Sweden: Heaven and Hell (1968)

Sweden... where the facts of life are stranger than fiction!

Sweden: Heaven and Hell

After the Muppets and Porn story circulated around the interwebs,  I felt I had to watch Sweden: Heaven and Hell for myself to see how porn-like this film really is.  I finally got around to seeing it and, well, it scores a whopping 2.5 on the Beasts in Human Skin Booby Index.  In fact there isn't any sex in it except for a very quick off-screen biker gang gang-rape and a little heavy petting.  There is indeed a significant amount of boobage and bare asses, but most of the nudity is shown during skinny dipping or sun tanning or snow-frolicking scenes.

So what I'm saying is,  Sweden: Heaven and Hell is most definitely not porn and if you watch it expecting some hardcore Scandinavian blonde on blonde action, you'll be disappointed.  However, if you watch it for the ridiculous commentary about the dangers of Socialism, you may find it as entertaining as I did.

The basic premise of this "documentary" is that Sweden has become a Godless nation where sex, drugs and wanton carnality have replaced traditional conservative Christian values.  Children are taught sexual education in school!  Condoms are made available to the general population!  Women have access to family planning and abortion clinics!  The white ladies are interested in black guys!  For the love of God, the Devil walks among us and he dwells in Sweden!

Anyway, the film not-so-subtly suggests that this hedonistic lifestyle leads to a directionless and unfulfilled existence where, after carelessly indulging in the sex and sin that the government so obviously supports, the Swedish people find that they have nothing to believe in or any reason to live and eventually kill themselves.

It is an entertaining little film.  There's not much sex, but quite a bit of nudity and it made me laugh out loud more than once, and because of this I'm going to go ahead and give a thumbs up to Sweden: Heaven and Hell.  ...But it's not porn.

Violence Rating:  1.5 out of 5
Booby Rating:  2.5 out of 5

Of Muppets and Porn

This story has been floating around the interwebs lately.  According to reports, the Mahna Mahna song from the Muppets came from an old school, softcore Swedish porno.  But this isn't entirely true.

The song came from a sauna scene from the 1968 film Sweden: Heaven and Hell, and while the movie does show a lot of Scandinavian skin, it's not porn.  It's a mondo.  For those who don't spend their free time watching poorly produced films of antiquity, a mondo is an exploitation film subgenre where the movie is presented as a documentary or pseudo-documentary about controversial subject matter like sex or drugs or violence. The educational aspect of the film is really not important and the "documentary" angle is just an excuse to showcase sex or drugs or violence and get asses in the theatre seats, or in the 1980s, to get people to buy videos.  The Faces of Death Collection is perhaps the most famous example of mondo films.  I didn't watch those to be educated.  I watched them for the gore. 

Sweden: Heaven and Hell is supposed to highlight the seedy underbelly of 1960s Sweden by showcasing contraception and teen pregnancy, biker gangs, wife swapping, lesbians, etc., but really it's just an excuse to show busty Swedish blondes frolicking in the snow.  And there's nothing wrong with that.

Anyway, back to the Muppets.  It is true that Jim Henson "borrowed" the Mahna Mahna song from a raunchy Swedish movie, but the movie is an exploitation film and not porn....  Bork!  Bork!  Bork!

Here's the song in Sweden: Heaven and Hell.

And here's the Muppet version.

If you want to see some puppet boobies, look here...

Or here...