Flight of the Eagle
Encyclopedia
Flight of the Eagle is a 1982
Swedish
biographical
drama
film directed by Jan Troell, based on Per Olof Sundman
's novelization of the true story of S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897
, an ill-fated effort to reach the North Pole in which all three expedition members perished. The film stars Max von Sydow
as S.A. Andrée
, Sverre Anker Ousdal
as Knut Frænkel
and Göran Stangertz
as Nils Strindberg
. Dutch-Swedish songwriter Cornelis Vreeswijk
plays the role of the journalist Lundström.
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
at the 55th Academy Awards
. Many sequences from the film were used in the 1997
documentary A Frozen Dream
(En frusen dröm), also directed by Troell.
, the original writer of the novel Per Olof Sundman
and a few other people went to Spitsbergen
for location scouting
. Troell was at the time in the post-production process of his film Bang!
, and when Bang! was selected for the 1977 Cannes Film Festival
, the plan was to use the festival to attract investors. However, Bang! was poorly received and the interest faded even from the Swedish Film Institute
. The project was put on hold and Troell went to the United States
to direct Hurricane
, an assignment he was offered after the previous director Roman Polanski
had suddenly left the country to avoid sentencing for unlawful sexual intercourse with a thirteen-year-old in Los Angeles.
When Troell returned to Sweden, and the film institute had gotten Jörn Donner
as its new managing director, the project was revived. In May 1979 the new writing process started, this time led by Georg Oddner
and Klaus Rifbjerg
, with Donner himself as producer. The financing was difficult, not least because it coincided with the making of Fanny and Alexander
, at the time the most expensive Swedish film ever made.
, the hometown of Andrée. It was entered into the 1982 Venice Film Festival
, where Max von Sydow won the Pasinetti Award for Best Actor. A VHS version was released in Sweden in November 2000, but no DVD or Blueray version exists, nor is there any version with English subtitles. However, a version with Swedish dialogue and English subtitles was broadcast on New Zealand television in the 1990s.
by Monika Tunbäck-Hanson: "It is the overall approach and the fixed grip that contemprary Swedish films are so often lacking. Jan Troell lacks neither." Hans Erik Hjertén at Dagens Nyheter
made a comparison to Troell's previous films: "The smallness of the humans, ripped from the larger community, is cleverly demonstrated by Troell by letting Strindberg at a distance cover his comrades with a single finger! In such details, the storyteller Troell has always had his strength and has it here too, but he is more restrained than before, it appears to me. Here is not the same profusion of lyrical whims as in previous films."
Internationally the film was also well received. Vincent Canby
expressed in a review for The New York Times
how he would like to know more about which parts of the story that were derived directly from Andrée's journal and which were speculation. He further wrote that the film "leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Yet the adventure is both panoramic and unusually intimate. Toward the end of the expedition, the personal drama of the three men, as they are overtaken by fate, is detailed with an intensity that is as moving as the earlier sequences are spectacular."
1982 in film
-Events:* March 26 = I Ought to Be in Pictures, starring Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret and Dinah Manoff is released. Manoff would not appear in another movie until 1987's Backfire.* June = PG-rated film E.T...
Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
biographical
Biographical film
A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...
drama
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
film directed by Jan Troell, based on Per Olof Sundman
Per Olof Sundman
Per Olof Sundman was a Swedish writer and politician.Sundman was born in Vaxholm. After World War II, Sundman joined the Centre Party and was elected to the Riksdag....
's novelization of the true story of S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897
S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897
S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 was an ill-fated effort to reach the North Pole in which all three expedition members perished. S. A. Andrée , the first Swedish balloonist, proposed a voyage by hydrogen balloon from Svalbard to either Russia or Canada, which was to pass,...
, an ill-fated effort to reach the North Pole in which all three expedition members perished. The film stars Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...
as S.A. Andrée
Salomon August Andrée
Salomon August Andrée , during his lifetime most often known as S. A. Andrée, was a Swedish engineer, physicist, aeronaut and polar explorer who died while leading an attempt to reach the Geographic North Pole by hydrogen balloon...
, Sverre Anker Ousdal
Sverre Anker Ousdal
Sverre Anker Ousdal is a Norwegian actor born in Flekkefjord, Norway.-Biography:Ousdal made his debut in 1965 at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen...
as Knut Frænkel
Knut Frænkel
Knut Hjalmar Ferdinand Frænkel was a Swedish engineer and arctic explorer who perished in the Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 of S. A...
and Göran Stangertz
Göran Stangertz
Göran Nils Robert Stangertz is a Swedish actor and director and presently director at Helsingborgsteatern. He has won Sweden's most prestigious film award Guldbaggen twice in the category best male leading role for his roles in Det sista äventyret and Spring för livet .-External links:...
as Nils Strindberg
Nils Strindberg
Nils Strindberg was a Swedish photographer who was one of the three members of S. A. Andrée's ill-fated Arctic balloon expedition of 1897. Before perishing on Kvitøya with Andrée and Knut Frænkel, Strindberg recorded on film their long doomed struggle on foot to reach populated areas...
. Dutch-Swedish songwriter Cornelis Vreeswijk
Cornelis Vreeswijk
Cornelis Vreeswijk , was a singer-songwriter, poet and actor born in IJmuiden in the Netherlands.He emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949 at the age of twelve. He was educated as a social worker and hoped to become a journalist, but became increasingly involved in music, performing at...
plays the role of the journalist Lundström.
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
at the 55th Academy Awards
55th Academy Awards
The 55th Academy Awards were presented April 11, 1983 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Liza Minnelli, Dudley Moore, Richard Pryor, and Walter Matthau.Louis Gossett, Jr...
. Many sequences from the film were used in the 1997
1997 in film
-Events:* The original Star Wars trilogy's Special Editions are released.* Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.* Titanic becomes the first film to gross US$1,000,000,000 at the box office making it the highest grossing film in history until Avatar broke the record in 2010.*...
documentary A Frozen Dream
A Frozen Dream
A Frozen Dream is a documentary film released in 1997 as a followup to the 1982 Swedish movie Flight of the Eagle, both directed by Jan Troell. The documentary describes the ill-fated attempt to fly over the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon by Salomon August Andrée in 1897....
(En frusen dröm), also directed by Troell.
Cast
- Max von SydowMax von SydowMax von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...
as Salomon August AndréeSalomon August AndréeSalomon August Andrée , during his lifetime most often known as S. A. Andrée, was a Swedish engineer, physicist, aeronaut and polar explorer who died while leading an attempt to reach the Geographic North Pole by hydrogen balloon... - Göran StangertzGöran StangertzGöran Nils Robert Stangertz is a Swedish actor and director and presently director at Helsingborgsteatern. He has won Sweden's most prestigious film award Guldbaggen twice in the category best male leading role for his roles in Det sista äventyret and Spring för livet .-External links:...
as Nils StrindbergNils StrindbergNils Strindberg was a Swedish photographer who was one of the three members of S. A. Andrée's ill-fated Arctic balloon expedition of 1897. Before perishing on Kvitøya with Andrée and Knut Frænkel, Strindberg recorded on film their long doomed struggle on foot to reach populated areas... - Sverre Anker OusdalSverre Anker OusdalSverre Anker Ousdal is a Norwegian actor born in Flekkefjord, Norway.-Biography:Ousdal made his debut in 1965 at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen...
as Knut FrænkelKnut FrænkelKnut Hjalmar Ferdinand Frænkel was a Swedish engineer and arctic explorer who perished in the Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 of S. A... - Clément Harari as Henri LachambreHenri LachambreHenri Lachambre was a French manufacturer of balloons. His factory was in the Paris suburb Vaugirard. He also participated in ballooning himself and attained a number of 500 ascents....
- Eva von Hanno as Gurli Linder
- Lotta Larsson as Anna CharlierAnna CharlierAnna Albertina Constantia Charlier was a Swedish woman, today most commonly remembered as the fiancé of Nils Strindberg, participant in the Northpole-expedition of S. A. Andrée in 1897....
- Jan-Olof StrandbergJan-Olof StrandbergJan-Olof Strandberg is a Swedish stage and film actor. He has appeared in 45 films since 1947. On stage one of his most famous parts is as Vladimir in Samuel Becketts Waiting For Godot, at Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theatre .He appeared in Erland Josephsons play Blomsterplockarna at...
as Nils EkholmNils Gustaf EkholmNils Gustaf Ekholm was a Swedish meteorologist who led a Swedish geophysical expedition to Spitsbergen in 1882–1883.Ekholm was born in Smedjebacken in Dalarna, son of a pharmacist... - Henric HolmbergHenric HolmbergSven Martin Henric Holmberg, is a Swedish actor, director and scriptwriter.-Biography:Henric Holmberg was born in Växjö...
as Vilhelm SwedenborgVilhelm SwedenborgGustaf Vilhelm Emanuel Swedenborg son of lieutenant colonel Gustaf Erik Oscar Swedenborg and Maria Therése Fock, was a Swedish military and aeronaut, today remembered as a reservist on Salomon August Andrées failed Northpole-expedition in 1897 and for being one of the first Swedish balloonists... - Ulla SjöblomUlla SjöblomUlla Sjöblom was a Swedish film actress. She appeared in 50 films between 1952 and 1988.-Selected filmography:* Karin Månsdotter * Wild Birds * The Magician * Rötmånad...
as Andrée's Sister - Mimi PollakMimi PollakMaria Helena "Mimi" Pollak was a Swedish actress and theatre director.- Mini biography :Maria Helena Pollak was born in Hammarö, Värmland to Austrian-Jewish parents and was trained in the performing arts at the prestigious Dramatens elevskola in Stockholm 1922-24.Pollak worked in the 1920s and...
as Mina Andrée - Cornelis VreeswijkCornelis VreeswijkCornelis Vreeswijk , was a singer-songwriter, poet and actor born in IJmuiden in the Netherlands.He emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949 at the age of twelve. He was educated as a social worker and hoped to become a journalist, but became increasingly involved in music, performing at...
as Lundström - Ingvar KjellsonIngvar KjellsonIngvar Kjellson is a Swedish stage and film actor. He won the Eugene O'Neill Award in 1978.-Reference:* , at Dramaten...
as Alfred NobelAlfred NobelAlfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments... - Bruno Sörwing as Oscar II of SwedenOscar II of SwedenOscar II , baptised Oscar Fredrik was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until 1905. The third son of King Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg, he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden through his mother.-Early life:At his birth in Stockholm, Oscar...
- Åke Wihlney as The Captain
- Berto Marklund as The Ship's Doctor
- Knut Husebø as Fridtjof NansenFridtjof NansenFridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In his youth a champion skier and ice skater, he led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888, and won international fame after reaching a...
- Allan Schulman as Adolf Erik NordenskiöldAdolf Erik NordenskiöldFreiherr Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld , also known as A. E. Nordenskioeld was a Finnish baron, geologist, mineralogist and arctic explorer of Finnish-Swedish origin. He was a member of the prominent Finland-Swedish Nordenskiöld family of scientists...
- Staffan Liljander as The Inventor
- Peter Schildt as Andrée's clerk
- Siv EricksSiv EricksSiv Ericks , born in Oxelösund, Sörmland, was a Swedish actress who performed in 66 Swedish films over a 53-year career.She began her film career with a leading role in the 1939 film Rosor varje kväll...
as Mrs. Assarsson
Production
The early drafts for a script were written in 1977, and the same year a team consisting of Jan Troell, the producer Bengt ForslundBengt Forslund
Bengt Forslund is a Swedish film producer, screenwriter and production manager. He produced and co-wrote The Emigrants , for which he was nominated for Academy Awards for both Best Picture and Writing Adapted Screenplay.-Selected filmography:* Made in Sweden * The Emigrants * A Handful of Love *...
, the original writer of the novel Per Olof Sundman
Per Olof Sundman
Per Olof Sundman was a Swedish writer and politician.Sundman was born in Vaxholm. After World War II, Sundman joined the Centre Party and was elected to the Riksdag....
and a few other people went to Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...
for location scouting
Location scouting
Location scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking and commercial photography. Once scriptwriters, producers or directors have decided what general kind of scenery they require for the various parts of their work that is shot outside of the studio, the search for a...
. Troell was at the time in the post-production process of his film Bang!
Bang! (1977 film)
Bang! is a 1977 Swedish drama film directed by Jan Troell. It was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Susan Hampshire - Cilla Brown* Alf Hellberg - Older Colleague* Kristina Kamnert-Suneson - Cleaning woman...
, and when Bang! was selected for the 1977 Cannes Film Festival
1977 Cannes Film Festival
The 30th Cannes Film Festival was held on May 13-27. A new non-competitive section, 'Le Passé composé', is held at this festival only and focuses on compilations.- Jury :*Roberto Rossellini *N'Sougan Agblemagnon...
, the plan was to use the festival to attract investors. However, Bang! was poorly received and the interest faded even from the Swedish Film Institute
Swedish Film Institute
The Swedish Film Institute was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. The institute is housed in the Filmhuset building located in Gärdet, Östermalm in Stockholm...
. The project was put on hold and Troell went to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to direct Hurricane
Hurricane (1979 film)
Hurricane is a 1979 romance, epic-adventure film featuring an all-star cast and impressive special effects, produced by: Dino De Laurentiis and Lorenzo Semple Jr, and directed by Jan Troell...
, an assignment he was offered after the previous director Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
had suddenly left the country to avoid sentencing for unlawful sexual intercourse with a thirteen-year-old in Los Angeles.
When Troell returned to Sweden, and the film institute had gotten Jörn Donner
Jörn Donner
Jörn Johan Donner is a Finnish writer, film director, actor, producer, politician, member of the Donner family and founder of Finnish Film Archive. He has been associated with several different political parties, and has at different times been a member both of the Finnish parliament and the...
as its new managing director, the project was revived. In May 1979 the new writing process started, this time led by Georg Oddner
Georg Oddner
Georg Mirskij Oddner was one of Swedens greatest photographers from the 20th century.Oddner was a jazz musician and studying advertising in the 1940s when he first came into contact with photography through John Melin, art diretor at Svenska Telegrambyrån in Malmö, the largest advertising agency...
and Klaus Rifbjerg
Klaus Rifbjerg
Klaus Rifbjerg is a Danish writer. He has written more than 170 novels, books and essays.- Biography :Rifbjerg was born in Copenhagen and grew up on the island of Amager, a part of the city, the child of two teachers...
, with Donner himself as producer. The financing was difficult, not least because it coincided with the making of Fanny and Alexander
Fanny and Alexander
Fanny and Alexander is a 1982 Swedish fantasy drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was originally conceived as a four-part TV movie and cut in that version, spanning 312 minutes. A 188-minute version was created later for cinematic release, although this version was in fact the...
, at the time the most expensive Swedish film ever made.
Release
The film premiered on 26 August 1982 in GrännaGränna
Gränna is a locality situated in Jönköping Municipality, Jönköping County, Sweden with 2,578 inhabitants in 2005. It is situated in Småland on the eastern shores of the lake Vättern, about 35 km north of Jönköping....
, the hometown of Andrée. It was entered into the 1982 Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
, where Max von Sydow won the Pasinetti Award for Best Actor. A VHS version was released in Sweden in November 2000, but no DVD or Blueray version exists, nor is there any version with English subtitles. However, a version with Swedish dialogue and English subtitles was broadcast on New Zealand television in the 1990s.
Critical reception
The Swedish critics were generally very positive about the film. It was praised for its attention to details and how complete it felt in a review in Göteborgs-PostenGöteborgs-Posten
Göteborgs-Posten is a major daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Gothenburg, with containing coverage of local, regional, national and international issues. It is chiefly distributed in western Götaland. It has the second largest national circulation, after Dagens Nyheter and before...
by Monika Tunbäck-Hanson: "It is the overall approach and the fixed grip that contemprary Swedish films are so often lacking. Jan Troell lacks neither." Hans Erik Hjertén at Dagens Nyheter
Dagens Nyheter
is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It has the largest circulation of Swedish morning newspapers, followed by Göteborgs-Posten and Svenska Dagbladet, and is the only morning newspaper that is distributed to subscribers across the whole country. In 2009 DN had a circulation of 316,000, reaching 881...
made a comparison to Troell's previous films: "The smallness of the humans, ripped from the larger community, is cleverly demonstrated by Troell by letting Strindberg at a distance cover his comrades with a single finger! In such details, the storyteller Troell has always had his strength and has it here too, but he is more restrained than before, it appears to me. Here is not the same profusion of lyrical whims as in previous films."
Internationally the film was also well received. Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
expressed in a review for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
how he would like to know more about which parts of the story that were derived directly from Andrée's journal and which were speculation. He further wrote that the film "leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Yet the adventure is both panoramic and unusually intimate. Toward the end of the expedition, the personal drama of the three men, as they are overtaken by fate, is detailed with an intensity that is as moving as the earlier sequences are spectacular."