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Beautifully filmed and rich with period detail, Day of Wrath peers into the past to pose timelessly thought-provoking questions about intolerance and societal mores.
All Critics (24) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (0) | DVD (2)
Dreyer's impious, anarchic drama is a cry of rage at abusive authority, whether political, familial, religious, or moral; he celebrates erotic love as the natural order of things. Feb 22, 2016 | Full Review…
Dreyer's impious, anarchic drama is a cry of rage at abusive authority, whether political, familial, religious, or moral; he celebrates erotic love as the natural order of things.
Richard Brody
However bleak, Day of Wrath is a masterpiece. See it. Oct 23, 2008 | Full Review…
However bleak, Day of Wrath is a masterpiece. See it.
Andrew Sarris
I'd be saving a spot for it near the top of my 10-best list if the movie hadn't been made 65 years ago. Aug 28, 2008
I'd be saving a spot for it near the top of my 10-best list if the movie hadn't been made 65 years ago.
Andrew O'Hehir
A stark, brooding treatment of adultery, incest, and murder, an elemental tragedy not so far from a James M. Cain triangle, albeit shot so as to deliberately evoke the Dutch masters. Aug 28, 2008 | Full Review…
A stark, brooding treatment of adultery, incest, and murder, an elemental tragedy not so far from a James M. Cain triangle, albeit shot so as to deliberately evoke the Dutch masters.
J. Hoberman
Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1943 masterpiece begins as a film about seventeenth-century witch hunts in Northern Europe, but it's really a psychological thriller about the pull of evil on weak souls. Aug 25, 2008 | Full Review…
Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1943 masterpiece begins as a film about seventeenth-century witch hunts in Northern Europe, but it's really a psychological thriller about the pull of evil on weak souls.
Sara Cardace
Astonishing in its artistically informed period re-creation as well as its hypnotic mise en scene, it challenges the viewer by suggesting at times that witchcraft isn't so much an illusion as an activity produced by intolerance. Jan 19, 2007 | Full Review…
Astonishing in its artistically informed period re-creation as well as its hypnotic mise en scene, it challenges the viewer by suggesting at times that witchcraft isn't so much an illusion as an activity produced by intolerance.
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Dreyer goes to the Christian heart of the matter in this film. Damned powerful. Jul 13, 2012 | Rating: 87/100 | Full Review…
Dreyer goes to the Christian heart of the matter in this film. Damned powerful.
Dan Jardine
This masterwork is as modern as Euripides, timeless as O'Neill and Arthur Miller, militant as Friedan or Steinem, and empathetically devastating as Hawthorne. Jul 14, 2011 | Full Review…
This masterwork is as modern as Euripides, timeless as O'Neill and Arthur Miller, militant as Friedan or Steinem, and empathetically devastating as Hawthorne.
Donald J. Levit
Anne is a romantic trapped in a vengeful world. Thus, she's doomed. Nov 22, 2010 | Full Review…
Anne is a romantic trapped in a vengeful world. Thus, she's doomed.
Kelly Vance
Dryer's precision proves highly effective in creating the film's mood of dark oppression, and every detail is perfectly in keeping with the film's tone %u2013 which often resembles a thriller. Jul 12, 2008 | Full Review…
Dryer's precision proves highly effective in creating the film's mood of dark oppression, and every detail is perfectly in keeping with the film's tone %u2013 which often resembles a thriller.
Urban Cinefile Critics
Dreyer's fluid, softly moving camera that takes in long, slow shots heightens the sensual nature of the film as well as its mystery. Feb 29, 2008 | Full Review…
Dreyer's fluid, softly moving camera that takes in long, slow shots heightens the sensual nature of the film as well as its mystery.
Jeffrey M. Anderson
There couldn't be a clearer statement made about the powerful who persecute their subjects in the name of religion. Jul 26, 2005 | Rating: A+ | Full Review…
There couldn't be a clearer statement made about the powerful who persecute their subjects in the name of religion.
Dennis Schwartz
my favorite dreyer film, more ambiguous than 'ordet', and even bleaker. made during the nazi occupation of denmark and it's easy to draw some parallels tho dreyer claimed this was unintentional on his part :P
Super Reviewer
A Dreyer film to the bone: technically innovative, critical of the dogmatic nature of Christianity, and brimming with fully-immersed, intelligent actors. I think Lisbeth Movin is a little bit unsubtle, but it might also be that she's portraying a woman so overwhelmed with new passion that she can't help but express it against her will. I love the way the movie is lit, and how it interacts dynamically with the characters' discussions of the "fire" in her eyes; she is a fascinating protagonist, repellent and sympathetic at the same time, and the language of the movie seems to reflect our constantly-shifting notions. What she is doing is wrong, but as the text unfurls to reveal a loveless marriage that she was essentially forced into, you cannot help but commend her for salvaging some bit of happiness. Fascinating work, if not totally groundbreaking in the grand scheme of Dreyer's oeuvre.
Another triumph by Carl Dreyer. A young woman marries a pastor quite a bit older than her. She meets his grown son, and they begin an affair. In the meantime, a neighbor woman who is accused of witchcraft asks the young woman to protect her from the authorities. This story of hypocrisy, intolerance and betrayal should be on everyone's must-see list. However, if you're not familiar with Dreyer's work --- AND WHY AREN'T YOU?!? -- be prepared that it's slow going. But like all of Dreyer's films, it's well-worth the effort of a little patience.
I know this is a masterpiece, but I just wasn't into it. It's sooo solemn and glum and metaphorical.
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