonize its subject and instead offers a more complicated portrait of who he may actually have been.
• The conclusion of the film complicates all that came before it, raising questions that cut a bit deeper about what it was that this was all for.
• The story does hit some familiar beats, including a more melodramatic development that takes away from its impact.

The Promised Land is now available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

WATCH ON HULU

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The Promised Land Review: A Classic Historical Epic with Swagger

• The Promised Land is a Danish film that feels more epic than most Hollywood blockbusters, with its vast landscapes, romantic subplots, and swaggering hero.
• The film explores 18th century Denmark during the transition from feudalism to capitalism, focusing on a retired soldier's attempt to cultivate uninhabitable land using the potato.
• Mads Mikkelsen delivers a superb performance as the stubborn and ambitious Captain Kahlen, while Simon Bennebjerg shines as the villainous magistrate who opposes him.

Hollywood blockbusters may be getting longer (or perhaps bloated), but that doesn't mean there have been many great epics in recent years. Just because a Marvel or Mission: Impossible film is 150 minutes long, it isn't necessarily an epic. The Promised Land , a new Danish film by filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel, is only 127 minutes, but feels more epic in scope than most big studio pictures today. With its stubborn hero, vast landscapes, large supporting cast, dreamily romantic subplots, and lengthy span of time, The Promised Land is closer to David Lean's historical popcorn epics ( Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago ) than an international arthouse film.

At the same time, Arcel's film is culturally specific, deeply Danish, and well-rooted in 18th century monarchic absolutism (a period that Arcel and his star here, Mads Mikkelsen , also explored in their 2012 film, A Royal Affair ). It studies a time when feudalism was transitioning into capitalism, and people were becoming disillusioned with the hierarchies of nobility. The film begins in 1755, with a retired soldier looking to build a homestead on the notorious Jutland moorlands, an inhabitable expanse that the monarchy had hoped would yield crops and settlements.

By the time Captain Ludvig Kahlen retires, it's generally accepted that nobody can grow anything there. He uses his pension and convinces the royal court to let him build on the Jutland and cultivate it, and if he is successful, he will be granted a title of nobility along with funds and assistance from the state. He's initially laughed out of the room, but what do the king's men have to lose? They believe he's doomed to fail anyway. Little do they know, the Captain has brought back a unique food from abroad which can grow in even the harshest of conditions — the potato. So begins Ludvig Kahlen's harsh, painful attempts to create a new life.

A Beautiful Barren Setting for a Battle of Man vs. Nature

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The Promised Land

• The Promised Land is a grand historical epic like Spartacus.
• Rasmus Videbæk's cinematography captures the landscape beautifully.
• Mads Mikkelsen is superb in a quietly seething role.
• Simon Bennebjerg makes for a phenomenal villain.
• The ending is a tad muted and the film is ahistorical.

Captain Kahlen heads to the desolate Jutland with all his belongings and engages in a lengthy duel with the soil. Nature and all its elements are captured beautifully by cinematographer Rasmus Videbæk, who creates soaring visuals of the Jutland throughout, along with some phenomenal closeups; every landscape is a face, and every face a landscape. Through rain and cold, Kahlen checks for water sources, digs into the ground, and builds a home. He befriends a priest at a local village (tenderly played by Gustav Lindh), who supplies Kahlen with two runaway servants who have escaped the cruel clutches of a local magistrate, Frederik Schinkel (played with delicious evil by Simon Bennebjerg).

Related: The Best Movies With a 'Character Against Nature' Type of Conflict

It's this magistrate who, along with nature itself, becomes Kahlen's greatest foe. Despite Kahlen's paperwork, Schinkel (who insists with humorous pomposity that people refer to him as "de Schinkel") claims to own the Jutland, secretly fearing the loss of his control if settlements develop there and if Kahlen becomes competing nobility.

Schinkel embodies nihilistic hedonism, telling Kahlen that chaos reigns as the only force in the universe. Kahlen is a firm believer in meritocracy, believing that if he works hard, he will honestly climb the aristocratic hierarchy and succeed in life. Schinkel maliciously reminds him that wherever there is power, there is no meritocracy — the people at the top have kicked the social ladder down behind them.

With the help of the escaped servants and the priest, Kahlen makes advances in the Jutland, but every step forward is contested by Schinkel. Kahlen has tunnel vision, obsessively focusing on his one goal and refusing to let anyone stop him. He's an honorable and fair man in a dishonest and unfair world, but he's also deliriously egotistical, risking the lives of others to pursue his own success. More and more people are drawn into his struggle, from a band of Romani travelers and fearful serfs to arriving settlers and a young gypsy child he essentially adopts. Like the classic Hollywood epics , the film incorporates romance, action, drama, and tragedy to tell a big story about a man and his moment in history.

Mads Mikkelsen Is a Danish God and Simon Bennebjerg Is His Devil

Mads Mikkelsen shines as Captain Ludwig Kahlen. He's a man of few words, but the character is defined more by the way he carries himself and the emotions hidden in his eyes. Mikkelsen is perfect for this. His strange, brutal beauty becomes believable throughout the runtime; he seems like a soldier and then a farmer, and he seems like a desperate man longing for honor and nobility in the eyes of society. He's cold and determined, but also deeply moral, and his understanding of the world clearly develops throughout the film.

Mikkelsen takes the haughty charm of his titular character in Hannibal , combines it with the quiet dignity of his work in films like The Hunt , and embraces the physicality of the Pusher films, combining them all to create an ethically ambiguous, wonderful character. The sparseness of his dialogue makes each word more meaningful, and his mastery of the man's gestures and piercing glances enhances the film greatly. Of course, the movie dramatizes the story of Kahlen greatly and takes a ton of historical liberties to create a more entertaining version than a realistic one. If viewers demand historical accuracy , they won't find it here.

Related: Best Mads Mikkelsen Movies, Ranked

The aforementioned Bennebjerg is also excellent as Schinkel. He has an inherent lunacy to him, but there's also a philosophical foundation to his misanthropy and malice. He truly believes in power. He's a misogynist, a murderer, a glutton, a liar, a thief, and a bully, essentially one of the most abhorrent characters in recent memory, and Bennebjerg obviously relishes the chance he has here. He creates a multidimensional villain, a pathetic young brat who demands his domination over everything and everyone, and meets his match with Kahlen.

They Don't Want You in the Promised Land

Aside from simply being an excellent popcorn epic, The Promised Land has an important message that remains applicable to this very day. Kahlen has a moral foundation, but the more he chases his ambitions, the more he compromises his humanity. He is a poor man, treated terribly by the upper class, but instead of fighting against the system which subjugates him, he wishes to become part of the upper class itself. By believing in the social hierarchy and respecting the concept of nobility, Kahlen is fighting to become the thing he hates. It's akin to a leftist climbing the corporate ladder.

When MovieWeb spoke to director Nikolaj Arcel , he expanded on this theme. "The most important thing for me, thematically, was that you really have to be careful how much of your life you spend trying to obtain certain goals," explained Arcel. "If that's all you're about, obtaining certain goals, then you're not going to win. You're not going to sort of conquer what life is really about. And I think that's what I really want people to think about. He's so close to losing everything that's important, just because he's so driven and ambitious and only is thinking about one thing." He continued:

I think that a lot of people can sort of recognize that. It's the classic 'lying on your deathbed' thing, thinking about what was important in life and then suddenly realizing, "Oh my god, I wasted so many years trying to achieve this or that, and it means nothing." What really means something is the love that I have for my children, or my wife, or my husband, or my parents, or my family.

The Promised Land will make you remember what really matters, and in the most entertaining of ways. The film is now in theaters from Magnolia Pictures. Check out our interview with Arcel below.

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• Mads Mikkelsen