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Day of Wrath
Directed by
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Not Rated
1943
1h 37m
Drama
,
History
8.1
100%
91%
Watch Free
The young wife of an aging priest falls in love with his son amidst the horror of a merciless witch hunt in 17th-century Denmark.
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Cast of Day of Wrath
Thorkild Roose
Rev. Absalon Pederssøn (uncredited)
Lisbeth Movin
Anne Pedersdotter, Absalon's Second Wife (uncredited)
Preben Lerdorff Rye
Martin, Absalon's Son from First Marriage (uncredited)
Sigrid Neiiendam
Merete, Absalon's Mother (uncredited)
Anna Svierkier
Herlofs Marte (uncredited)
Albert Høeberg
The Bishop (uncredited)
Olaf Ussing
Laurentius (uncredited)
Preben Neergaard
Degn (uncredited)
Kirsten Andreasen
(uncredited)
Sigurd Berg
(uncredited)
Harald Holst
(uncredited)
Emanuel Jørgensen
(uncredited)
Sophie Knudsen
(uncredited)
Emilie Nielsen
(uncredited)
Hans Christian Sørensen
(uncredited)
Dagmar Wildenbrück
(uncredited)
Day of Wrath Ratings & Reviews
Mike
October 11, 2024
Day of Wrath shows us how the ethics of religion can conflict with the moral values of an individual, and how this can manifest itself into a moral dilemma. "I'm seeing you through tears, but nobody is coming to wipe them away." Carl Theodore Dreyer, the director of the film, is known for the religious themes in his films—with The Passion of Joan of Arc being his most well-known. Day of Wrath is the more subtle of the two, whereas The Passion of Joan of Arc is more direct in asking the moral questions. Just like most other religious films, Day of Wrath asks the same moral questions: Right vs wrong... good vs evil. Is Anne wrong for falling in love with Absalon's son? Is Martin wrong for falling in love with his father's wife? Is Absalon wrong for sparing Anne's mother to get with Anne? Is Absalon's mother wrong for hating Anne? These are questions that can not be answered with a simple yes or no, and we are made aware of this through the characters—throughout the film we see how much all the characters are in conflict with their morals. There is a specific scene where Absalon tells Anne that her mother admitted she had the power of calling—That she could call the living and the dead, and they had to come. If she wishes someone dead, they died. Anne says something very important to Absalon regarding these strange powers her mother had... "To think that a human being can possess such power." To think a human being can possess the power to wish someone dead, and they actually die. The thing religion accuses women to be a witch for, is the same thing they are punishing them with—they wish death on the so-called witches by burning them at the stake. Anne asks Absalon if it is true that he spared her mother to get her, to which he never gives a direct answer—showing us that he is in conflict with his morals. Absalon says he has a lot to discuss with God... As if he hopes that he will solve his moral dilemma with the ethics of religion. He feels conflicted because he realizes that he, not only, has the power to wish someone dead, but also has the power to wish someone alive. So, not only does he have the same power as the so-called witches, he also has the power to make his own decisions—decisions that were always influenced by the ethics of religion. And now that Absalon becomes more and more aware that he can make his own decisions, and that his morals do not always align with the ethics of his religion, does this mean he will lose faith in his religion? Is this how his faith is being tested? There is one shot of a text being written on paper that beautifully shows how the powerful ethics of religion can conflict with your morals: "On this day, which was exceptionally fine, Herlof Marte was burnt, happily." Read full review at Letterboxd: Mike_v_E
Cinemania
Dan Jardine
Dreyer goes to the Christian heart of the matter in this film. Damned powerful.
Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Dennis Schwartz
There couldn't be a clearer statement made about the powerful who persecute their subjects in the name of religion.
The New Yorker
Richard Brody
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.
Observer
Andrew Sarris
However bleak, Day of Wrath is a masterpiece. See it.
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
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.
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
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.
New York Magazine/Vulture
Sara Cardace
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.
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
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.
Austin Chronicle
George Morris
The triple crosses of faith, doubt, and heresy are borne by Dreyer's characters across a cinematic landscape of darkness and light, shadow and substance.
ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Donald J. Levit
This masterwork is as modern as Euripides, timeless as O'Neill and Arthur Miller, militant as Friedan or Steinem, and empathetically devastating as Hawthorne.
East Bay Express
Kelly Vance
Anne is a romantic trapped in a vengeful world. Thus, she's doomed.
Combustible Celluloid
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Dreyer's fluid, softly moving camera that takes in long, slow shots heightens the sensual nature of the film as well as its mystery.
MovieMartyr.com
Jeremy Heilman
Day of Wrath is probably the simplest of the Dreyer films that I've seen, but it is still a great work.
Q Network Film Desk
James Kendrick
Dreyer was a master of conveying emotion in a way that can only be called "literary"
TV Guide
A study of good and evil, repression and oppression, sexuality and guilt, Day of Wrath is a truly spiritual film.
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