Ned med vaabnene

original title:
Ned med vaabnene
other titles:
Down with Weapons, (Die Waffen nieder!)
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original length:
70 min. , black/white
premiere:
USA: 14 August 1914
based on:
Bertha von Suttner. Die Waffen nieder! Eine Lebensgeschichte. Dresden: Pierson, 1889.
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plot synopsis:
Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Baroness Bertha Von Suttner, this Danish anti-war melodrama was given a literate script by future director Carl Dreyer. Von Suttner's story was the heartfelt tale of war widow Martha Althaus (Augusta Blad), whose worst fears are about to come true when her second husband (Olaf Føness) is called into battle. Althaus is a vociferous pacifist but must heed the nation's call to arms. He does return during an armistice, but the nations cannot agree to a peace and the war continues. Again he returns, wounded but alive, only to die in the ensuing cholera epidemic. Released to a saber-rattling Europe about to go up in flames, Ned Med Vaabnene was either heavily censored or outright banned in most areas. It did open in New York, where the anti-war film was misused to promote isolationism. Most prints of the film opened with an introduction by the Baroness Von Suttner herself. Visibly ill, she died before the film's release.
literature:
Petra Oerke. "Die Waffen nieder! Ein Film gegen den Krieg. Zur Verfilmung Ned med Vaabnene (1914) nach Bertha von Suttners Roman "Die Waffen nieder!" (1889). In: Thomas F. Schneider (Hg.). Kriegserlebnis und Legendenbildung. Das Bild des modernen Krieges in Literatur, Theater, Photographie und Film. Band III, 1999.
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