King of Devil's Island (2011)
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Reviews Counted: 44
Fresh: 41 | Rotten: 3
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 13
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 1,383
Movie Info
This true story of the infamous Bastøy Boys Home correctional facility in Norway, begins with the arrival of seventeen-year-old Erling, a rumored murderer. He immediately clashes with the island facility's governor (Stellan Skarsgård), who believes manual labor, rigid discipline, and harsh punishment are the only methods that can turn the boys into honorable members of society. Refusing to accept the constant abuse, Erling slowly rouses the rest of the boys out of their resigned existence, and
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Cast
-
Stellan Skarsgård
Governor/Bestyreren -
Kristoffer Joner
Brathen -
Benjamin Helstad
Erling -
Trond Nilssen
Olav -
Kimmo Rajala
Policeman -
Ellen Dorrit Petersen
Astrid -
Magnus Langlete
Ivar
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All Critics (44) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (41) | Rotten (3) | DVD (1)
Rather one-note in its bleakness, and doesn't have a vast amount to say beyond 'reform school sucks'.
Top CriticPossibly no one else does "grim" with as much unsparing enthusiasm as the Scandinavians.
Skarsgard is riveting throughout as a man whose high morality is steeped in hypocrisy and whose mask of civility easily slips, when challenged, to reveal the monster beneath.
[An] austere and occasionally stirring yarn.
The film plays well, and is involving, but in one form or another, this is a story often told.
"King of Devil's Island" is surprisingly effective, and affecting, given the familiarity of its material.
It's a very measured account of how men will accept their fates to a degree, slowly coil up and then spring with anger.
A slow-burning but satisfying drama that persuasively blends elements of Scum and Papillon.
The acting is superb and director Marius Holst's embellishment of the facts keeps your attention throughout.
There's an impressive force to the performances and, amid the ice and snow, the film burns with a sense of injustice that deservedly made it a hit in Norway.
Very good but very heavy; the film's chilly, snow-blasted environs accurately reflect the tale's dour tone.
Based on a true story, there is a dramatic force here, even if the whole is a trifle long and repetitive.
A slow-burning film with echoes of Papillon in its celebration of an indomitable human spirit.
Robust acting and crisp direction eases the old-rope material through to the inevitable conflagration.
beneath the staid, ordered, colour-dulled surfaces of Marius Holst's King of Devil's Island lurk various forms of hypocrisy, corruption and abuse, suggesting something very rotten in the (then) state of Norway.
A grim treatise on the origins of violence, with excellent performances from the largely unknown young cast.
This may be a familiar tale - rough-around-the edges dissenter against a barbaric system - but it's well told and the icy wastes of the island provide a chilling backdrop to the cruelty dealt out to the boys.
A bleakly beautiful, austere film that doesn't patronise its audience.
It's pleasing to see something from the Nordic countries that doesn't involve police procedure and chunky jumpers.
King of Devil's Island is poetic story of friendship and adolescence in the bleak, cold and brutal 1915 Bastoy. It's a snow covered, potent mixture of Sleepers, Shawshank Redemption and Lord of the Flies.
The true events on which the film are based are wonderfully stranger than fiction, and by the end of the film I was deeply moved and thrilled by what I had seen.
The majority of the films running time is spent with these boys. We feel their hunger, their humiliation and the chill of the ice-bound landscape they call home. As a result King of Devil's Island is a film set to make viewers sad and angry.
A compelling story of defiance after hypocrisy transforms discipline and order into oppression and brutality.
Honest and authentic, the filmmaker takes his subject seriously and gives us a complex and thought provoking film
Escape might be top of mind for the rebellious new recruit as he is inducted into a society intent on crushing every ounce of self-respect, but it is the relationships that evolve that become the film's beating heart
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Movie: ID: 771229702 Title: King of Devil's Island Release Date: 2011-11-18 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 6 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- King of Devil's Island (DE)
- King of Devil's Island (Kongen av Bastoy) (UK)
