i come to this film with great anticipation . the 26th film in sjostrom career and a career span 25 year ( 1912 1937 ) and 54 film and include such late silent classic a the scarlet letter and he who get slap and his classic and the wind . i be bitterly disappointed . i find the film episodic and pointless and boring and brutal with no point of view . yes and there be beautiful backdrop of mountain valley and fjord and but against this be play out a human drama that just doesn not hold together for me . the plot involve an escaped and falsely convict thief and who steal out of hunger for his family and who come to work for a wealthy widow . they fall in love and she make him steward and to the anger of her brother in law and who want her ( and her property ) for himself . when the false identity and thievery be discover the couple flee to the mountain and live the rest of their life in cave and hovel and seemingly happy but deal with melodramatic moment ( a friend come to live with them and lust for the wife and they be discover by vigilante so she throw their child off a cliff ( duh . ) and run away with her husband and to be discover sixteen year later and bitter and at each other throat and face a week long blizzard in another hovel . ) have they not run off but remain within society to face the conflict inherent midway in the film and it might have be a good script and tighter and with a coherent plot line . what we have here be two film or one short film with an extended epilogue . nothing about the production be above crudity ( elaborate vista do not cinematography make . ) . come a it do halfway in his career and it do not show any promise for a man who would later achieve great artistry . it be interest that sjostrom himself play the lead and his real life wife and the love interest ( although have two character refer to her a exceptionally beautiful when she as homely a a pig with one ear be a bit hard to swallow ) .