elvircorhodzic THE VIRGIN SPRING is a drama, which questions moral and religious themes through events of rape and revenge.In medieval Sweden a rich grandees sends his daughter to take candles to the church. She is accompanied by her pregnant servant, who secretly worships a Norse deity. They travel through the forest on horseback. The servant is scared and begins to lag behind. She encounters a one-eyed man at an old mill. The one-eyed man tried to harass her. During that time, three herders lurk a beautiful daughter...Mr. Bergman has tried, in an explicit, rude and brutal way to equalize a criminal and a vigilante. Moral games have reflected through human power in certain moments, which is in contrast with the fear of God. Rape is very realistic and brutal in this film. This could cause the opposite effect on the audience. This, regardless of the "Bergman's artistic magic", was unexpected. An innocent teenage story turns into a nightmare. However, the religious motive is constant. Symbols of innocence were killed in a primal passion and an unbearable pain.A medieval scenery contributes to a visual impression. Expressions on the faces says a lot more than words. All characters are faced with some form of a guilt.Max von Sydow as Töre is a stubborn husband, caring father and fanatical avenger. Birgitta Valberg as Märeta is the mother, who is full of understanding and superstition at the same time. Birgitta Pettersson is a naive and innocent beauty. Gunnel Lindblom as Ingeri is a cursed maid. I will mention Ove Porath (Boy), who is perhaps a stronger symbol of innocence as opposed to beauty.All living protagonists have experienced a "strange" purification at the end of the film.

disinterested_spectator Being an atheist, I have always found it challenging to review a religious movie, because I worry that my criticism will be more about religion than about the movie. This difficulty is compounded if it is not clear what the attitude of those who produced the movie is toward that religion, whether they intended the movie to be a criticism of religion or a defense of it. In other words, it is not clear to me whether "The Virgin Spring" looks upon the simple faith of some fourteenth century peasants in the same way that parents will smile at their child's belief in Santa Claus, or whether the movie actually shares that faith in God and encourages us to do likewise.Anyway, as I said, there is this fourteenth century family of Swedish peasants headed by Töre. His daughter is Karin, who is a blonde virgin. Well, her body may be pure, but her soul is not. She is lazy, vain, and spoiled, smug in the fact that she is so cute and adorable that she can do as she pleases. She has a foster sister, Ingeri, who is a brunette, a bastard soon to give birth to a bastard of her own. The two of them set out for church to do something or other, and on the way it turns out that the other night Karin was flirting with the man that got Ingeri pregnant. Though there is no hope that he will marry Ingeri, yet Karin's dalliance with him infuriates Ingeri. Just to rub it in, Karin taunts Ingeri for no longer being a virgin, while gloating over the way she will someday be married in all her virginal purity. She really made my flesh crawl.They get separated, and soon after Karin comes upon three goat herders that rape and murder her. They strip her body of her beautiful clothes. Later, they ask for lodging at Töre's house, not realizing he is Karin's father. That night, they present Karin's clothing to her mother as a gift, saying it belonged to their sister. She tells Töre about it. He asks Ingeri what she knows, and she admits that she witnessed the rape and murder and feels guilty because she wanted Karin to get her comeuppance. Töre then murders the three goat herders, one of whom was just a boy, who had nothing to do with what happened to Karin. Then Töre feels guilty for having committed murder. The whole family goes out to where Karin's body lies dead. When they find her, Töre raises the ancient problem of evil, asking why God let this happen and then let him commit murder, while at the same time saying that he begs God's forgiveness.Now, this is what I was talking about. Are we supposed to approve of Töre's attitude or should we be disgusted? I mean, I'm disgusted. In fact, it is even a little disgusting that he had to wait until his daughter was raped and murdered before questioning how an all-powerful, loving God could let this happen. After all, God has been standing by and letting girls get raped and murdered for centuries, and it is only now, when his daughter is a victim, that he takes exception to God's indifference. So, am I being disgusted with the movie or with the religion that this movie is premised upon?It gets worse. Töre promises to build a church on the spot where Karin died, in hopes of being worthy of God's forgiveness. Then, when they lift up her body, water begins to gush from the ground where she lay, becoming a spring. The family treats the water as if it is a miracle, a replenishing gift from God. That's right. Karin's rape and murder have been worth it, because now we are going to get a church with a little spring nearby. Perhaps I should point out that there is no shortage of water in that area, the family having crossed a large stream on their way to get to Karin, so it is not as though the spring will bring needed water to a parched region. It's just more water.Here we go again. I don't know whether we are supposed to regard that spring as a real miracle or not. If it is a miracle, then we have to wonder: as long as God was willing to perform a miracle, why didn't he miraculously save Karin instead? If it is not a miracle, are we supposed to despise or admire the family for thinking it is one?I give up. I'll have to let someone who actually believes in God tell me what I am supposed to make of this movie.

lampic I guess to many viewers today, Bergman can be difficult to approach as he lived in his own world and did not follow any accepted cliché - the budget is fairly limited, there's nothing flashy or bombastic, not even a background music, the focus is entirely on story, actors and their faces. Myself, I watch all of this with amazement and thrill, but to my greatest sorrow and disappointment, this enthusiasm is not shared amongst my friends who have accepted movies as entertainment. I still remember the first time that I encountered "The Seventh Seal" and what a mind-boggling experience that was, I wanted to stop VHS tape and write down the phrases coming from the movie. "Virgin spring" mesmerized me at first because of its scenery - medieval Sweden, simple farm with lord and his wife, house help and world where old pagan religion has still not completely replaced with Christianity. Than there is a story itself - faith, guilt, sin, crime, punishment - full of close-ups of people's faces, terrors and fears. Lots of time we don't need any dialogue, everything is clearly shown on the faces. Come to think of it, it does feel like a silent movie occasionally, which in my eyes is even bigger achievement, like theater director working on a silent movie actually. Unforgettable.Again, seeing something so truly original, powerful and artistic but apparently my enthusiasm is not shared amongst the people around me. I love my friends dearly, but something I do feel like alien, to realize our ways of thinking differs so much. It is very interesting - I was born and raised here, so what on earth made my perspective so different? I guess life experiences, travels (real and imaginative) did made some differences after all. Perhaps I just continued to grow in my own, particular direction, just like they did.

jwbeauch I saw "The Virgin Spring" 54 years ago in 1960 when it first came out. At the time it seemed like the most realistic movie I had ever seen, and I still feel that way today, although I have not seen it since that time. (Another movie that has a comparable level of realism is "Das Boot", but that is based on a true story.) My memories of the movie are still vivid, especially the scenes of people eating at a crude table without modern utensils and von Sydow preparing himself by whipping his own body in a sauna. 14th century rural Sweden was portrayed so convincingly that I felt I was *in* the movie. To pull off the realism the acting and cinematography had to be outstanding and it was. Also, the plot was very carefully crafted, and for the time era and location it was a perfect fit.