Karl XII (1925) Online

This was originally a spectacular project in two films of altogether 265 minutes, which in 1933 were cut down into only one film of 100 minutes with a sound track of music to it. The mutilated film gives an impression like of a news reel of the Great Nordic War in the early 1700s with no depth to it at all and little characterization except for the king who is mainly only posing. Even the script is poor although written by one of the leading Swedish authors at the time, while the main impact of the film is the grandiose battle scenes involving many statists in no end to their muddle. Brunius made two more epic silent films like this, and both are better than this one. However, it's a great story and tragedy, the fall of the super power of Sweden in that war in which Peter the Great and Russia took over the lead of power in north-eastern Europe, and you can't make a bad film on such a historical impeccable and impressive ground, while the film actually misses much of the story and ignores half of it. Denmark and Finland are not involved or mentioned at all, although they were major parts of the tragedy, the most important part of the first battle of Narva (the sudden snow storm) is totally ignored, and Peter the Great is made almost a caricature. Gösta Ekman as the king makes him an impressive character indeed and almost without speaking. The sub plot of the family is interesting, and it probably plays a significant part in the original. Like Abel Gance's great 5 hour film of Napoleon, also this original should be worth discovering and restoring.

The music fitted in 1933 is interesting, though. It's a miscellanous blend of very much Handel, some Chopin and Borodin in the Polish and Russian scenes, even a stroke of Sibelius, while the dominating tune is the March of Charles XII of doubtful origin, possibly even Russian, which fits well into the context.