The Outlaw and His Wife

Director: Victor Sjöström
Year Released: 1918
Rating: 3.0

A sheep thief (Sjöström) arrives at a tiny village in Iceland in hopes of starting anew, but his past catches up with him when a man identifies him as a criminal, so he runs off again with a widow (Edith Erastoff) to live in virtual solitude in the mountains. This is a commanding early film from Sjöström about the power of love - the widow leaves behind her possessions to Stand By Her Man and live off the land - but also about the inability to escape one's past, as the locals eventually come looking for Sjöström and the woman. The ending is both 'tragic' and poetic, as the two die in each others' arms (during a blizzard): true love, it's suggested, carries one through this life and into the 'next.'