‘Ordet’—the word means ‘word’ itself. When darkness descends upon someone’s life, when the mind cannot emerge from despair no matter what, then a particular word from someone special can play a role in leading the mind toward light. That word awakens the soul, saves the spirit from the clutches of death. Believing in that word and acting upon it, a person can be freed from mental crisis. But what is needed most in this case is faith, and walking the path accordingly. Without faith, no kind of transformation is possible. That is why we see that those who understand too much, who seek logic in everything, cannot go very far in life. Finding the right person during life’s critical moments is a matter of good fortune. Even a single word from that person can save a life from the hands of death. Day after day, holding that word in one’s heart with steadfast faith, changing oneself and one’s habits, moving forward—light will surely come to life. If such a crisis ever arises in life, when all doors close one by one, then two things are needed: finding the right person, and following that person’s words somewhat blindly. This process of following is prayer. Prayer means—awakening the heart, establishing contact with the person within. This work is not collective, but individual. In this film, father Morten Borgen tells his son Anders:
Father, when I must pray for something truly urgent, I prefer to pray alone.
The revered Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer, a master among filmmakers, created Ordet in 1955. The impeccable camerawork in the film is mesmerizing. Through skillful use of light and shadow, the director has created a perfect ambiance of rural life and nature. Ordet is one of Andrei Tarkovsky’s most beloved films. Through metaphor, certain messages are conveyed in this film. Danish pastor Kaj Munk wrote a play in 1932, and Ordet is the cinematic adaptation of that play. Because he placed more faith in Jesus Christ than in Hitler, the German Nazi forces killed him. How personal, rather than institutional, religious faith works miracles to save a family during times of extreme crisis—this narrative is told through various plot arrangements in the film. Dreyer speaks here of two families: one strictly orthodox followers of Christianity, with family patriarch Peder Petersen; the other family progressive, with patriarch Morten Borgen. In the film we see that according to the Borgen family’s religious belief, God has instructed us: fulfill yourself, be joyful, enjoy life, love humanity. God is as beautiful as life itself. On the other hand, Peder’s family believes: only through self-inflicted suffering can one achieve God’s presence. Where there is no torment, there is no salvation. God is as absolute as death. This is not a film one can understand just by watching. To understand this film, one must bring into consciousness what the film didn’t show but wanted to say.
The eldest brother of the second family, Mikkel Borgen, is an atheist. In his words, he has no faith even in faith itself! His wife Inger is pregnant with their third child. Inger is cheerful, manages everything in the house, has excellent relationships with everyone in the family. All the family’s joy revolves around her. Another brother, Anders, loves Peder’s daughter Anne and wants to marry her. Peder is a tailor by profession. He is not agreeable to this marriage; he wants to marry his daughter into an orthodox Christian family like theirs. Meanwhile, despite various strategic attempts, Inger fails to convince Anders’s father about the marriage. Interestingly, when Morten learns that Peder has rejected his son, the matter wounds his self-respect, and he changes his decision, taking his son in a horse carriage to Peder’s house with a marriage proposal. The third brother is named Johannes. He believes that through him Jesus Christ has been resurrected—he is Jesus. Everyone in the family thinks that reading the Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard has driven the boy mad. Incidentally, Kierkegaard believed that conventional religion, culture, and values cannot determine true individual existence. Doing what everyone else is doing means blindness. One must break free from that. The true existence of religion lies not in books, not in institutions, but in one’s own faith, in the heart. Mikkel’s daughter Maren believes in Johannes’s power. Johannes brings Mikkel’s wife Inger back from death to life through sheer infinite faith. Many had faith, but except for Johannes, none had the unwavering determination to demand something through the strength of faith.
Here Dreyer has revealed the nature of the conflict between institutional religious belief and personal religious belief. The local pastor had also assumed that what Johannes was doing to bring Inger back from death was mere madness. The religious faith working within him was institutional. On the other hand, what was working in Maren and Johannes was personal religious faith—a faith far more powerful than collective belief. Johannes was mad in others’ eyes because his thoughts and actions were beyond others’ experience and understanding. Even in this world, those who perform miracles are all initially called mad. What ordinary people cannot see or think, perhaps seems simple and natural to those madmen. Most of us pray because we must pray; often deep faith is absent there. Filmmaker Dreyer has his character Morten Borgen say:
The fault here was not God’s, but mine. If I had prayed with faith in my heart, a miracle would have happened. Instead of doing that, I merely prayed for the sake of praying. When a father cannot pray from faith for his child—then no miracle occurs.
The film is slow-paced. While watching, no real excitement builds until the final scene arrives. The last 10 minutes constitute an invaluable treasure of world cinema. This film speaks of two types of people. First: those who live not in experience, but in books. They cannot change their own or others’ lives. Second: those who can transform their own and others’ lives through life’s experiences. The film shows that merely believing is not enough; putting that belief to work is the real task. When one demands something from faith, it is received. People cannot go far with doubt. Simply because they cannot ask, so many people never find life’s true treasures. The film contains certain messages. When Johannes attempts to bring Mikkel’s wife Inger back from death’s grasp, he fails on the first try. “I will save Inger.” The first time, showing such arrogance, nothing happened. The second time when Johannes said, “I will try to save Inger,” God was pleased with Johannes’s humble mentality and restored life to Inger. Through this metaphor, Dreyer speaks of the futility of pride in life. Looking at his wife Inger, when Mikkel says he loves her body too, the inevitability of both soul and body in love is expressed. In this film Dreyer has shown death in white, life in black. Why? When Mikkel asks his brother Johannes, “How can a person with a completely sound mind speak like a madman?” the answer comes: “You too are heading that way.” Black is the absence of all colors, while white is the presence of all colors. When life becomes complete by encountering all colors, then humans journey from black toward white. Ordet speaks of life’s mystery—a mystery that all our accumulated knowledge together cannot reveal. The resurrection shown in this film is essentially a journey from darkness toward light, moving from ignorance toward knowledge, pushing death aside to embrace life’s call. This death is the soul’s death, consciousness’s destruction.
This is a story of love, compassion, family bonds, concentration, and faith. The doctor leaves Inger in good health; some time after this, Inger falls into death’s embrace. The local pastor then thinks there is nothing to do but pray for the dead, and all family members sit together in a room. Then, giving the finger to conventional science and religion, Johannes calls Inger toward life’s path with concentrated faith, and his prayer is fulfilled. Here, through metaphor, the triumph of miracle is essentially shown. This miracle cannot be explained through any logic or conventional knowledge or custom. Much that appears impossible at first glance happens in this world—events that fall into no concept of science or religion. Films have a certain power. What a good film makes us feel perhaps cannot be explained even by writing pages and pages. But in that case, one must sit down to watch cinema free from all kinds of prejudice. Because not everything that happens in film will match our previous experience. Again, it might be that the film’s message lies hidden behind some metaphor, impossible to grasp broadly. Cinema won’t be according to my mind; I must learn to think according to the cinema—this is called watching movies. How much do we really know about what happens where? Without knowing, the bad habit of dismissing something as wrong prevents one from enjoying good cinema.