Nybyggarna

I watched this the day after watching The Emigrants. They're really one film cut into two very long halves. I suppose Kill Bill 2 also is a standalone movie, but no one would recommend seeing only that and not watching Kill Bill 1. It's the same for The Emigrants and The New Land. Certain relationships in this movie only have power because of the backstory found in The Emigrants, such as Robert and Arvid's close friendship, why Kristina is so attached to Kristina despite religious differences, and even why Uncle Danjel is relevant.

The cinematography in this film felt more jarring and experimental, particularly with respect to Robert's trip out west. The movie is incredibly long and drawn out, and the timeline can be hard to pinpoint. An hour may be spent on days or weeks and then years suddenly pass between camera cuts.

This film does excel at showing both the impact of loss and how commonplace death was on the frontier. Danger never was far away, and seemingly distant occurrences suddenly could have local impact, whether the Civil War or strife with the Indian tribes. The New Land a pretty good film, but it suffers even more so than The Emigrants from overlength and without quite as much punch.