I love art that uses mythmaking in unpredictable ways. Robert Eggers new Norse revenge film, The Northman, is a retelling of an old tale that has been told and retold across centuries. The source material depicts the fabled Viking prince Amleth (which served as inspiration for Shakespeare) on his ruthless pursuit of vengeance to restore the family’s honor and reputation.
I read an article a while ago that described The Northman as Hamlet without all of his psychological distress and hand-wringing and my first thought was, “Well, that makes sense, because Shakespeare remixed Amleth into a Hamlet.” My second thought was, “Hamlet without the interiority seems kind of thin.”
I think the film’s concept is interesting, but tricky to execute. Granted, I’ve only read some of the Icelandic sagas, but I recall them being similar to Beowulf in that they’re mostly tales of action. Not a lot of interiority. The characters in epics and sagas don’t tend to be all that complex. Beowulf kills monsters and dragons because he’s the hero. That’s all the motivation he needs. However, modern movie viewers want/need a bit more going on underneath the surface (i.e. not a ton more, look at some of the crap that makes billions of dollars, but at least some more.)
Besides the mythology, the main draw for me is Egger’s touch on this familiar story. The man has a way of turning movies into experiences that stay with you. He does take the recreation of historical tall tales and myths ridiculously seriously. He’s pretty good at recognizing that he’s a bit of a try hard and has a good sense of humor about how he achieves his fantasy realism. He reminds me of PTA without the cocaine most of the time, just a cool dude that makes cool movies and cares about them a lot. I appreciate any artist that is never completely happy with what they produce. Most great artists are hyper critical of their work, and more often than not those pieces of work are fantastic. A true Auteur.
The Northman is striking in its visual composition, exalting in its realism and It feels like it’s going to be the new favorite movie of men who warm their balls with infrared light.
A somewhat brutal satire of toxic masculinity (and lightly touching on intergenerational trauma), this – like Fight Club before it, is doomed to be lost on men who will see it as a glorification of alpha males instead of the quite obvious deconstruction it is – complete with howling wolf bonding rituals.
As a movie? It’s mostly unpleasant watching even as you get to the twist that brings home the futility and stupidity of the protagonist’s all-consuming quest for vengeance. With a lot of the supposed heroics, including the ending itself, happening mostly inside his own fantasies it doesn’t leave much else left to chew on. Some great performances, some wildly miscast actors that usually work excellent elsewhere. A welcome cameo by Björk – having reneged her vow to never act again. There is even some great Elden Ring style weirdness and a boss fight thrown in the mix. Worth your time if you can’t get enough Vikings post all the Viking series and video games of late, but I expected more from Eggers.