Peer Gynt

This is a short film from the collection "Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1894-1941". What makes this one stand apart is the unknown actor in the lead. It's none other than a 17 year-old Charlton Heston--yes THE Charlton Heston in an art film! What's also interesting about this is that despite being a very short film, it has a cast larger than many full-length films!! As far as the story goes, it's mostly silent (with some intertitle cards and some nearly incomprehensible words here and there)--accompanied by music from Grieg's "Peer Gynt". Frankly, I had no idea what was going on at the time. It's all very artsy and strange--with some freaky masks and costumes. It's the sort of thing you just have to see to believe. Certainly not an auspicious beginning for Heston--but also a fascinating curio to say the least!

... from screenwriter and director David Bradley. Charlton Heston stars as the title character, a self-centered, aimless lout who upsets everyone in his Norwegian village, so he sets out to make a name for himself, with mixed results. Also featuring Betty Hanisee, Lucielle Powell, Charles Paetow, Morris Wilson, and Betty Barton.

This was an independently made effort, with a budget so minuscule that sound was not an option, so instead the movie is silent with intertitles, and only Edvard Grieg's music on the soundtrack. Peer Gynt is a title that I've heard for many years, but this is the first time that I've ever seen a production of it, so I had no idea what the story was about or really anything about it. After sitting through this, I'm still not quite sure what the point of it is, and I can't say that I'm impressed at all with what I could gather of the source material. Director Bradley makes use of lots of stock footage to try and build up his production, but the bare bones quality shows through all too often. The cast of local amateurs is exactly what you'd think they'd be, and while the 17-year-old Heston, making his movie debut, is undoubtedly the draw of the movie (I'm fairly certain it would have disappeared completely by now if not for his presence), he's not very good at this point.

Recently visited the home of Edvard Greig's home in Norway and always remembered his "Peer Gynt Suite" from music appreciation in school, especially the "Morning" song. This is an outstanding 1941 film starring a very young Charlton Heston, (Peer Gynt) around the age of 15 or 17 years of age and a great gem of a film that I have never seen before. The entire story of Peer Gynt along with the musical score by Edvard Greig is portrayed with great acting by Charlton Heston and a great cast of outstanding actors. The character of Peer Gynt is nothing you would be proud of and he was a reckless heartless individual who treated all women very poorly and only in a sexual way. In other words, Peer Gynt was a love'em and leave'em type of person who only thought of himself and no one else. Peer Gynt travels the entire world seeking fortunes and lost causes and finally comes home to Norway and settles down. The film location for this film was in Northern Illinois and Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, and you have to read English Titles throughout the film. Enjoy.

'Peer Gynt' is most notable for being the film debut of Charlton Heston, and it was interesting seeing him in such a big and difficult role so young. The play itself is one of Henrik Ibsen's best in my view, and judging from 'Peer Gynt' and 'Hedda Gabler' especially Ibsen is one of the greatest and most influential playwrights of the 19th century. Just love the fantastical folklore-like atmosphere, the rich characters that were very personal for Ibsen and some very memorable scenes.

While 'Peer Gynt' is interesting as a curio for both Heston and to see as many Ibsen adaptations as possible (not just 'Peer Gynt'), it is really not a great representation of either. The play is much more complex in characterisation and storyelling, atmospheric and dramatically compelling than what is shown here. And while Heston came on a long way as an actor not long after, the inexperience is obvious. Can appreciate the film for its ambition, the film didn't have the budget and resources to pull it off well in execution.

There are certainly good things. For a film that didn't have a high budget the film does look good, the sets capture the folklore-like atmosphere very well in the earlier parts of the film and a good deal of skill went into the photography, quite impressive for 16mm. Personally had no problem with the masks. The supporting cast are more than up to the task, the cast is huge (anybody not familiar with the play, which has a lot of characters, may consider it too huge) but they give it a lot without being too broad.

Grieg's music, composed as incidental music at Ibsen's request originally, is the best thing about the film. The music itself is absolutely timeless, with two of the movements ("Morning" and especially "In the Hall of the Mountain King") being iconic. Also the ones that fit the most effectively, the latter being almost demonic. The drama has moments, the encounter with the Troll King is memorable and Solveig is portrayed poignantly.

Heston's performance is brave but also very uneven. He shows a lot of charisma when Peer is younger and captures the spirit of the character well, but he is a lot less effective in the character's older years and once Peer is in Morocco where there is not near enough to Peer as a character because his turmoil is so blandly done. What passes as Morocco is not remotely believable as the real Morocco. While the intertitles are thoughtfully written and intrigue, they don't do much to make the story clearer and bog the film down a bit.

Bradley's direction comes over as rather sluggish and static, a case of his ambition being admirable but not having the experience to pull it off. The story comes over as very messy, it is very dully paced (especially the Acts 4 and 5 action) and comes over as very sprawling and episodic with nowhere near the amount of complexity needed and the drama fails to make sense. Ibsen's play and stage directions broke conventions at the time, the drama comes over as too conventional and static and 'Peer Gynt' would have benefitted from being at least 20 minutes longer to give depth to any of the characters.

Despite in actuality there being a lot going on in the play and having a lot of characters, there is almost a feeling of feeling bloated and having too many characters in film translation. The atmosphere comes over as bland, especially later on, with little grandeur or tension and it also comes over as strange from doing too little with the conscious and unconscious time and space aspect that makes the play unique.

The film also doesn't do a very good job at making Peer likeable or rootable, Peer is a complex character that grows a lot throughout the play (or at least Acts 4 and 5) but one doesn't get that in the film. He comes over as too much of the younger years braggart lothario persona he is in Acts 1 and 2 throughout, and it doesn't help that older Peer is played so blandly.

Overall, interesting curio but not really that successful. 4/10.

Yep, the same Charlton Heston who played heroic parts later, most notably, he parted the Red Sea as Moses in The Ten Commandments (with the help of Cecil B. DeMille), won the Chariot race as Ben Hur, and even painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling as Michelangelo (!!!!) in The Agony and the Ecstasy. (In which Pope Julius II is played by Rex Harrison who didn't get along with Heston and avoided him when they were in a version of The Prince and the Pauper later on. (Neither of them were easy to get along with!)

It may be argued that the part of Ibsen's Peer Gynt is quite anti-heroic throughout, as his character is that of a ne'er-do-well although he is already good-looking enough for his age.

One would expect that the all-important musical background of this semi-silent film would be by Edvard Grieg who wrote the most familiar incidental music for Ibsen's play but several other composers are represented including Ravel (Mother Goose Suite) and Kodaly's Hary Janos (A sort of Hungarian Baron Munchausen!)

Again, it may be argued that the musical selections tend to stress the unreal fairy tale aspects, perhaps mirroring Peer's fickleness in regard to his relations with young women.