Casting a `proper' actor as the villain in a silly movie is always a great idea. (See, for example, Basil Rathbone in The Court Jester.)
He was also a good serious villain in Minority Report.
(refering to Strange Brew)
Kenneth Branagh in Wild Wild West. (Not sure if that example supports or refutes your claim.)
That seemed to be a popular role for him later in life—a sort of super character actor who could come in and punch up the gravitas of any scene with just a few lines. I think that says a lot about his abilities as an actor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emigrants_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Land
They are based on a series of novels (1949 and onwards) by Vilhelm Moberg chronicling the fate of a family who decides to migrate from famine/poverty-stricken Sweden to the US in the mid 1800s. A full 25% of the Swedish population ended up migrating to the US.
These two movies made Max iconic and so beloved to pretty much everyone in Sweden. They are also fantastic movies; I find myself rewatching them once every 5 years or so.
In it, von Sydow plays the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun, who, after WW2, was accused of having collaborated with the Nazis. His portrayal of Hamsun is one of the most nuanced, moving performances I've seen on the screen. It's a superb film. He didn't play many main characters in his life, certainly not in his American movies, but he should have.
(An interesting fact that will elude most non-Nordic viewers is that the cast is made up of a blend Norwegian, Swedish and Danish actors, and they all speak their own native language; von Sydow performs the role in Swedish, for example, even though Hamsun was Norwegian. The film is so well made that it doesn't make any difference at all.)
This and Jan Troell's other films used to be on Criterion's streaming service, but they're not there anymore. Hamsun is only available through Kanopy, I believe, which requires a library card from one of their supported libraries. The Emigrants can be rented on Amazon Prime Video and Vudu, and the The New Land is on iTunes/Apple TV. But it's often difficult to find these masterpieces.
Out of all the roles he played I remember him best as the knight from The Seventh Seal. Somehow his looks, demeanor and way of talking perfectly fit that of a stereotypical medieval knight.
He's forever in the canon as the protagonist in The Seventh Seal, of course.
Every film buff will have something in particular that stands out in their memory about Max Von Sydow. For me, that would be the as the mad scientist, Dr Farber, in "Until the End of the World"-- a sprawling train-wreck of a film that I will always remember fondly, I don't care what the pro-critics think!
He has but a scene in Conan the Barbarian, but what a scene! "What daring! What outrageousness! What insolence! What arrogance! ... I salute you."
Max was also great in this movie - I would not want that guy coming after me. RIP after an exceptional career in films.
Respect for his work and achievements.
At the time, people were mumbling about Robert Redford, the star. But von Sydow owned every scene he was in.
Flash Gordon
The Emigrants
The Flight of the Eagle
Heidi
Hawaii
Oh, not that film?
All of his work was his best work.
