Himmel og helvete

This is the famous norwegian anti-drug movie which is considered to be a turkey today. There are more than one thing you can point your finger at in this movie but let's start with the actors who are pretty wooden through the whole movie. That critic goes particularly to those who are playing the leading roles. The other element is the anti-drug message in the movie. The message are "if you start with pot you'll go to hell on a heroin overdose the next day". This is what makes the movie so unrealistic and naive. Nobody believe this kind of propaganda any longer. An another strange thing about this movie are all the rather daring nude scenes. This is pretty unusual for a movie made in the 60's, even the late 60's, but I guess that the director put it there to attract more teenagers. However, the movie as a whole is watchable in a way and not totally without interest, but it's perhaps more like a curiosity though.

I read about this obscure Norwegian anti-drug film in "Wasted", one of the excellent series of film reference books from Britain's Creation Publishers, and I got a chance to see it recently with English subtitles. I have actually seen A LOT of Scandinavian movies, but it occurs me that every single one of them (with the exception of the very recent, and very excellent Swedish vampire film "Let the Right One in")has been a sex-soaked scrompfest featuring softcore porn princesses like Christina Lindberg or Marie Lilejedahl. This is not a sex film or a horror film, but actually a straight drama for the most part, albeit with some exploitative content.

Two Norwegian teens meet and fall in love, at the same time they become addicted hashish. Apparently the Norwegian hash must be particularly good because the pair generally act like they're on heroin, pawning their stuff, stealing from a friend's brother, and having not-entirely-consensual sex with sleazy drug dealers. Eventually (and not a moment too soon) they descend into crime, prostitution and abject degradation. This film is not nearly as over-the-top hysterical as some American anti-drug films like "Reefer Madness", but it's also not as entertaining. As exploitation goes, it really doesn't hold a candle to a couple other hallucinatory, drug-themed sleaze-fests also profiled in "Wasted"--the Brazilian "Coffin Joe" film "Awakening of the Beast" and the insane Italian film "The Bloodstained Lawn".

Far be it from me to complain about the gratuitous nudity from the pretty lead actress that occurs about an hour in (if you can stay awake that long). I do have to complain though about the gratuitous DANCING. God, these kids spend a lot of time dancing! Even when the female lead goes to a skeevy drug dealer's house to get drugs (and get raped), she has to dance with him for five minutes first. Fortunately, the music they're dancing to isn't completely awful. The title song "Heaven and Hell" (which is in English for some reason) even borders on catchy.

The degradation certainly could have been a little more degrading, and this movie boasts the least intimidating group of drug dealers I've ever seen in one of these movies. One guy looks like seedier, Norwegian version of Maynard C. Krebs from the old "Dobie Gillis" TV show (or Jughead from Archie comics). This isn't a bad movie necessarily, but it is definitely kind of dull

In this early film about cannabis use and addiction among Norwegian youths, the effects of the drug and the ensuing downward spiral are terribly simplified, and the propagandist, almost hysterical messaging is painfully obvious. Himmel og helvete has other problems too - not least the stiff, theatrical performances by several of the senior cast members - and director Øyvind Vennerød (father of Petter) isn't able to reconcile the modernity of his themes and his younger actors with the antiquated tradition within which the film was made. Still, the film rises to the occasion in a handful of scenes depicting the more lighthearted adventures of the youngsters. These scenes feel less forced and almost have a sense of urgency about them. If nothing else, they serve as a time capsule, albeit hardly a truly authentic one. Young aspiring folk singer Lillebjørn Nilsen, who went on to become a national treasure in Norway, demonstrates a natural presence in front of the camera as the male lead, Arne, and is the standout performer.

The pot-movie to end them all, "Himmel og helvete" (Heaven and hell) was co-scripted by the director, Øivind Vennerød, who wanted an entertainment, and a Norwegian medical expert, who wanted a stern warning to young people about the evils of drug-use.

The resulting bastard of a script is hilarious. The pot-heads in the audiences went crazy when the film was shown back in 69, and loudly applauded every badly acted line of dialogue. They KNEW what it was like tripping out on illegal substances. The makers of this movie most certainly did not!

"H & H" follows the traditional drug-movie set-up: Young, nice couple are lured into a life of sex, addiction and crime via their first puff on a marijuana-cigarette. They end up - well, if you've read this far you already know.

Every usable and unusable cliche is dragged screaming out from the closet of hoary movie-ideas: Desperate father killing sleazy, foreign drug lord who turned his daughter into dope- fiend; Smooth talking doctor airing his eloquent views on drugs in smoke-filled office; Worldy-wise police-officer ruminating about liberal university-professor advocating drugs in the presence of students; Fat old man making sexual advances on helpless, money-crazed female drug-addict.

Yes, they're all here. In gruesome colour, complete with the worst special-effect ending this side of "Plan 9 from outer space". Apart from that, it's really "Reefer madness" all over again. Only worse.

I have to strongly defend this film because it is my favorite Norwegian film. I am well aware that the filmmakers intentions and the final result is way, way, way of the mark but I don't necessarily think that matters. What I think is important is that this is a great movie to watch. Over and over again, it is that funny. Any movie that I want to watch more than three times deserves a good rating.

In addition to being hilarious, Himmel og helvete is an iconographic film that really captures the time and feel of the late sixties in Oslo. I particularly like the scene at the club where a beat type poet is reading psychedelic poetry. But foremost I think the sheer morality and naivety that comes through in the film reflects the type of mentality typical for the sosialdemocratic Norway of those days.

I give it eight stars, the reason being that my second favorite Norwegian film isn't better than a seven.