Critic Reviews
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Tom Huddleston, Time Out
Rather one-note in its bleakness, and doesn't have a vast amount to say beyond 'reform school sucks'.
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Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
Possibly no one else does "grim" with as much unsparing enthusiasm as the Scandinavians.
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Bruce Demara, Toronto Star
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.
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Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
[An] austere and occasionally stirring yarn.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
The film plays well, and is involving, but in one form or another, this is a story often told.
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Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
"King of Devil's Island" is surprisingly effective, and affecting, given the familiarity of its material.
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Graham Young, Birmingham Post
It's a very measured account of how men will accept their fates to a degree, slowly coil up and then spring with anger.
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Allan Hunter, The List
A slow-burning but satisfying drama that persuasively blends elements of Scum and Papillon.
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Alex Zane, Sun Online
The acting is superb and director Marius Holst's embellishment of the facts keeps your attention throughout.
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Jason Solomons, Observer [UK]
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.
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Jim Schembri, 3AW
Very good but very heavy; the film's chilly, snow-blasted environs accurately reflect the tale's dour tone.
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, This is London
Based on a true story, there is a dramatic force here, even if the whole is a trifle long and repetitive.
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Allan Hunter, Daily Express
A slow-burning film with echoes of Papillon in its celebration of an indomitable human spirit.
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Xan Brooks, Guardian [UK]
Robust acting and crisp direction eases the old-rope material through to the inevitable conflagration.
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Anton Bitel, Little White Lies
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.
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Shaun Munro, What Culture
A grim treatise on the origins of violence, with excellent performances from the largely unknown young cast.
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Tim Evans, Sky Movies
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.
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David Hughes, Empire Magazine
A bleakly beautiful, austere film that doesn't patronise its audience.
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Neil Smith, Total Film
It's pleasing to see something from the Nordic countries that doesn't involve police procedure and chunky jumpers.
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Blake Howard, 2UE That Movie Show
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.
Read all 25 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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Ok. I am convinced..Stellan Skarsgard + movie role = quality film! This based-on-a-true-story film is top-notch good. This is what great filmmaking is all about. A magnificent, and unforgettable film. Every scene is perfect, each actor's performance is spot on. If this movie… More
Ok. I am convinced..Stellan Skarsgard + movie role = quality film! This based-on-a-true-story film is top-notch good. This is what great filmmaking is all about. A magnificent, and unforgettable film. Every scene is perfect, each actor's performance is spot on. If this movie doesn't touch you on some level, I don't know what will. My ONLY complaint is there was no follow up summary, but I guess we can all google things these days..so I forgive them...
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For those who like true stories and abhor cruelty and injustice, this is your film.
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'The King of Devil's Island'. A sobering tale on the abuse of power and the small rebellions that can lead to outright chaos.
The grim, beautiful Norwegian winter plays a fine backdrop to all round solid performances.
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Don't know what part of it is true and what's not, but it's a been-there-seen-it-all plot. The problem here is that the movie neither enlightens nor entertains. The Devil's Island needs a better king.
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In 1915, Erling(Benjamin Helstad) and Ivar(Magnus Langlete) are sent to the boys reform camp on Bastoy Island, under the stewardship of its governor, Bestyreren(Stellan Skarsgard), who assigns them to C dorm with its very watchful housefather, Brathen(Kristoffer Joner). Bestyreren… More
In 1915, Erling(Benjamin Helstad) and Ivar(Magnus Langlete) are sent to the boys reform camp on Bastoy Island, under the stewardship of its governor, Bestyreren(Stellan Skarsgard), who assigns them to C dorm with its very watchful housefather, Brathen(Kristoffer Joner). Bestyreren has taken a special interest in Erling who he feels Bastoy would be a better fit than prison, since Erling had previously been in the navy, employing the promise of an eventual release in exchange for good behavior. Erling begs to disagree, as he soon starts planning his escape.
"King of Devil's Island" is a slow and predictable movie that occasionally feels like a Norwegian juvenile version of "Cool Hand Luke," as Erling has definite problems with authority, trying to tick them off at every turn. That takes away a lot from any possible emotional impact that "The King of Devil's Island" might have had when it severely remarks on the past treatment of children where wayward ones(that said, it is possible Erling killed someone) were sent to a remote island that contained the very real threats of corporal punishment, humiliation and sexual abuse.(Bullying is a bit on the light side, though.) And as a specific true story, it probably more or less concerns the more dramatic third act.
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Kongen av Bastøy was based on actual events that happened on the Bastøy correctional facility for difficult boys, back in 1915.The story was dramatic and tragic, as well as true. It told the Norwegian history back then when the country was poor, and how it was to be sent on a whaling… More
Kongen av Bastøy was based on actual events that happened on the Bastøy correctional facility for difficult boys, back in 1915.The story was dramatic and tragic, as well as true. It told the Norwegian history back then when the country was poor, and how it was to be sent on a whaling ship, being a young guy from difficult background.The director made the story quite possible since it was based on true events, You have to care for the characters since these young boys on this facility were not the easy ones, they were brutal, uneducated, unable to show affection and victims of a difficult past.Near the end I expected it to be different ,but it took a strange twist to wrap up the story. Very well done. Do not expect a happy ending, as you won't get any and it was about 2 hours without any pleasant events.
Read all 6 featured audience ratings
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