Petter (Askel Hennie) loses his brother Knut during an early underwater test dive to build the Norwegian oil pipeline and he soon realizes it may not have been an accident that involves a big business conspiracy.  This conspiracy thriller is set during the early 1980s Norwegian oil boom which blends fact and fiction with cast of American (Stephen Lang, Wes Bently) and European actors as PIONEER is a mix of Norwegian and English dialogue.  Director Erik Skjoldbjaerg has hit it out of the park with this movie and it would be one to recommend if you like conspiracy thrillers and Scandinavian thrillers.   It has a great cast with lots of attention put to how the underwater diving at great depths is done.  If you’re a fan of conspiracy thrillers and Scandinavian thrillers, you should watch PIONEER before the remake is made by George Clooney.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Behind The Scenes Featurettes:

REFLECTING ON THE CAST- the director and actors reflect on the cast of the movie and Askell Hennie is revealed to be a method actor and

THE CRASH- the story about the car crash in the movie that almost claimed Askel Henine’s life and they ended up using in the final movie

LOCATIONS & PRODUCTION DESIGN- a look at the city of Uddevalla, Sweden that they used for the movie because it still looked like a 1970s town and the production design of the movie where they built many of the sets in a warehouse there

DIVING- behind the scenes of the dive training for Askell Hennie

THE ACCIDENT- Askell Hennie took on this role to help process the sorrow he had over losing his brother who passed away

 

MAKING OF PIONEER: A DIVE INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA- the difficulties that the a real underwater dive team and film crew faced to get the underwater cinematography for PIONEER when they shot near a lake in Iceland to get the right look for PIONEER

 

WORKING PIONEER: STEPHANIE  SIGMAN “MARIE” AND STEPHEN LANG “FERRIS”- interviews with two of the actors of the movie as Stephanie reveals she had to learn Norwegian while Stephen says he probably got the role due to the success of Avatar (and how people in Norway speak pretty good English)

 

AXS TV: A LOOK AT PIONEER- promotional featurette on the movie

 

Previews for SERENA, TWO FACES OF JANUARY, HEADHUNTERS, GRAND PIANO

 

FINAL ANALYSIS: PIONEER is a well crafted and suspenseful conspiracy thriller that makes me want to check out the original version of INSOMNIA again.  The behind-the-scenes extras are very insightful and great to watch if you want to know about the challenges of making PIONEER.

 

This review is ©3-18-2015 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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