The Shame (1968)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Shame (1968) – I. Bergman

Liv Ullmann and Max Von Sydow are civilians who find themselves caught up in war in this astonishingly potent film from Ingmar Bergman.  As the movie opens, we find them alone in their remote island farmhouse. They speak of political tensions and hostilities that seem to have led to some cultural collapse (the symphony orchestra for which they worked has shut down).  But soon convoys of soldiers are rolling through, then fighter planes (which eventually firebomb their area).  After a run-in with the “liberators”, they are rounded up by the “defenders” (my terms) and interrogated (roughly).  They are forced to choose sides and become compromised.  The local resistance group targets them.  Under pressure, they violate their own moral principles.  They fight with each other. Things become bleak and apocalyptic.  In the end, who is ashamed?  Is it God? Is it humankind? Is it world leaders? Is it the characters in the film? Is it you and me? How can such things happen – and continue to happen?