Orion's Belt

Orion's Belt
Norwegian DVD cover
Directed by	Ola Solum (Norwegian version) Tristan DeVere Cole (English version)
Produced by	Dag Alveberg Petter Borgli
Written by	Richard Harris Jon Michelet (novel)
Starring	Helge Jordal Sverre Anker Ousdal Hans Ola Sørlie Kjersti Holmen
Music by	Geir Bøhren Bent Åserud
Cinematography	Harald Paalgard
Distributed by	Kommunenes Filmcentral New World Pictures
Release date(s)	9 February 1985
Running time	103 minutes
Country	Norway
Language	Norwegian
Budget	NOK 15 million

Orion's Belt (Norwegian: Orions belte) is a 1985 Norwegian dual-language, action-thriller film, directed by Ola Solum and Tristan DeVere Cole. It is based on Jon Michelet's 1977 novel by the same name. The film follows three Svalbard-based shabby seamen, played by Helge Jordal, Sverre Anker Ousdal and Hans Ola Sørlie, who discover a Soviet bearing station. The are subsequently both targets of Soviet liquidation and American interrogation in an attempt to quiet them and retain the political status quo. The Cold War topics were a critique of the Norwegian policy of allowing a Soviet presence on Svalbard.

The film was produced by Dag Alveberg and Petter Borgli and the script was written by Briton Richard Harris. Two versions of the film were recorded, a Norwegian cinematic film and an English-language television film. First Solum shot the Norwegian scenes, then Cole shot the same scene with the actors speaking English. The entire crew and cast lived on board a ship which traveled through Svalbard and Finnmark during production. The theme music, Svalbardtema, was composed by Geir Bøhren and Bent Åserud and has became an anthem for Svalbard. Orion's Belt is the first modern Norwegian action film and was the first film financed as a kommandittselskap.

Plot

Sverre Anker Ousdal, Helge Jordal and Hans Ola Sørlie with Sandy Hook in the background

The story centers around three sailors who conduct shady business on board their vessel, Sandy Hook. The film starts with two of them, Tom Jansen (Helge Jordal) and Sverre (Hans Ola Sørlie), taking tourists on a polar bear safari. During this trip and at a later scene at a pub in Longyearbyen, where Tom's girlfriend, Eva Jelseth (Kjersti Holmen) is introduced, the viewers are briefed on the politics of Svalbard and the large Soviet presence. The third seaman, Lars (Sverre Anker Ousdal), presents plans to freight a bulldozer to the mainland from Sarstangen. They have been instructed to dump the bulldozer underway as part of an insurance fraud scheme, but have instead have made arrangements to sell the vehicle on Greenland. While at port, Tom is called to visit Governor Bache (Jon Eikemo), who warns that he will be keeping an eye on them.

After a dramatic but successful delivery of the bulldozer to the purchasers, they return towards Longyearbyen. The report inn to Isfjord Radio to say they were caught in a storm, but deviate their route back to avoid returning too early. They get caught in actual bad weather and decided to pull up in a near-by island, Kjerulføya, north of Nordaustlandet. The following day the go ashore to find food, but instead find a cable; they fallow it until finding a Soviet bearing station. While leaving, they as discovered and they return fire after being shot at, killing a Russian and having Sverre wounded.

They escape and decide to mix with the fishing fleet to avoid being spotted. However, they are intercepted by an seemingly civilian Aeroflot helicopter, which turns out to be heavily armed and fires at the ship. Sandy Hook steers into a narrow bay and the protagonists fire back, eventually fighting off the helicopter with a firebomb. They continue to Kapp Dufferin, where they anchor up. Tom rows to land to find supplies, but while on land a Soviet helicopter bombes Sandhy Hook, killing Lars and Sverre. Tom has to walk across Spitsbergen to reach Longyearbyen. After a long march through the wilderness he reaches a closed mine and rides with a aerial tramway for coal to Longyearbyen.

Tom awakes at hospital in the company of Bache. He is not believed concerning the sinking of his ship and is sent to Oslo for interrogations by a United States colonel (Jon Ausland) and other American military personnel. In a scene at Holmenkollen Park Hotel, the Soviet ambassador and Norwegian minister discuss the consequences of public knowledge of the incident. Tom is offered a new identity and a job on board a foreign trade vessel. On his way to the port, he escapes from the military police by mixing with a carnival parade. There were made two endings of the film. The second had a longer chase scene involving rendezvousing with Eva, but in both cases Tom ends up being killed. Whether this is done by Soviet or American intelligence is left as an open question.

Production

Jon Michelet in 2011

Jon Michelet's novel Orion's Belt was published by Oktober Forlag in 1977. The book's popularity came in part from public interest in why 3,000 Russians were living on the Norwegian archipelago. The title is a reference to that Svalbard was as central located in a potential Cold War war theater as Orion's Belt. The novel also played on the fear of nuclear war and the lack of information from Norwegian media about the issue.^[1] The novel received mixed reviews,^[2] and was translated to English by Ellen Nations.^[3]

The initiative to dramatize the noval was made by two prop masters, Dag Alveberg and Petter Borgli. They both invested half a million Norwegian krone (NOK) in the project,^[4] financed by mortgaging their homes.^[5] Neither had any experience as producers.^[4] Alveberg stated that his main motivation was that he was tired of all Norwegian films being social realism.^[5] Alveberg stated that "the story could have taken place, and maybe it has taken place. We all know that the Russians do what they want on Svalbard."^[1] Alveberg first attempted to write the screenplay himself, but was not satisfied.^[1] He presented the screenplay for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation; although they liked the project, they did not feel it feel into the scope of the public broadcaster. Norway did not at the time have screenwriters of international standards, and Alveberg decided not to use his film as a training ground.^[6] He therefore hired the experienced British screenwriter Richard Harris.^[1]

Harris had a single meeting with Michelet in Oslo. At first Harris did not believe either that there was a significant Norwegian left-wing grouping, nor did he realize that the Russian presence and the conflict in Svalbard was real. Michelet initially wanted Harris to include details such as Jansen's father being a war sailor and that he came from a working-class family, but Harris, with Michelet's understanding, dropped much of the personal backdrop to shorten the storyline.^[3] However, the screenplay is loyal to the novel's political stance.^[1] Harris never visited Svalbard,^[3] although he traveled to Finnmark.^[7]

Solum was selected as director based on the producers' experience with him from Carl Gustav, gjengen og parkeringsbandittene. The producers took more artistic decisions than was common at the time; for instance, they felt that Solum's choice of composer was wrong.^[8] During this discussion, the team was contacted by Geir Bøhren and Bent Åserud, who had read about the plans the newspaper, and sent a music sample to the team. Thus the duo became the first choice of both the director and the producers.^[9] Tristan DeVere Cole acted as an assistant director in addition to directing the English scenes.^[10]

Production was organized as a polar expedition. The ferry MS Sognefjord was bought, rebuilt with living quarters and a cutting-room^[10] and renamed Orion.^[9] After production, the vessel was sold.^[7] The reason for this was that there was only one hotel on the archipelago and no place for a film crew. Although it forced supplies for three months to be brought along, it allowed the team to film at various remote location on the islands, and allowed travel while the film crew were sleeping.^[9] Up to 60 people lived on board.^[11] The vessel SS Listein was bought and used as the protagonist's ship, Sandy Hook. Filming was undertaken both along the Finnmark coast and in Svalbard.^[10] Planning of the recording was concluded one and a half years before production began.^[8]

The film was made in two versions, a cinematic version in Norwegian and a television version in English. First Solum would direct a scene in Norwegian and it would be shot. After he was satisfied, Cole took over and shoot the same scene with the same actors, but with English dialog. The actors' accents were good enough that it did not need to be dubbed, while sufficiently noticeable to make the film exotic and authentic. A documentary about the production was shot concurrently.^[10]

Sandy Hook was blown up and sunk during one scene. This was filmed by placing 30 kilograms (66 lb) of dynamite on board and filming the explosion and sinking with six cameras. Just after the fuse was lit and the crew were abandoning the ship, it was discovered that the Coastal Steamer was going to pass. To not wreck the scene, Borgli ran below deck and cut the fuse.^[12] The scene where Sandy Hook is attacked by the helicopter while in a crack was filmed at Honningsvåg, Finnmark. The helicopter used was Norwegian, but painted in Aeroflot livery. The helicopter was only available that day, but the captain on the vessel was drunk and refused to run it into the crack to film the scenes.^[13]

Only a single Russian is shown with his face in the film, with the rest of the antagonists being faceless Soviets, particularly the helicopter.^[6] The original ending was created as a compromise resulting in a closing deadline and lack of funding, yet keeping the ending open. After the premiere, a new ending was filmed, which weaved the storyline better together. The second version also saw the beginning being trimmed, resulting in the film being 10 minutes shorter.^[10]

Financing

SS Haus in 1952, later SS Listein, which was used as Sandy Hook during the film

In the early 1980s, Minister of Culture Lars Roar Langslet increased subsidies for Norwegian film. In addition to increased focus on quality and costs, the system encouraged films to be organized as a kommandittselskap (KS)—a model from the shipping and petroleum industry where each ship was owned by its own KS and had a mix of limited and unlimited liability. This resulted in an increase of private capital to invest in films.^[14] While the 1970s had been dominated by dramatizations of classical novels and popular plays, the 1980s saw inspiration from Hollywood.^[4]

Work on financing the film started in 1982. Alveberg and Borgli established the production company Filmeffekt and hired Scanbroker to secure financing through KS Orion Film.^[6] The business magazine Økonomisk Rapport warned against investing in the film, characterizing it as an unrealistic "castle in the sky".^[15] In December 1983, the Embassy of the Soviet Union placed an official complaint against the filming of Orion's Belt, accusing it of being covered military activity. The complaint was plainly rejected by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.^[14]

The film received problems when applying for state grants from Statens Filmproduksjonsutvalg. Despite that the screenplay was regarded as exceptionally good by independent consultants, it was used as the reason for the initial rejection. Minor modifications were made, after which the board argued that the Norwegian film industry was too small for such a project and that an action film, with a potential for international viewership, was beyond the mandate of the board. Part of the film industry wanted the board to give Orion's Belt and another film equal recommendations for force the government to make a film-political decision, but the board twice ranked Orion's Belt second. In mid 1983, the film was awarded grants of NOK 6.4 million of a budgeted cost of 10.5 million. Private financing of the KS was completed in 1984.^[16] By then the cost estimates had escalated to NOK 15 million, largely because of the delays.^[8]

Orion's Belt was the first film to be financed as a KS, with some investors investing capital and others only guaranteeing. The state grants were structured in such a way that had the film been withdrawn from the cinemas after a revenue of NOK 5 million, all investors would have received more money at the expense of the state. This was in part because increased grants reduced the tax advantage of the KS model. Susequently the rules were changed to increase the incentive to make a high-grossing production. The tax rules also caused problems for Alveberg and Borgli to finance their next film, Etter Rubicon.^[15]

Reception

Aftenposten criticized the narrative for placing the climax in the middle. The actors were characterized as playing amateur theater, but the newspaper praised the action scenes and cinematography.^[17] In contrast, Verdens Gang praised the film, characterizing the three main actors as having international standards, all in the spirit of Michelet. It gave the film a five of six ranking.^[18] Nordlys commented on the realism in the film's topic. It criticized the special effects, which it stated there were less of than in foreign films, and the long time before the story was understood. Yet it praised the suspense which was retained throughout the film and felt Holmen gave the best acting performance.^[19] Adresseavisen stated that the film was "too good to be Norwegian". It praised the film for its exciting story, for illustrating how Norway was part of the Cold War and how unimportant a single human is in superpower politics. It commented that Michelet was a political author, which allowed him to problematize political issues which were not acceptable for public debate. It also agreed with Harris' choice to remove all flashbacks.^[20]

Dagbladet commented that the film downplayed the left-winged political aspect of the book and instead focused on the storyline and action. It commended that with increased funding for special effects, Solum was able to achieve his true potential as a action director. It praised Paalsgard for the cinematography and the natural integration of nature footage and backdrops.^[21] Following the presentation of the shortened and new ending version, Dagbladet stated that "they could just as well have kept the old one".^[22] Klassekampen praised the film for its action and accepted that it had reduced the amount of intrigue in the novel. The character of Jansen was applauded, as it showed how small an individual is against the superpowers.^[23] As the only newspaper, Klassekampen praised the film music.^{[citation needed]} Variety stated that the film was "a superbly mounted, convincingly told adventure thriller. Action scenes, such as the helicopter attack, are excitingly staged, and the suspense never lets up. As the rugged Tom, Helge Jordal is very good." However, the magazine criticized the title.^[24]

The film took a hat-trick at the inaugural Amanda Award, Norway's premier film awards. It won the category for best feature film, Jordal won the category for best male actor, and Bøhren and Åserud won the category for best film music. Orion's Belt was nominate for best film at the International Mystery Film Festival of Cattolica and Ola Solum won the award for best direction.^[25] The composers were awarded the 1986 Film Critics' Prize for the music.^[26] In 2007, Dagbladet ranked Orion's Belt as Norway's tenth-most important film.^[27]

In May 2012, Tomas Backström announced plans for a remake of the film. He stated that he had secured half the necessary NOK 40 million in financing and that he hoped for state grants for the rest. Actors planned for the remake include Aksel Hennie, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Ola Rapace and Tuva Novotny.^[28]

Distribution

The cinema film was distributed by Kommunenes Filmcentral in Norway and New World Pictures internationally. The film received a 16-year rating in Norway and Finland, and a 15-year rating in Sweden. In the United Kingdom and the United States it received Parental Guidance.^[25] Orion's Belt premiered on 8 February 1985 in eight cinemas in seven Norwegian cities.^[21] In Norway, 700,000 people saw the film at the cinema,^[27] grossing NOK 14,172,994 in Norway and slightly less than NOK 3 million abroad.^[29] A third version of the film was made retrospectively, aimed at the American cinema market. It was a dubbed version of the Norwegian recording, but had a slightly different ending.^[30]

The first DVD version was launched in 2004. The issue was criticized for not removing film grain and for cropping the image to 4:3 instead of 16:9. It further did not feature improvements to the sound and was available only in stereo. Subtitles were absent, despite that some lines of Norwegian-language film were in English. It did not include bonus material, the English-language version or the alternative ending.^[31] On 21 September 2005,^[30] Norsk Film published an all-new DVD-version. The film was cleaned up and shown in widescreen, with the audio being digitally remastered and presented in Dolby 5.1 and DTS. Bonus material included in the release included the full English-version, a 40-minute documentary on the production, two commentary tracks and new interviews with the main contributors.^[32]

Music

The music for the film was composed by Geir Bøhren and Bent Åserud. They traveled to Svalbard to gather inspiration, and discovered that the lack of vegetation caused the distortion of sense of direction. Inspiration was gathered more from the associations of the nature and culture in Svalbard, rather than that of a traditional action film. This included such elements as listening to whale and Inuit song.^[33] For the storm scenes, the team made a Richard Wagner-inspired piece, which was distinct from the Inuit-inspired music. At the end of the piece was a flute melody, which was then adapted to become the theme song, Svalbardtema.^[34] Although the music was not mentioned in the original reception, it later became very popular and has become a de facto anthem for the archipelago. Bøhren and Åserud established themselves as film music composers with Orion's Belt and have composed the music for nearly all of Solum's later films.^[35]

References

Bibliography

• Skagen, Sølvi (2005) (in Norwegian). Fra idé til film: Orions belte. Vett & Viten. ISBN 978-82-412-0540-0. 

Notes