The Promised Land · reception & legacy
2023 · Nikolaj Arcel
How The Promised Land has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Premiered in competition at Venice 2023 to warm reviews and rode a wave of 'Mads Mikkelsen's best in years' talk; then Denmark's Oscar entry made the international-feature shortlist but missed the final five, which fans still file under robbery.
What's debated
The perennial fan squabble is over the villain — cartoonishly, moustache-twirlingly evil to some, one of the most satisfyingly hateable antagonists of the decade to others.
Its footprint
On Letterboxd it lives as 'the Mads Mikkelsen potato movie' — a stern Danish epic about growing potatoes on a heath became a running joke, affectionately, in thousands of reviews. Critics everywhere shorthand it as 'the Danish western.'
Where it stands
A crowd-pleasing modern epic and a fixture of 'recent films that feel like classic Hollywood' lists — essential viewing for the Mads faithful.
Named by the director
Influences Nikolaj Arcel has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962) — Arcel called it his 'one major influence,' saying he watches it annually and even borrowed its lens and camera approach.
- David Lean — Arcel named Lean as the touchstone for the film's old-fashioned 1950s–60s epic look, over any western influence.