Review of The Virgin Spring (1960) by Daniel K — 19 Oct 2008

SPOILER DON'T READ IF YOU HAVENT WATCHED IT.

The Virgin Spring is Ingmar Bergman's hardest film to watch due to it's unpleasant subjects, innocence mixed with such horrific acts as rape and revenge is never a plesant thing to watch.

The Virgin Spring begins with the young and innocent Karin being sent to church by her parents (Birgitta Valberg and Max Von Sydow). On the journey Karin encounters 2 herdsmen and their younger brother, who's just a kid. She offers to share her food with them, however things turn nasty as the two men rape and murder Karin while watched by the younger boy. The group flee the scene and later seeks shelter by Karin father, unaware of the relation of course. Neither do karin parents suspect anything until they find Karin blood soaked and ripped clothes in the herdsmens belongings, and a terrible revenge is plottet by the grief strucken parents.

When watching The Virgin Spring and especially near the end, it's important to notice how religious the parents are and how much they put their faith in God and how death is portrayed, this aspects is something that dominates many of Bergman's films (Wild Straberries, Seventh Seal) But especially with The Virgin Spring one most come to terms with the outcome of ones actions, and it's here that faith plays a very big part in the fathers emmediate reaction after having killed the men. As soon as he's killed the boy, a sort of guilt, a need for forgiveness and understanding comes over him. Seen in the last scene where they find Karin's body, the father kneels down questioning God for letting such a thing happen but at the same time he questions himself for the actions he's done himself.

It's a shocking and uncomfortable movie, but at the same time it's extreamly moving and thoughtful. The movie is not especially grafic, though still shocking. One must remember that it's from 1960 after all, and the subject matter was not something that was often depicted on screen back then, but it's still done in such a way that people find such acts as rape disgusting and distateful in every way. It therefore makes The Virgin Spring's message and images just as effective as say French Casper Noe's Irriversible (2002) and other movies of the same matter.