Rating: 
Summary: Bergman's only horror film and what a treat...
Review: Johan Borg (Max von Sydow) seeks refuge with his wife Alma (Liv Ullman) on a remote island where Johan can get the solitude that he requires and where he can focus on his art. However, Johan is frequently interrupted by haunting demons both in the flesh and in the mind. These demons visit Johan in the hour of the wolf. This hour is when most babies are born and the most people die, it is also hour of the night when people wake up from their nightmares. Hour of the Wolf is a very unusual film for Ingmar Begrman as it is his only horror film and it begins with with Alma staring into the camera as she informs the audience that all the events pictured took place on the island and are all written down in her husbands diary. This beginning presents an atmosphere with an eerie hollowness full of questions and mysteries as to what information the diary holds. Bergman does this purposely as he crafts his story with canny imagination that haunts the audience visually as it is full of symbolism and suggestive themes. Nevertheless, it is the audience's imagination that creates the true horror in the story as Johan slowly steps toward his own doom. This leaves the audience with a significant cinematic experience of horror that will linger in the their minds as they will close their eyes before sleep.
Rating:
Summary: Bergman's only horror film and what a treat...
Review: Johan Borg (Max von Sydow) seeks refuge with his wife Alma (Liv Ullman) on a remote island where Johan can get the solitude that he requires and where he can focus on his art. However, Johan is frequently interrupted by haunting demons both in the flesh and in the mind. These demons visit Johan in the hour of the wolf. This hour is when most babies are born and the most people die, it is also hour of the night when people wake up from their nightmares. Hour of the Wolf is a very unusual film for Ingmar Begrman as it is his only horror film and it begins with with Alma staring into the camera as she informs the audience that all the events pictured took place on the island and are all written down in her husbands diary. This beginning presents an atmosphere with an eerie hollowness full of questions and mysteries as to what information the diary holds. Bergman does this purposely as he crafts his story with canny imagination that haunts the audience visually as it is full of symbolism and suggestive themes. Nevertheless, it is the audience's imagination that creates the true horror in the story as Johan slowly steps toward his own doom. This leaves the audience with a significant cinematic experience of horror that will linger in the their minds as they will close their eyes before sleep.
Rating: 
Summary: wrongly cropped from OAR 1.37:1 to 1.66:1 and it looks awful
Review: MGM have not fully researched the OAR of this film. They have released this DVD in the wrong aspect ratio (1.66:1 instead of 1.37:1) resulting in A LOT of bad looking framing.The film may have been released theatrically in the US at 1.66:1 but if so THIS WAS WRONG. The OAR of the film is 1.37:1 and it is released in this ratio around the world (see the recent French DVD for example).
Rating:
Summary: Kudos to MGM for correcting OAR problem
Review: MGM recalled the original issues of "Hour of the Wolf" and "Shame" because they were presented in a fake widescreen that cropped the top and bottom of the film. These are masterpieces that should not be missed, and they are now beautifully presented in their proper aspect ration of 1.33:1 with the entire image now intact.
Rating:
Summary: Be very careful
Review: My rating refers to the movie - not the DVD.
Had I rated this product 1 star (which would be a generous rating for the DVD,) I'd be sending the message that this isn't a good movie...5 stars for Bergman's work.
MGM's WAR OF OAR:
A lot of word has spread about MGM's DVD releases of this film and Bergman's "Shame" being presented in the wrong aspect ratios.
Here are the facts and my personal experience with this mess:
The original aspect ratio (OAR) of this movie and "Shame" is 1.37:1 (this has been confirmed by Svenska Filminstitutet,) i.e. almost full screen on a "normal" TV, but not quite; there should be BARELY NOTICEABLE black bars both above and below the picture.
However, in February 2004 MGM released a boxed set including five Bergman titles, where the two earlier mentioned films were presented in aspect ratio 1.66:1.
"How can you change the OAR?" you might ask. The answer is simple: by cropping the picture. MGM had placed very thick black bars on the top and bottom of the picture throughout the movie, resulting in a wider looking format, but causing 11.5% of the image to be blocked out.
Through this link you can read all about it, and compare still images from these films to how they look on the DVD, and how they should look:
http://207.136.67.23/film/DVDCompare2/mgm.htm
Naturally this flub upset people, and eventually MGM had to admit their wrongdoing and withdraw these two DVD's from the market.
This is the statement that MGM Home Entertainment made regarding the recall of the INGMAR BERGMAN COLLECTION:
"It has come to our attention that the transfers utilized for the release of Ingmar Bergman's "Hour of the Wolf" Special Edition DVD and "Shame" Special Edition DVD are not representative of the intended theatrical presentation.
In order to provide customers with the best quality product available, we are recalling the product at retail and will be releasing both films in a 1:37:1 aspect ratio on April 20, 2004.
The Ingmar Bergman DVD Collection will also be available on that date. MGM Home Entertainment always strives to provide the highest standard of product and customer care. For additional information or comments, please contact our customer service."
Reading this statement a year ago made me happy that I hadn't ordered or bought the boxed set or any separate discs thereof. The DVD's were now going to be withdrawn from the market and later re-released in the OAR...fine.
However, when these discs were re-released on April 20th 2004 they were presented in 1.33:1, NOT in the OAR 1.37:1, as MGM had promised.
I waited some months thinking that maybe some other studio (like Criterion) would release these movies in the OAR. Nothing happened, and naturally MGM wasn't going to admit a second mistake, so since I hadn't seen these movies, but had heard and read good things and was therefore curious, I ordered MGM's 1.33:1 versions of both "Shame" and "Hour of the Wolf" from amazon.com in the early fall of 2004.
When the discs arrived "Shame" was slightly cropped just as I'd expected (1.33:1,) but I got the 1.66:1 version of "Hour of the Wolf" even though I'd contacted amazon.com's costumer service in advance to make sure that I would NOT get the edition that was supposed to have been taken off the market 6 months ago by then.
I complained to amazon.com, and instead of sending me the edition I wanted they gave me a refund - better than nothing, but they couldn't tell me how to get a hold of the 1.33:1 edition of "Hour of the Wolf," so neither can I.
Just be aware - there is no such thing as a widescreen edition of this film, even though the more expensive edition of the two MGM DVD's available on amazon.com suggests so.
Ok, that about that. Some may suggest that this kind of technical mumbo-jumbo is not interesting and certainly not necessary when reviewing a movie, but whether you claim you care or not, watching 88.5% of the image of a movie WILL (consciously or subconsciously) effect your judgement of the film, because things are happening behind those thick black bars. Not presenting Sven Nykvist's camera art as he and the director intended it is quite disrespectful towards both the artist and the audience.
...my suggestion is to MAKE SURE you get the 1.33:1 edition of the(se) film(s,) or wait until someone releases them in OAR 1.37:1.
DVD FEATURES:
There is a 26 minute "featurette" featuring short interviews (shot in 2002) with actors Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson, Ingmar Bergman biographer Marc Gervais, and short footage from an approximately 35 year old interview with Ingmar Bergman. There's no behind-the scenes footage or outtakes featured in the so called documentary; a lot of it is just repeated on-camera quotes, still pictures and a great amount of clips from the film, cut together at MGM studios. Nothing worth celebrating, though it's viewable - they could easily have cut it down to less than 10 minutes, thus made it more intense, while still as interesting.
Marc Gervais' comments and commentary is not very insightful or based on a lot of facts around the production of the movie - he merely suggests his own interpretations of what Bergman was trying to tell based on his own theories, which aren't very interesting, and which doesn't always make sense in comparison to Bergman's autobiographical suggestions. Frankly, if I may be a tad harsh, I'd be as interested in listening to George W. Bush's analysis of this picture as Mr. Gervais'.
Criterion's Bergman Biographer, Peter Cowie, who has met the director several times, usually provides much more interesting commentary.
Other features on this disc (at least the cropped edition) include English, French and Spanish Language subtitles, a photo gallery, and a theatrical trailer.
THE MOVIE:
"Vargtimmen," which is the Swedish (original) title of "The Hour of the Wolf" is a black and white production from 1968, written and made in Swedish by director Ingmar Bergman. It is one of Bergman's most "mystical" films, and of all his work, "Hour of the Wolf" suites best in the genre of "horror," though it isn't a pure horror flick from beginning to end - at least not in any typical sense.
The two main characters are played by Max von Sydow (as Johan Borg) and Liv Ullmann (as Johan's pregnant wife Alma.) During most of the shooting of this film--which incidentally (as many other films since "Persona") took place on Bergman's residence Fårö--Liv Ullmann was in fact pregnant, at the time carrying her and the director's child Linn.
Basically (bluntly, or on the surface) the film tells the story of a sleepless artist with an unhealthy upbringing, who is trying to fight off haunting demons. One may theorize these demons as a portrayal of critics towards the artist.
Bergman has never explained exactly why certain things take certain actions in his films. Usually he doesn't even discuss the scripts with the actors. Partly for this reason, has he never been interested in recording audio commentary for his films on DVD, nor do I believe there is reason for him to do so, because his films are his creations - his art. There is no apparent reason to me why anyone should try to "figure these movies out" and make official theories and statements of what exactly they are trying to tell you, because sometimes they might not even be trying to tell you anything. This form of art, like other forms of art, should (as they do) leave you space for a personal interpretation.
Most of the cast (with exceptions like Naima Wifstrand) were, at the time, basically just stage actors - a fact that certainly effects the intense outcome of all characters featured in the movie and makes it special.
The music in several scenes of this film (such as when Johan Borg, on a fishing trip, is bothered by a demon in the form of a child) is very intense, effective and skilfully applied to the picture.
This is a work of art that a true fan of Ingmar Bergman's filmmaking must not miss.
Rating:
Summary: MADNESS BILLOWING ON DARK SILVER
Review: One of my favorite Bergman films, and one I hope will make it to DVD, HOUR OF THE WOLF has masterful performances set against dusky island silhouettes and scenes that float like smoke through a twilight woods. Liv Ullman is sexy as ever, Max is mesmerizing as a painter of Boschian horrors, and the scene of the beleaguered vampire, if that's what he is, tromping up a wall and over the ceiling is not to be missed. Also, Ingrid Thulin's stark whiteskinned nude scene as an awalening corpse, as a sexually ambiguous Max hovers over her swathed in lipstick, well, brightsilver high-contrast imagery doesn't get much more stimulating, even by Bergman. He really slices open his imagination on this one and lets it rip as he rolls about in the artist's darkest spaces. I remember when this came out and I first sat through it drooling with envy at Bergman's daring and his handiness at sketching in light his flossiest artistic impulses.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most frightening films of Bergman !
Review: The unconscious world has been few times so well carried to screen as this unforgettable film of the Swedish Master .
Jungian images assault the febrile mind of a painter - Max von Sydow - who has decided to live in an isolated island . The memories ` phantoms will maintain you at the edge of your seat . Somehow this movie has many points of intersection with another Bergman' s golden film of the fifties : Wild strawberries.
Erland Josephson and Liv Ullman are simply supreme .
Rating: 
Summary: Passable.
Review: This is not one of Bergman's best films. Fans of gothic psychology will love this but those of you used to classic Bergman symbolism - within the framework of a regular plot - will not be satisfied. The acting is good but the overall mood of the film is too unreal for it to have any existential merit. [The best scene is the one featuring the "biting boy."] The subtitles are in yellow and are a little distracting. I would recommend you disable your colour function. You will find the white subtitles just as easy to read.
Rating: 
Summary: The "Hour" Of Truth!
Review: Why someone would refer to this film as one of Ingmar Bergman's "lesser" films totally suprises me. I find it to be one of the directors most harrowing,& powerful films! "Hour of the Wolf" from the very first scene tries to set itself up as a true story. And from that very moment we are in a way left senseless,for what's real and what isn't. How can we judge? I have never seen a movie that has been able to suspend our rational senses the way this film does. There are many memorable moments in this film. I'm constantly reminded of a dream sequence which deals with Max von Sydow (Johan Borg) and a small boy by a stream. I think it's one of the most powerful scenes I've ever seen only to be rivalled by the "Russian roulette" scene in "The Deer Hunter" and the final moments in "The Exorcist". I don't want to reveal what happens in the scene, but, I was truly unable to take my eyes off the screen. I'm pretty sure my chin was on the ground as well. It's such a strong scene.
Bergman has been known by some to be very sparing with music. He likes to have the characters emotions speak to us, not have some song create the mood that the actors are unable to achieve. But, in this movie, the music really helps certain scenes, this is not to say that the acting is poor by Sydow & Ullman. It most certainly is not! The cinematography by Sven Nykvist is wonderful as well, then again, I can't think of a movie he filmmed that wasn't wonderful. "Cries and Whispers", "Shame", "Fanny & Alexander"....ect.
The ONLY bad thing I can say about this film is, it's too short! At 1 hour and 28 minutes. Liv Ullman and Sydow are supported by a wonderful cast including Erland Josephson, Gertrud Fridh and the beautiful Ingrid Thulin, a Bergman regular as well. "Hour of the Wolf" is a strong film that really could be described as a series of nightmares that showcase the acting talents in the film. And that by no means makes this a "lesser" film by Bergman. A film of deep meaning that should be enjoyed by all.
Rating:
Summary: MGM keep ruining movies!!
Review: Why, MGM!? After CORRECTING the aspect ratio from 1.66:1, they've made the same mistake with "Hour of the Wolf" and "Shame" as they did with "Persona"; they've presented the movies in aspect ratio 1.33:1 instead of the original aspect ratio 1.37:1!! 11.5% of the image of "Persona" is missing, so naturally that is the case with these films as well. These are great movies that should not be messed with in this unprofessional manner. MGM have no respect for this art. Incidentally, "Persona" is available in its original aspect ratio on "Tartan" (region-free DVD) through amazon.co.uk. These movies were not intended to be watched this way, but if you are curious about these fine Bergman classics, don't own a VCR, and have a lot of money to spare, go ahead and support MGM's economy.
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