Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen)

Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen in Swedish) is a film made by Ingmar Bergman in 1968. It is a great example of artistically exploring the results when you cannot distinguish between reality and fantasy (or non-reality). This is problem we all face as human beings, though we are not always aware of it. In philosophy, this problem is called epistemology - in simple terms - how do we know that we know? For most of us, we just assume we know reality. However, in our post-modern culture, there is great doubt precisely on this point. Modern man does not know if there is an objective world out there or if we have an objective basis for knowing it. Bergman squarely faces this problem in this film. Warning - Do not watch this film unless you are in the mood for a very bleak film.

The film centers on Johan (played by Max Von Sydow), an artist who is experiencing personal disintegration as he focuses on his increasingly disturbing art over his personal life with his seven year lover, Alma (played by Liv Ulman). However, at the start of the film, Johan is missing, and Alma tells us the story from his diary.

All seems blissful at the beginning, but soon disturbing events begin to occur. An old woman appears out of nowhere. She tells Alma of a diary Johan keeps under the bed. She tells Alma to read it. She first tells Alma she is 216 years old. Then she says she is 70. Just as suddenly, she is gone. However, Alma finds the diary, just as the old lady said, and she begins to read it. Was the old lady real or imaginary?

In the diary, Alma finds out very disturbing facts about Johan. She starts talking to Johan, especially very late at night - the hour of the wolf - and finds out more disturbing facts. However, it is almost impossible to tell what is real and what is not, both for Alma - and for us as the audience, especially as the film develops, and the incidents become increasingly bizarre and surreal.

They visit a castle on the island they live on. It is uncertain if anything or anyone there is real or imagined. To emphasize this - in one scene - one of the men in the castle begins to walk up a wall, and then upside down on the ceiling. Near the end, the people from the castle are hacking Johan to death in front of Alma - and not even Alma is sure if it happened.

A Christian does not have to face this terrifying dilemma. In a Christian world-view, a Christian has a basis for distinguishing between reality and non-reality. In very simple terms, God created an objective world and God created us in his image so that we can objectively view and understand the world he created. Therefore, a Christian world-view does not have a basic problem with the basis for knowing reality, and distinguishing it from non-reality. This foundation for knowledge formed the basis for modern science.

However, I appreciate Ingmar Bergman for exploring this problem artistically, bravely, and honestly in this film. He uses a German expressionist film-making style to emphasize the surrealist nature of what he is exploring cinematically.