‘The Northman’ Review: Robert Eggers’ Latest Unleashes Beautiful and Bloody Viking Chaos

The Northman

Director Roger Eggers has a flair for the historical. He does painstaking research into crafting his worlds that reflect such specific moments in history that still speak to contemporary themes. With his third feature The Northman, Eggers continues that trend. But this time, he has a $90 million budget, Viking violence, and blood spurting across the screen. In his previous films, The Witch and The Lighthouse examine the power and destruction of restraint. But with The Northman, it is nonstop chaos with not an ounce of restraint in sight. Here, Eggers and his co-writer Sjón are tapping into the darker, feral part of the human psyche where feelings are worn on sleeves and violence is almost always the answer. From the get-go, The Northman taps into pure id, where men are farting, burping, screaming, and slaughtering with reckless abandon.

The film opens in a Scandinavian kingdom ruled by King Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke). He rules with his wife Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman) and his son Amleth (Oscar Novak). As he returns from war, he takes his son on a spirit quest of sorts. They drink a hallucinogenic concoction, guided by Heimir the Fool (Willem Dafoe). The duo howl, bark, fart, and burp to prove their own humanity; they are not beasts, but triumphant men fit to rule.

Quickly, Amleth’s life is derailed as his uncle and Aurvandil’s bastard brother Fjölnir (Claes Bang) decapitates Aurvandil and takes control of the kingdom. Amleth must flee for his life and row away on a tumultuous ocean. This is the birth of his chant, “I will avenge you father, I will save your mother, I will kill you Fjölnir.”

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Flash forward 20 years and Amleth (Alexandar Skarsgård) is now a grown man who has joined the ranks of the Vikings, pillaging villages and taking slaves. Here, comes one of the film’s most impressive shots, a long take showing Amleth and his comrades absolutely destroying a village. He catches a spear in midair, scales a massive wall, and slices necks and bellies, all while grunting and screaming in nothing but his underwear and a wolf pelt. This shot captures the absolute chaos and violence of the Vikings. There’s no romanticizing of the time period. Instead, Eggers showcases the constant state of fear and war that permeated the landscape.

From there, Amleth is visited by a seer (the iconic Björk in her first role since Dancer In The Dark). She tells him how exactly he can achieve his goal of revenge. He learns of Fjölnir’s location in Iceland and quickly leaves the Vikings in pursuit of his ultimate goal. Disguised as a slave, he boards a ship bound for Iceland bringing Fjölnir a group of slaves to help him establish his new kingdom. Here he meets Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy) and they begin to establish a tentative report to save themselves.

Everything about The Northman is disgustingly beautiful. From the costume design to establishing shots of the lush Icelandic landscapes, DP Jarin Blaschke (who previously worked with Eggers on The Witch and The Lighthouse) has a talent for making this violent subject matter a visual feast. Whether it’s one of the film’s numerous battle sequences or Amleth’s kaleidoscopic fever dreams, Blaschke offers more than just muddy villages and dirty Vikings. He strikes a stunning balance of the abject and the gorgeous.

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Speaking of kaleidoscopic fever dreams, Eggers is a master of creating a vague sense of the supernatural. Certain sequences involving reanimated corpses and flying-horse-riding Valkyrie tease Norse belief as more than just legend. But then Eggers pulls back. He makes us question if Amleth is truly going through a mythical journey or if he’s merely hallucinating what he wishes to see. And Eggers never really provides a clear answer, similar to what he accomplishes with his previous two features. This ambiguity enhances this typical revenge tale into something even more engaging.

Between battling enemies and plotting his revenge, Skarsgård anchors Amleth as the anti-hero. He believes he has a noble quest while leaving a trail of carnage in his wake. This is not a performance where Skarsgård necessarily has a particularly deep emotional performance. But he captures Amleth’s primary emotion of rage perfectly. He is animalistic, with his stance replicating that of a bear. He’s slightly hunched over and he holds his arms slightly away from his body with hands in fists. This constant intimidating physicality shows that this man is one-track-minded and will do anything to get his revenge.

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Then, opposite Skarsgård, is the incredible Claes Bang as Fjölnir who is the smoldering bastard brother scorned. His cruelty is much more understated, despite what the film’s opening would suggest. Fjölnir is trying to make a quiet life for himself with his taken wife, his two sons, and his loyal soldiers. He reflects a certain degree of restraint at first. But that’s almost instantly released once Amleth begins to wreak havoc upon his small farmstead. Bang is able to strike a balance between a rage-filled man and a more sensitive soul just trying to live as peaceful a life as possible. Again, with Skarsgård and Bang, Eggers isn’t just telling a tale of good versus evil. Both of these characters are deeply flawed yet are sympathetic in their own ways. This creates a fascinating dynamic that leaves the viewer conflicted on who they want to come out victorious.

And we cannot forget the iconic Nicole Kidman who, despite a small amount of screentime, absolutely chews up every minute she’s in front of the camera. A particular monologue at the end is a knife to the heart as Kidman captures the deep sadness of a woman scorned. While this is a movie that revolves mostly around masculinity, Kidman, and Taylor-Joy, make space for strong female voices who are mostly silenced in this time period.

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The Northman is a classic story done perfectly. Eggers knows what makes a revenge tale effective, and injects it with his own flair for the deeply historical, vaguely supernatural, and hauntingly beautiful. While the film is steeped in Norse mythology, there’s no need to be super familiar with tales of Odin or the Valkerie. The Northman doesn’t demand previous knowledge, but instead an engaged viewer ready to dive into a new Eggers’ world that delivers gut punch after gut punch. This isn’t an arthouse film. This is a violent, expensive action-filled epic that proves that filmmakers like Eggers deserve this kind of studio support. So don your armor and practice your best primal yell, because The Northman will have you ready to dig into your most animalistic self.

4.5

Summary

With his third feature film The Northman, Roger Eggers delivers brutal violence with gorgeous cinematography that entrances the viewer from beginning to end.

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