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Max Von Sydow has died
- rishabhd 7y agoGood god, I just finished watching Shutter Island and then read this. May he rest in peace.
- 076ae80a-3c97-4 7y agoMing is dead.
- snowwrestler 7y agoMax played a critical role in what I think is an under-rated science fiction movie called “Until the End of the World.” He comes into the story pretty late, and is crucial to a tricky transition from a “road” movie to something far more dramatic. That seemed to be a popular role for him later in life—a sort of super character actor who could come in and punch up the gravitas of any scene with just a few lines. I think that says a lot about his abilities as an actor.
- ThrowItAway2Day 7y agoThe new criterion restoration is amazing! The cover art is great.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- parenthesis 7y agoI recently watched Flash Gordon for the first time since the 1980s, and Max Von Sydow's performance was a definite highlight. Casting a `proper' actor as the villain in a silly movie is always a great idea. (See, for example, Basil Rathbone in The Court Jester.)
- sbarre 7y agoIn a similar role, he played Judge Dredd's mentor/father-figure in the 1995 Sylvester Stallone movie.
- mixmastamyk 7y agoLove that one, with the Queen soundtrack.
- clucas 7y agoAnother example: Frank Langella as Skeletor in Masters of the Universe. According to the actor himself, one of his favorite roles.
- losthobbies 7y agoJeremy Irons in Eragon?
- clSTophEjUdRanu 7y agoDon't forget Strange Brew! https://youtu.be/oMI23JJUpGE https://youtu.be/oMI23JJUpGE He was also a good serious villain in Minority Report.
- nocman 7y agoHe was awesome in that role, eh! (refering to Strange Brew)
- RHSeeger 7y agoI love that movie. There was a time, back during HS, that I could recite every word while it played. I still randomly quote lines from it.
- saiya-jin 7y agoI remember him more from things like 3 days of condor or Lynch's Dune. But 7th seal is a true classic in any and all possible ways. An unmistakable actor. Respect for his work and achievements.
- braythwayt 7y agoHis performance in Three Days of the Condor was masterful. He portrayed a nondescript, unnoticeable man who was nevertheless the leader of a deadly group of assassins, operating in the shadows. At the time, people were mumbling about Robert Redford, the star. But von Sydow owned every scene he was in.
- Schattenbaer 7y agoPity they didn't mention Dune. Not the best film, nor a big role for him, but for young me it was still a wonderful experience to watch this. He replaced the imagined book version of Kynes forever in my head. Peace.
- arethuza 7y ago"Bless the maker and his water, bless the coming and going of him, may his passing cleanse the world."
- melling 7y agoFirst saw him in Three Days of the Condor, which I loved as a kid. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/three_days_of_the_condor https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/three_days_of_the_condor
- 50ckpuppet 7y agoOne of the most chilling monologues he gave at the end of that movie.
- Diederich 7y agoSydow absolutely crushed that role. In the opening scene, part of the way the massacre, he's calmly trying to get his lighter lit. Creepy and awesome.
- xenophonf 7y agoI don't know why, but the movie is available via the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ThreeDaysOfTheCondor https://archive.org/details/ThreeDaysOfTheCondor
- Diederich 7y agoGreat find, thanks! EDIT: The scene I referenced is 13 minutes and 43 seconds in. Also, I had forgotten that there were two shooters in the beginning. I only remembered 'the mailman'.
- pseudolus 7y agoStellar performance as the weary knight in "The Seventh Seal", a film more than 60 years old. Well worth seeing today and to some - with the elements of a plague in the background - of particular contemporary relevance.
- DubiousPusher 7y agoYeah, I had to look out his filmography to realize he played the main character in like every Bergman movie I've watched.
- buckminster 7y agoReviews of the film tend to focus on the serious themes, which creates an impression of worthy dullness but it's actually very entertaining and von Sydow is brilliant. Sad news, but he had a great run.
- blacksqr 7y agohttps://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_fill,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_center,h_675,pg_1,q_80,w_1200/bewtycwbaejgiqflujxx.jpg https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_fill,f_a...
- docdeek 7y agoFirst movie I saw him in was an Australian film called ‘Father’. Great film, and he won an acting award for his performance in it, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_(1990_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_(1990_film)
- grioghar 7y agoMax is/was one of my favorites. Rest well, Max. His Shutter Island performance was one that sticks with me, though you could rattle off any of them.
- thorin 7y agoThe Magician, Wild Strawberries, Through a glass darkly, The Virgin Spring and the Seventh Seal. These films are 50 years old! Being in these films alone would be enough to qualify as a cinema legend and he still had nearly 50 years to go! Extraordinary!!!
- petters 7y agoNot a major role in Wild Strawberries, though? Agree with you nonetheless!
- QuinnWilton 7y agoHe was the gas station attendant, if I remember right. A small role, but played excellently.
- mattmoose21 7y agoMy favourite roll of his was in Strange Brew. Such a powerful actor in such a silly roll.
- clSTophEjUdRanu 7y agoI love this one.
- yeahdef 7y agoThis was our 'repeat rental' growing up. My whole family loved watching this together.
- rglovejoy 7y agoHe was also in the Bob abd Doug MacKenzie movie 'Srrange Brew'.
- grewil2 7y agoI think he was great in The Emigrants and The New Land.
- alphadevx 7y agoWhat an amazing actor, he had so many fine performances during his career. I loved him in Dune, and also this cameo as King Osric in Conan the Barbarian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVTOag1lQHc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVTOag1lQHc
- at_a_remove 7y agoHe was perfect as Leland Gaunt in Needful Things. And his little turn as Joubert in Three Days of the Condor makes the life of a professional assassin seem almost reasonable. He has but a scene in Conan the Barbarian, but what a scene! "What daring! What outrageousness! What insolence! What arrogance! ... I salute you."
- tpmx 7y agoTo Americans with Scandinavian/Swedish ancestors (there sure are a lot of you), I really recommend watching these two movies starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emigrants_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emigrants_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Land https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Land They are based on a series of novels (1949 and onwards) by Vilhelm Moberg chronicling the fate of a family who decides to migrate from famine/poverty-stricken Sweden to the US in the mid 1800s. A full 25% of the Swedish population ended up migrating to the US. These two movies made Max iconic and so beloved to pretty much everyone in Sweden. They are also fantastic movies; I find myself rewatching them once every 5 years or so.
- Accujack 7y agoThanks! Moberg is very well known in the area where I grew up, I'll have to have a look.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- atombender 7y agoOne of my favourite performances of his was in another Jan Troell film, Hamsun (1996) [1], which was masterfully co-written by the great novelist Per Olov Enquist. In it, von Sydow plays the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun, who, after WW2, was accused of having collaborated with the Nazis. His portrayal of Hamsun is one of the most nuanced, moving performances I've seen on the screen. It's a superb film. He didn't play many main characters in his life, certainly not in his American movies, but he should have. (An interesting fact that will elude most non-Nordic viewers is that the cast is made up of a blend Norwegian, Swedish and Danish actors, and they all speak their own native language; von Sydow performs the role in Swedish, for example, even though Hamsun was Norwegian. The film is so well made that it doesn't make any difference at all.) This and Jan Troell's other films used to be on Criterion's streaming service, but they're not there anymore. Hamsun is only available through Kanopy, I believe, which requires a library card from one of their supported libraries. The Emigrants can be rented on Amazon Prime Video and Vudu, and the The New Land is on iTunes/Apple TV. But it's often difficult to find these masterpieces. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsun_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsun_(film)
- rdtsc 7y agoAntonius Block: I met Death today. We are playing chess Out of all the roles he played I remember him best as the knight from The Seventh Seal. Somehow his looks, demeanor and way of talking perfectly fit that of a stereotypical medieval knight.
- clSTophEjUdRanu 7y agoHe also did Esbern's voice in Skyrim. RIP
- hinkley 7y agoThat was a big moment for me. It went from "Hey this is a pretty good game" to "Holy shit they got Max von Sydow!"
- jchallis 7y agoGuess you can only turn the chessboard on Death so many times.
- Balanceinfinity 7y agoFavorite role: Hannah and her sisters. he had a great role - some humor, some sadness (when his heart is broken). This guy could totally act.
- crispyambulance 7y agoRIP Max Von Sydow, a great artist. He's forever in the canon as the protagonist in The Seventh Seal, of course. Every film buff will have something in particular that stands out in their memory about Max Von Sydow. For me, that would be the as the mad scientist, Dr Farber, in "Until the End of the World"-- a sprawling train-wreck of a film that I will always remember fondly, I don't care what the pro-critics think!
- buboard 7y agoThey finally finished that game ... RIP
- thombat 7y agoAnd Flash won, of course. Oh, not that film?
- NoblePublius 7y agoHis best work was Judge Dredd
- hinkley 7y agoI would like to heal this schism by asking that we all agree: All of his work was his best work.
- evo_9 7y agoI quite liked him in The Black Hole, which is a weird Scifi flick Disney put out in the 80's. Quite dark for a Disney flick.
- DerekL 7y agoThat was Maximilian Schell.
- W-Stool 7y agoWatch "Three Days of the Condor" if only for the scenes with DEC PDP hardware. That's the way we used to do it kids. Max was also great in this movie - I would not want that guy coming after me. RIP after an exceptional career in films.
- mongol 7y agoNo one has mentioned him in The Exorcist yet, so I do
- amp108 7y agoI always thought he was one of the greatest actors ever to grace the screen. Truly a shock to see the headline.
- williw 7y agoHis film I've watched was an old Danish one, Pelle Erobreren (Pelle the Conqueror) from director Bille August.
- Andrew_nenakhov 7y agoI was almost offended when Facebook popped me an article named "The Game Of Thrones and Judge Dredd star died", and none of the hundreds of comments ever mentioned anything but the three-eyed raven. Sad.
- WalterBright 7y agoI'm sad. He was one of my favorite actors: Flash Gordon The Emigrants The Flight of the Eagle Heidi Hawaii
- helsinkiandrew 7y agoHis exorcism scene in The Exorcist is one of the most powerful and terrifying scenes of all time: https://youtu.be/bWyi3ShHxzM https://youtu.be/bWyi3ShHxzM
- DarknessFalls 7y agoMy favorite performance of Max Von Sydow was Frederick, in Hannah and Her Sisters. His critique of television and contemporary values becomes truer every year.