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Starring Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Björk. Directed and co-written by Robert Eggers. Opens Friday at theatres everywhere. 136 minutes
Viking epic “The Northman” opens with a bang: a volcano angrily belches fire and lava into the night sky. The year is 895 AD in a craggy corner of the desolate North Atlantic.
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You might well ask yourself, as I did: How is writer/director Robert Eggers going to top this scene in the rest of this violent fable?
Stripping the royal murder-and-vengeance theme of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” back to its Icelandic and Scandinavian folklore roots, “The Northman” remains positively volcanic even when it’s a human being doing the exploding.
The human in question, described more accurately in the film as “a beast cloaked in man-flesh, ” is the furious Viking Prince Amleth.
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Played by Sweden’s Alexander Skarsgård, so ripped he looks like he bench pressed Volvos to prepare for the role, Amleth is out to avenge the murder of his father, King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke). The warrior monarch fell to the arrows and sword of his duplicitous brother, Fjölnir (Claes Bang), who then seized the throne and also the king’s wife, Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman).
Amleth witnessed this treachery as a boy (played by Oscar Novak), barely escaping with his own life. He has plotted to exact revenge and gain his rightful place on the throne ever since.
Fear no spoilers, even if you haven’t seen “Hamlet.” This information is all in the trailers and Amleth mutters the plot basics like a mantra: “I will avenge you, Father. I will save you, Mother. I will kill you, Fjölnir.”
Valkyrie: The Women Of The Viking World: Friðriksdóttir, Jóhanna Katrín: 9781788314770: Amazon.com: Books
This is surprisingly literal mainstream filmmaking by American auteur Eggers, who co-wrote the story with Icelandic poet Sjón. In his much-lauded previous features “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse, ” Eggers made virtue of narratives that whispered their intent and mostly cloaked their mayhem.
Not much is hidden this time, although cinematographer Jarin Blaschke once again views Eggers’ vision through a dark lens. Much of the film is shrouded in smoke, mist and murk, with the gloom infrequently broken by glimpses of the sun or by fires.
Craig Lathrop’s production design is also vintage Eggers, which is to say heavily researched and recreated to be as historically accurate as possible. The clothing is of hand-stitched furs, wool and leather. The Viking longboats and longhouse gathering places creak from rough-hewed wood.
Viking Tales: Jennie Hall, Victor R. Lambdin: Amazon.com: Books
The weapons seem almost prehistoric. To the pounding drums of the doom-laden score by Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough, Amleth brings the heat in multiple ways — blade, axe, spear, club and even his head — as he and his band of Viking “berserkers, ” clad in wolf and bear skins, wreak havoc upon the forces of Fjölnir, a Putin-esque figure who isn’t going to back down easily, if at all.
This makes for bleak if mesmeric viewing, even in a rare moment of recreation. A field game that seems to start out as an early version of cricket turns into something resembling a savage mob beating.
Kidman doesn’t get much screen time, but her character establishes herself as no mere kidnap victim. She brings to mind a line from “Hamlet”: “God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another.”
Viking Age Iceland: Byock, Jesse L.: 8601421245920: Amazon.com: Books
Anya Taylor-Joy, made famous by Eggers’ “The Witch, ” arrives near the 40-minute mark as Olga, no friend of Fjölnir. She sides with Amleth and also fosters the closest thing to romance and family life this film can muster. She helps gives Skarsgård’s character much more humanity than he might otherwise possess; the innate intelligence of both actors also shines through.
Then there’s Björk, the Icelandic pop star and actor, barely glimpsed as the mystical Seeress in her first big-screen feature role in 17 years. Majestically accoutred in a headdress fashioned out of feathers and arrowheads that partially covers her eyes, she seems like she’s in a Viking version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” video as she dispenses both prophecy and warning to Amleth.
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Vikings In North America? Here's What We Really Know
Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.comI also have to express dismay at the low rating this film has on . It seemed a well done, decently acted movie with a story that is neither ridiculous nor simplistic. I honestly believe it is deserving of an above average rating. Probably what annoyed a lot of people is the poster, which has nothing to do with the movie at all. It is not a film about glorious deaths in violent battles.
The Viking raid on Lindisfarne monastery is a real event that is considered by historians to be the beginning of the so called Viking Age. As with the TV show Vikings, the event is used to inspire the storyline in The Darkest Day, without much concern for historical accuracy, but this film has it a bit closer to reality.
The plot is seen through the eyes of a young monk, one of two escaping from the Lindisfarne's raid and carrying the Lindisfarne's Gospels, a beautifully crafted book that holds "the word of God" and without which the monks believe the Angles country is lost. The book is a real artifact that you can read about. The monks run away from a bunch of Vikings that want the book, believing it holds "the power of the white Christ" and can be used to rule the land. Their escape shows you glimpses of the wild and poor way of living in those times (around 800 AD) in the British Isles. Helped by an old warrior, they meet Christian sectarians and a Pict woman they rescue from bondage and try to fend off the raiders.
Breaking The Waves
I've watched a few Viking related movies lately, something spurned by the TV show Vikings, and this is by far one of the best. It is a low budget English and Welsh film with almost completely unknown actors in a small cast, but they each play their roles well and the bleak and violent trek through ancient England feels realistic and raw. The name of the young monk, Hereward, is an ironic hint of the end of the movie. Again: a clearly above average film, especially if you are in a Viking mood.
I gave it a higher rating then it deserves but this is to offset the lower ratings for which it does not deserve. A tale of vikings raiding saxon territory, and the viking leader seeking a book which is supposed to be a holy relic of Christ as he feels it has power which he can use for his own advantage. The story follows the young monk who is the only survivor of a monastery where the book was kept, and his flight from the vikings. He is aided by a British warrior nobleman, and later on another (I leave unnoted so as to not spoil).
There are a few moments where it plods a touch, but overall I thought it well done. It is brutal in parts, but back in 733AD (when this takes place - part of the dark ages) it was brutal times. I thought the acting was good, the cinematography very good and it had gripping moments. Most of what happens is I think fairly predictable, but how many movies are not? There are always flaws in movies, but I think the ones in the movie can be overlooked plot wise. I have watched a thousand movies rated 5-6 that were not as good as this one at it current 3.5 rating, so I have no idea what the panning is about.
What Vikings Really Looked Like
Just be advised, this is not a movie for children. There are brutal scenes of violence (and more) in the movie - entirely keeping within the character of the times and setting but stark just the same.
The published plot line indicates this movie is based upon a true story, or at least some sort of folklore. I have no idea of the accuracy or merit of that contention, and it seems to me it really does not matter.
Solid acting performances and some riveting cinematography have gone under appreciated in this dark, gritty tale of medieval monks running for their lives.
Beowulf (2007 Film)
Paul Jibson gave a really good performance but, sadly, we get to see to little of him in my opinion. I think he should have been cast in a longer lasting role.
Mark Lewis Jones gives a solid showing as the grizzled warrior trying his damnedest to save the monks from the vikings and their own stupidity.
Marc Pickering plays the coming of age monk
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