User reviews

Six troubled young boys are to go through a social experiment. They are supposedly doing this out of free will but in fact they have no choice, either the experiment or jail. The person in charge, Lars Lind is a young bourgeois fellow who is repeatedly let down and abused by Leif Nymark.

This movie was an absolute bombshell when it opened in 1964. There are some scenes in this movie that were extremely shocking to the average audience of that time, including tacit allusions to sodomy and a scene depicting (out of shot) a dog rape! Apart from that there was the naked portrait of a society in change where young people behave in a way unknown to their parents. This was unnerving, unsettling. But the Problem with the movie is that despite its good intentions it doesn't work. The character of Krister played by Lind is nothing but a caricature. He lacks every trace of credibility. His naivete is just out of this world. Also Vilgot Sjöman's (know as Vilgot Seaman in the States) attacks on the new social experiments is unfounded, superficial and simplistic. '491' is still a movie worth seeing, at least as a historical lesson.

Also worth mentioning is that the screenwriter, Lars Görling committed suicide after his own movie 'Tillsammans med Gunilla måndag kväll och tisdag' Sweden (1965), turned out only to be a mediocre product.

The story is about a group of youth criminals who are chosen to participate in a social experiment, named "Guesthouse Objectivity" (Pensionatet Sakligheten), where they are assigned to live together in an apartment while being supervised by two forgiving social workers. The tagline is: It is written that 490 times you can sin and be forgiven. This motion picture is about the 491st. This controversial film, which featured a male homosexual rape scene, was first banned in Sweden, but released after reediting. Amongst other things, a scene in which a woman is raped by a dog was cut. The film was also banned in Norway until 1971. The reactions from especially conservative elements in Sweden were of disgust and outrage, and it was one of the reasons why the Christian Democratic Party was founded in 1965. 1963 was a good year in Swedish film. A part from "491", Ingmar Bergman created two masterpieces "Winter light" and "The Silence".

Not unlike "Rainmaker" but with a more direct sexual tone, "491" is miles away from most of the R-and-X rated Swedish films that landed in the U.S. around the same time. Serious to a fault, it tells the story of a mesmerizing young man who seduces a family. Title comes from a (false) reading of the Christian text to forgive others "seventy times seven," and posits that after 490 sins, your number is up. Disturbing, memorable, with terrific acting and direction. Worth a look.