Sampo

My only exposure to Sampo (aka The Day the Earth Froze) comes by way of Mystery Science Theater 3000. I have an extensive collection of MST3K movies (almost 200) and of those the Russo-Finnish movies (Sampo, The Sword and Dragon, Jack Frost, et al) are among my favorites. They lend themselves to Mystification but are entertaining and, (dare I say it?) absorbing in and of themselves. They contain a quaint charm and stark moral values and despite their quirkiness, are entertaining. In a day and age in which we find serial killer 'good guys' and ambiguous moral lessons the old Russo-Finnish fairy tales are the preferred entertainment for this century's jaded child. This review is not about The Day the Earth Froze SPECIFICALLY but is merely a comment on the simple moral tales of the good-old-days. R.I.P.

Warning! The original version of "Sampo" lasts over 90 minutes, and is a beautiful, atmospheric and awe-inspiring retelling of the Finnish legend of the Sampo, from their national epic, "The Kalevala". In many ways it was the great director Alexander Ptushko's most ambitious film: the idea of the Sampo itself goes far beyond the search for a mere object, touching on the mainsprings of desire and humanity's questing spirit (in much the same way as does the Holy Grail in Arthurian literature).

Sadly, the American release as "The Day the Earth Froze" more or less destroyed the director's structure, his epic time scale, and the sense of mystery to the plot itself, sacrificing everything subtle in a brainless attempt to turn the film into helter-skelter action and swashbuckling excitement. Almost one third of the original film disappeared, and much of the rest was barbarically recut.

The result is a travesty - please, if you watch and rightly condemn "The Day the Earth Froze", do not confuse this farago with the beautiful and profound original film which is (or was) "Sampo"!

Like with Sadko/The Magic Voyage of Sinbad and Ilya Muromets/The Sword and the Dragon, Sampo (or The Day the Earth Froze for its American version) is an Aleksandr Ptushko film spoilt by bad dubbing that wasn't even necessary in the first place. The American version is incoherent and unbearably goofy, but the original Soviet-Finnish film is just lovely and it is this version that I'll be talking about now. Maybe the dialogue doesn't always flow and the middle's pacing is on the stoic side. However, it is a beautiful-looking film, the costumes and sets are in equal measure beautiful and eerie, the film is nicely shot with techniques that scream of Ptushko(and in a good way) and the special effects are simple but awe-inspriring and some are wonderfully weird. The music score positively sweeps, with the fantasy-adventure themes and folk-song-like melodies wholly appropriate. The story is also simple, but coherent and mostly attention-grabbing, giving us time to breathe and admire everything. While the tone is on the most part suitably eerie and profound, there are also some nice oddball touches that don't feel out of place(if there was anything at all like that it certainly wasn't as bad as it was in its American version). The characters are very like the characters that you'll find in a fantasy/fairy-tale and they are engaging. There seems to be a mixed reception on the Witch here, depends on the version seen I think, she is irritating in the dub but in Ptushko's original she is very sinister. The acting is solid and fitting for their characters. All in all, a lovely film but sadly it has a really bad dub that because of MST3K more people will be familiar with. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I can only remember seeing this movie once, back in my schooldays in the early 70's. The tile being "The Day the Earth Froze". What most comes to mind was the fantastic atmosphere it had, very dark, gloomy almost surreal. It was about a Sampo (as far as I could make out or remember, it was a machine for making either money or gold). Everyone in the movie seemed old, dirty and poor. I think it was their quest to find the sampo or retrieve it or something like that. I would love to know if the movie ever made it to video.

This movie is based on our national epic called Kalevala. I think I saw this movie when I was a teenager and didn't really appreciate it, but now I absolutely love it.

By the way... the language in this movie is not Russian...it's Finnish... and I should know.

I'm sure that this movie is on video, but it might be only in Finnish.

I would also recommend Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki and his excellent movies; I hired a contract killer, tulitikkutehtaan tytto and a man without a past.

Hyvia elokuvakokemuksia kaikille!