The Northman

25 January 2023

Director: Robert Eggers

See

Him: Amleth (played by Alexander Skarsgaard as an adult) is the viking prince son of Queen Gudrun (Nicole Kidman) and King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke), murdered by his brother Fjolnir (Claes Bang) to take the throne. Origin story for Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the story is summarised by the repeated mantra at the end of the first act, “I will avenge you father, I will save you mother, I will kill you Fjolnir.”

Her: The Northman by Robert Eggers, a viking epic based on a nordic tale of viking prince Amleth whose path to kill his bastard uncle, who murdered his father and stole his mother. He embarks on a life long journey across the world but never gives up on his mission until one day he finds his uncle and murders him, as well as his mother and half brother and a couple dozen other people along the way. But it’s not only losses that Amleth’s destiny has prepared him for in the land of the Rus he meets a beautiful sorceress Olga of the Birch Forest, who later becomes his wife and mother of the next viking king. 

Think 

Him: The second act is visually strong with Amleth grown to a berserker in Rus and the tracking shot of attacking a settlement and capturing Olga of the Birch forest (Anna Taylor-Joy). Amleth hears Fjolnir lost his kingdom and settled in Iceland, he sets out for revenge disguised as a slave.

Her: A timeless story of blood related wrath and envy. Though this exampled seems to be based on one of the earliest documented sources. I think Eggers’ dark aesthetic inspired by his travels in Iceland complimented the literary material really well. The use of old languages even if not throughout the whole film, is a bold decision and make it feel more authentic, glad he didn’t shy away from this idea. To be completely honest there were many dialouges in English that I couldn’t understand because of the artificial accents the actors put on, so would have preferred for them to speak only in those old languages with subtitles but maybe that’s too much to ask. 

Feel

Him: It’s the third act slowing down that frustrated me, almost as much as non-Scandinavian actors playing vikings. I love when they sing in Norse, and others can’t pull off such subtleties for long. Except brief appearances by Willem Dafoe as a mad jester. Bjork is Icelandic but only a cameo as a seer. I haven’t seen her in Dancer in the Dark yet. 

Something was off about a scene shot on a green screen boat when this is the highest production level quality viking film shot in Iceland with artistic vision. Perhaps that’s why Amleth getting a sword, tormenting the farm, the valkyrie, descendants of kings as roots of a tree or prophesy scenes were abstract. The final confrontation on a volcano was an underwhelming climax. Although the reversal of the queen not being a victim was a rebuttal to the expected narrative. But I think I preferred Valhalla Rising by Nicolas Winding Refn as an arthouse Viking movie, admittedly he struggles with making his work mainstream too.

Her: I really enjoyed following Amleth’s journey, his interactions with all the supporting characters, apart form the main story line of his rivalry with the evil uncle. The final battle didn’t feel climactic enough even though it was set in an epic location in front of the erupting volcano. Not really sure what was missing but to me the ending was a let down. Maybe it was just too dark, or slow but glad it wasn’t a happy one.