The Northman reviewed
The Northman is a dark and gritty retelling of a Nordic legend that is packed with violence, themes of the supernatural and, even, incest.
Amleth is the son of a Viking king who witnesses his uncle murder his father and seize the crown for himself.
His mother is taken prisoner and Amleth barely manages to escape with his life. He flees on a rowboat and vows to avenge his father and rescue his mother.
Aleksander Skarsgard plays a much-older Amleth who has become, years later, a cold- blooded warrior.
He dances around campfires wearing a wolf headdress, leads raiding parties against villages and slaughters soldiers and defenceless townsfolk alike.
One thing has remained unchanged: his lust for revenge.
Amleth is rounding up the captives from his latest raid when he overhears his uncle has been overthrown and exiled to Iceland.
The prisoners are to be shipped over to him and Amleth plots his revenge: he will disguise himself as a slave, travel with the captives on the boat, and kill his uncle.
Plenty more bloodshed follows as Amleth carries out his plan.
Heads are bashed in, arms are hacked off and, in one scene, limbs are rearranged in the shape of a horse.
The film spirals into the realm of the weird with the episodes of violence broken up by pagan orgies, incest and Norse mythology.
Amleth fights a sword-wielding skeleton, consults a shaman who prophesies through a decapitated head and rides a horse through the sky towards Valhalla.
Amleth’s mother trying to seduce her son is the scene that really takes this film into disturbing territory.
Director Robert Eggers has clearly intended to move away from the glamourised portrayal of Viking culture we have seen in TV shows like ‘Vikings’.
Surprisingly, the brutality and rawness are the perfect ingredients that make an enjoyable film.
There is not a dull moment in the 2 hour and 17-minute-long runtime and Eggers proves why he may be the next best emerging director.
If there’s one pitfall in the film it’s that Amleth had several chances to kill his uncle but, for some reason, didn’t do it.
The film feels like it could have ended five different ways, before it finally does.
That being said, the final battle between Amleth and his uncle is nothing short of epic.
If you have a stomach made of iron then this is a film definitely worth watching.
Written by Aidan Wondracz.
Image: YouTube