A week ago, I saw the best movie of the year so far, and it was also my favorite, but sadly the box office does not agree with this appraisal. It cost $90 million to make The Northman, but in its opening weekend, it only raked in a $12.3 million and came in fourth behind, The Bad Guys, the new Fantastic Beasts, and Sonic. This is an atrocity, and I know it is because kids’ movies make more money because parents and children go, and parents do not typically take their children to violent Viking revenge films, but maybe they should…
The Northman starts with a triumphant return of a Viking king to his kingdom. He has a wife, who his relationship with is mediocre at best, and he has a son, Amleth, who was very excited to have him home. After the father and son go take some hallucinogens and act like wolves, they resurface from the depths of the ritualistic building, and they are ambushed, and Amleth’s father, the king is killed by Fjolnir, his brother. Amleth must flee and thus starts to repeat the plot of the movie, “I will avenge you, Father. I will save you, Mother. I will kill you, Fjölnir.”
Fast forward an unknown amount of time, and Amleth is jacked and raiding towns with another clan of Vikings. After another successful pillage, he meets a witch, who reminds him of his promise. So he finds out where the Fjolnir is and disguises himself as a slave to get sold into his care. As it turns out Fjolnir was not fit to run the kingdom, and now he is just the head of some farmland in Iceland. Amleth also finds out that his mom has married the man who killed his father. So a nice coincidence that he can take care of his promise all in one place, but he does not do so immediately. He becomes a good and faithful servant first, and falls in love with a fellow slave, and then the time is right, and he must choose between revenge or starting a new life and a family.
If this story sounds familiar, there is a good reason. It is basically a much more badass version of Hamlet. Even the main characters name is basically Hamlet. If you have not read or watched Hamlet before, then you might have heard of The Lion King, also basically the same story, but the Lion King has more singing and a little less death. Both of which are classic stories and will stand the test of time, as should this movie, if people will go and see it! So in Hamlet, the father dies, the widowed wife marries the brother, Hamlet finds out that his Dad’s replacement is the cause of death for his Dad, and he slowly plots his revenge. The only difference between Hamlet and The Lion King is that in Hamlet everyone dies in the end, but in The Lion King they must have a happy ending, so they only kill a bad lion and some hyenas
There was a pinnacle moment in The Northman where it seemed like the story could go either way. Amleth is on a boat with Olga, who is pregnant with Amleth’s baby, and they are fleeing away from Fjolnir’s farm to start their family. Amleth must choose between revenge and love/family. I was starting to think that there would be no vengeance, but I was wrong, Amleth jumps out of the boat and swims quite the distance back to shore to take his vengeance and cause some other casualties as well. Although this is a story that is based on a classic, one never knows what a director is going to change, but the result of choosing revenge led to one of the most amazing fight sequences that occurred while a volcano was erupting, kind of like the fight sequence between Simba and Scar when everything is burning… just saying.
Amleth is an incredibly interesting character study as well. Our journey with him starts out when he is young and innocent, but he quickly must grow up, once witnessing the murder of his father. Then time progresses many years in Amleth’s life, and even in the first moments they show the new Amleth, it is noticeable that something is different about him compared to the other Vikings. An archer senselessly kills two people on a small boat the Viking ship was passing, and from Amleth’s body language, it seemed like he did not agree with this decision. Similar situations repeat themselves as the movie progresses, and Amleth clearly has a conscious, and he cares about others. Amleth is even willing to save his half-brother from being killed by a brute, when he easily could have done nothing, but this is counter balanced by his strong urge to murder Fjolner. He had clearly been through some traumatic experiences in his life, but there seems to still be a strong pull for him to care for others.
The artistic level in this movie is top notch. It is filmed at a master level, and much of that praise should be directed to the director Robert Eggers, who also made The Witch and The Lighthouse, both of which are also very highly acclaimed films. This was filmed in Iceland, which is known for its beautiful landscapes, and those landscapes become even more beautiful in the hands of an expert director. Not only does this movie get boosted by its landscapes, but the amount of detail that was put into the set and camera work also help. Eggers specifically chooses stories like this because he loves to do research, so he does his part to make sure everything looks and sounds like it should. The soundtrack is made with drums and other instruments that the Vikings used, and even looking at other objects on the set and the clothing, clearly a large amount of detail was given to these aspects for accuracy.
There are two scenes that stick out the most, one I previously mentioned, the final fight between Amleth and Fjolnir during the volcanic eruption, and the other is the raid that Amleth takes a part in with his new clan. The raid occurs in one long tracking shot starting outside of the village, and it goes until they make it to the center of the village and the fight ends. It is a violent and well-choreographed scene that lasts minutes, and it is totally jaw dropping. When there are scenes like this and massive landscape shots of a place as beautiful as Iceland, this must be seen in the theaters!
The cast in this movie is also incredible. Alexander Skarsgård plays Amleth, and the amount of muscle he has in this film is insane. Also his rage filled performance is very believable and slightly terrifying. Nicole Kidman plays his mom, and she is able to give a very interesting performance, in one scene she is attempting to seduce her son in a wild turn of events, and she does a great job with the accent. Anya Taylor Joy, my personal favorite, plays Olga, the girl Amleth falls in love with and has a baby with, and she gives a very enchanting performance that features strength and resistance. William Dafoe makes a brief appearance as the shaman that gives Amleth and his father hallucinogens, and Ethan Hawke plays Amleth’s father for the brief amount of time that he is in it. Also Claes Bang plays Fjolnir, and although he is not as big a name as the other, he gives a stellar performance as well, and he makes for a intimidating antagonist.
I also have some bias towards a movie like this, a film that integrates horror elements into an epic story, is right up my alley. This movie is not scary by any means, but it does build up suspense in a massive way. It also has some cultish aspects to it, or what seems like a cult, due to it being foreign to us. There were multiple rituals that take place by the light of the fire that are very intense. Also some very unsettling scenes occur throughout, and Eggers sets the tone by lightly illuminating the landscape with moonlight for many of these scenes. This movie even has witches and a rage filled fighting Viking skeleton all set up with music that intensifies every scene for the better. This movie was a masterpiece. It blended so many different aspects together well, and it did it in an artistically beautiful way. It is the best film I have seen so far this year, and I have a feeling it will stay that way for a while. You must see it in theaters! I give it 4.5 Stars! I went back for to see it for a second time today on a bigger screen, and I picked up on some of the details I missed the first time watching, and it was well worth going to see it a second time!
Other Movies This Week:
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: Nick Cage doing Nick Cage things in a way that is both absurd and great. Only he could pull this off.
V for Vendetta: A masked vigilante gives hope to the people under an oppressive British regime.
New Rankings:
The Northman: 4.5 Stars
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: 3.5 Stars
V for Vendetta: 3.5 Stars
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