THE NORTHMAN |
★★★★☆
15 April 2022
A movie review of THE NORTHMAN.
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Director: Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse, The Witch).
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Claes Bang, Willem Defoe, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Oscar Novak, Kate Dickie, Ralph Ineson, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Björk.
“Your strength has the power to break men’s bones. I have the cunning to break men’s minds,” Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy)
THE NORTHMAN opens on a palette so washed-out as to be almost monochrome. Knowing what the audience is there for, grand scale, the camera swirls past returning warships towards a citadel. The first burst of colour is the attire of young Prince Amleth (Oscar Novak). The character’s beaming face will soon give way to misery. He has been awaiting the homecoming of his father. King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke), gone for a season, arrives with plunder and slaves. THE NORTHMAN is a Viking vengeance flick more THE GREEN KNIGHT [2021] than GLADIATOR [2000]. It opts for world-building over catharsis.
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Claes Bang, Willem Defoe, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Oscar Novak, Kate Dickie, Ralph Ineson, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Björk.
“Your strength has the power to break men’s bones. I have the cunning to break men’s minds,” Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy)
THE NORTHMAN opens on a palette so washed-out as to be almost monochrome. Knowing what the audience is there for, grand scale, the camera swirls past returning warships towards a citadel. The first burst of colour is the attire of young Prince Amleth (Oscar Novak). The character’s beaming face will soon give way to misery. He has been awaiting the homecoming of his father. King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke), gone for a season, arrives with plunder and slaves. THE NORTHMAN is a Viking vengeance flick more THE GREEN KNIGHT [2021] than GLADIATOR [2000]. It opts for world-building over catharsis.
Justice and retribution are not the same thing. The motivations are different. The silver screen revenge story has only so many outcomes:
- The lead succeeds and dies,
- The lead succeeds and lives, but is in such agony as to be steeped in desolation,
- The lead succeeds and finds peace (a dubious outcome for a plot), or
- The lead fails.
Even with these few avenues, a filmmaker may still satisfy a literate audience. The collateral damage is one of the key elements that elevates. There is a place for the vengeance genre, as a continual reminder to individuals of payback’s price. THE NORTHMAN has misdirection for the audience and on two levels for the lead.
AD 895. “A father never grows too old for a smothering,” Aurvandil to his son, setting up the paternal bond. Whoever this king is, we are aware of fatherly affection. The toll then on the lead when Aurvandil is murdered, in cold blood, by Amleth’s uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang). Barely escaping, Amleth chants a mantra to himself of retaliation, reminiscent of Arya’s in GAME OF THRONES [2011-2019]. What plays out is an epic avoiding viewer reassurance. THE NORTHMAN is pessimistic and misanthropic, a reminder of what state humanity quickly regresses. Those seeking a film in the same league as John Milius’ magnificent CONAN THE BARBARIAN [1982] are delivered a different beast.
A grown-up Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård), taken in by a different tribe, is involved in the unprovoked sacking of a town. What looks to be a single shot, we are witness to carnage and brutality. The mercilessness is shocking. There is no romanticism offered. The choreography should satisfy action movie buffs. Amleth catching a spear mid-flight and fluidly returning it, and later dodging arrows, economically demonstrates his prowess. Audience members desiring unrelenting combat will not be sated. Intermixed amongst the mayhem are rituals and prophecies and visions. These add texture and aid immersion in this world, reminding of MIDSOMMAR [2019]. From Björk as the Seeress to Ingvar Sigurdsson as a He-Witch, the fantastical is presented as real-world magic or all in Amleth’s mind.
“Hate is all I’ve ever known. I wish to be free of it,” Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård). THE NORTHMAN is a slowly building commentary on trauma, across characters, wrapped in a thumping soundtrack and visual potency.