The Northman

It is a movie based on a Scandinavian legend called Amleth, and it was a major source of inspiration for Shakespeare the day he wrote the story of Hamlet. The movie tells the story of a young Viking prince who seeks revenge for his father's murder. Northman's movie is one of the most beautiful and best movies I've seen in 2022. This movie is amazing in the full sense of the word, despite the negative opinions about the movie. The atmosphere of the film and the way the story was presented was interesting. I enjoyed the stages of revenge that Prince Amleth did. I immersed myself in the world of The Northman from the first 10 minutes and forgot myself due to my vision of a brutal, miserable, cruel, barbaric and cold world, in addition to a strange mixture between realism, fantasy and hallucinations. The nice stuff about the movie is the mention of Norse mythology from Northsimology. If you want these characters, they are in the game The Lord of War. Director Robert Eggers, when he directs any movie, you find his touch and personality in the films he directs, such as The Witch 2015 and The Night House 2019. Robert paid great attention to details, and he wrote the characters beautifully and the dialogues that he writes in his films in a literary form, forming a rich dialogue, but at the same time You find it interesting. The combat scenes were wonderful and were directed beautifully. I have seen many long scenes, scenes that you see as very violent and bloody, and these scenes are difficult for the director to produce in a manner that calls for perfection, given that they require replaying dozens of times. The director knew how to attract the viewers' attention to the furthest limits. The acting of Alexander Skarsgård was excellent. I felt his psychological suffering, in addition to Anna Taylor. She is ingenious and is good at playing any role. If you ask her, if you give her to act as a standing tree, she will do it very well.

First things first - there is virtually nothing original with the plot here. A young prince "Amleth" (Oscar Novak who later morphs into an effective Alexander Skarsgård) witnesses the murder of his father "King Aurvandil" (Ethan Hawke) and the capture of his mother "Gudrún" (Nicole Kidman) by his treacherous uncle "Fjölnir" (Claes Bang). Lucky to escape with his life, he escapes to the land of the Rus where he is soon a capable and powerful warrior. When he learns that the traitor was, himself, deposed and now lives in the inhospitable Iceland, he decides to impersonate one of a group of slaves being sent to his farm so as to wreak his revenge. There are a few twists to the otherwise largely predictable plot - he meets the enigmatic "Olga" (Anya Taylor-Joy) and comes into possession of a deadly sword that can only be drawn at night; but what really makes this stand out is the gritty, dark and enthralling production. The headlines actors actually feature pretty sparingly, though we get a little more Kidman towards the end, and that's no bad thing. It leaves us to enjoy a storyline that draws heavily on the compelling Norse mythology. Not just of Odin, Freya, Valhallah and the like, but of the whole cult of nature; of animalistic behaviour amongst man and beast alike. It draws on a symbiotic relationship with the environment that tests the faith of pagan and Christian alike. It is brutal, but somehow not gratuitous. That's how man treated man; women were little better than breeding chattels and children were even further down the food chain. Robert Eggers has put much more meat on the bones than almost any similar depiction from this hugely rich and enthralling vein of mythology that mixes fact, fiction, fantasy, mysticism and fear very well. It's 2¼ of well paced adventure that looks stunning on a big screen and is well worth a watch there before it loses much of it's grand scale potency on a telly.

It took me a little while to get into it, but by its conclusion <em>'The Northman'</em> had fully entertained me. Great film! First and foremost, I'm delighted that I did indeed enjoy this film as my only previous experience of director Robert Eggers was the - in my opinion, and apparently my opinion only! - severely unsatisfying <em>'<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/the-lighthouse-2019/" rel="nofollow">The Lighthouse</a>'</em>. It's unmistakable that this 2022 flick is made by the same person, but happily the outcome is far greater. The cast are top notch. Alexander Skarsgård and Anya Taylor-Joy are the two standouts, the latter of which is doing big things lately; she is excellent in the most recent season of television show <em>'Peaky Blinders'</em>, fwiw. Claes Bang, Ethan Hawke and Nicole Kidman are all very good. Willem Dafoe too, naturally. The story is super absorbing, even early on when I was a tad unsure I was still very invested in what was happening onscreen. The dialogue is a big reason for that, as is the thumping score. At times it can feel like it might become too talky and full of itself in regards to its own mythology and all that, though thankfully it never strays into those realms. It also delivers plenty of action, alongside some good ol' violence as well - the ending is quality in that regard, among other reasons too. Go watch!