The Northman / ***½ (R)

 

Amleth: Alexander Skarsgård

Queen Gudrún: Nicole Kidman

Fjölnir the Brotherless: Claes Bang

King Aurvandil War-Raven: Ethan Hawke

Olga of the Birch Forest: Anya Taylor-Joy

Thórir The Proud: Gustav Lindh

Gunnar: Elliott Rose

Heimir the Fool: Willem Defoe

Seeress: Björk

Focus Features and New Regency Productions present a film directed by Robert Eggers. Written by Sjón & Robert Eggers. Running time: 136 min. Rated R (for strong bloody violence, strong sexual content and nudity).

To call Robert Eggers’s new Viking movie “bombastic” and “over the top” might be missing the point, and it is certainly missing the idea of what should be expected from a Viking movie. Eggers, who already has quite a reputation in Hollywood for producing intellectually challenging and visually stunning movies, offers us only his third feature with The Northman. The Northman may be the most authentic Viking movie ever made. Based on a well known Scandinavian folk tale, which also inspired some of the plot points of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it is a raw experience to say the least. It is filled with anger and violence and the raw visceral nature of man. It’s not surprising the same are calling it a little much. Perhaps we have become a sensitive lot.

His previous movies have notoriously been produced with an incredible attention to the authentic details that mark the periods which they depict. 2015’s The Witch used only props and sets that were constructed using the methods of its 1600s New England setting, while The Lighthouse (2019) was filmed using camera lenses from its 1890s time period. Both were also rumored to have been made under strenuous conditions for their casts and crews. Considering those facts, we can probably call ourselves lucky not to have endured what must’ve been months of near torture to produce this bloody, monsterous affair.

The Northman tells the story of Amleth, an Icelandic prince in the 10th Century, during the landnamsöld (age of land-taking)–the time Iceland was first settled. The boy adores his father, who upon his return from a campaign of conquering and acquiring riches is murdered by his own brother, Fjölnir. The boy escapes and swears vengeance for his father, rescue for his mother and death for his uncle. Years later, as an enforcer for another ruler, Amleth learns of the sale of slaves from his tribe’s latest conquest to Fjölnir and disguises himself as one of the slaves to be shipped to his uncle’s reduced kingdom of a mere shepherding community to enact his vengeance.

It’s a powerful story of betrayal and vengeance, and Eggers brings all the grandiloquence and passion necessary for revenge into every aspect of the filmgoing experience, from the culturally referential and thundering score by Robert Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough to the enlarged continent of body muscle that star Alexander Skarsgård must’ve ‘roided out to achieve. Everything in this movie is massive. The Icelandic setting makes for a beyond tormenting landscape, as unforgiving as these Viking marauders are on their missions of conquest. Although we don’t witness the conquest the king returns from at the start of the film, it is obvious they have devastated the people who are now enslaved by them and stolen all the riches their civilization had hoarded. As we are introduced to Amleth as an adult we witness one of these raids, in which Almeth is employed as a first wave enforcer–or wolf–a personality he seems to embody at his core, one of extreme brutality and entirely lacking in empathy. 

Amleth's methods of revenge are even more extreme in their implementation. Eggers’ lead for his first film, Anya Taylor-Joy, rejoins his company to act as an accomplice to Amleth’s vengeance–both having lost what was dear to them because of the same man’s actions. The two slaughter their tormentors in truly horrific ways, through poisoning and dismemberment, ultimately leading to a showdown between Amleth and Fjölnir at the base of an erupting volcano.

Despite the visceral and testosterone driven nature of the action, Eggers incorporates many of his signature themes of the supernatural and witchcraft. Willem Dafoe and Björk each show up in intense shaman roles, providing some of the film’s more psychedelic visuals and tripped out performances. Taylor-Joy seems to have graduated her character from The Witch to the seasoned trickstress. Amleth also sees visions that foretell of his revenge on his uncle and of his progenies’ rise to power. He sees his own journey to Valhọll, “hall of the slain”, riding on the wings of the Valkyrie. It’s all very visually stunning.

In press interviews leading up to the release of The Northman, Eggers said that Skarsgård had approached him to do a Viking film. While it had been a lifelong dream of the Swedish actor’s, it surprisingly hadn’t been one for Eggers. Clearly Skarsgård recruited the right director to fulfill his dream. While it is melodramatic and overblown, it also feels incredibly authentic for what it is trying to depict. It certainly isn’t a movie for everyone. It does play like the fulfillment of a dream–or perhaps a nightmare.

The Northman is currently playing exclusively in theaters.