THE NORTHMAN Review
Robert Eggers Redefines the Word “Epic” When It Comes to Cinematic Storytelling
To say that Robert Eggers’ third feature, The Northman, has a lot to live up to may be an understatement when considering that his first two movies were The Witch and The Lighthouse.
Maybe I was a little slower boarding the Eggers bandwagon than others when those two first movies came out, but I do still remember seeing The Witch when it premiered at Sundance. It would have been hard to forget, since that was the same year I had to go to the hospital with a pneumonia that knocked me out for a few days. When I managed to catch it on a rare second press screening, I was arguably not in top condition. The Northman is a far more ambitious affair, a full-on Viking epic that tries to succeed where previous attempts – sorry, Nicolas Refn’s Valhalla Rising – failed, and thankfully, I got to see it in a better state of health, as well.
It’s 895 AD and King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke) has returned from war to his loving family. He’s preparing his son Amleth to take over as king, but tragedy befalls when the king’s brother Fjölnir (Claes Bang) makes a violent play for the throne, killing Aurvandil, taking Amleth’s mother Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman) as his own wife, and chasing Amleth away. We then cut forward twenty years or more to when Amleth (now played by Alexander Skarsgård) is part of a nomadic clan of ruthless barbarians whose sole purpose is to pillage villages. Still seeking vengeance for his father’s death, Amleth disguises himself as a slave to be transported back to Iceland to begin hatching his revenge scheme, gaining the help of a mysterious similarly-enslaved beauty named Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy).
There are many intricacies to setting up the story behind The Northman, which Eggers co-wrote with Icelandic poet Sjón (Lamb), but it’s also a relatively simple premise about one man’s thirst for vengeance. It’s something you can discern immediately as the younger Amleth takes on the mantra to avenge his father, save his mother, and kill Fjölnir, something that has driven him for decades well into adulthood. To be honest, you don’t really need to know exactly what happens to whom beyond that, because it is a journey, and it’s one that invites you to explore this world with the filmmaker and his cast but at their own pace and discretion.
As I watched The Northman, I couldn’t help but think of Conan the Barbarian, not necessarily the Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jason Momoa movies, as much as the Robert E. Howard books and the many comic books I read as a kid. Eggers gets closer to what I liked about those stories than any other film attempt, and that may be partially due to his attempt to maintain some authenticity to the period and its people, or at least as close as one can get. In some ways, that does put The Northman in a similar rarefied air of cinema as The Green Knight by his former “A24 label-mate” David Lowery, but they are two very different films, for sure.
Probably Eggers’ smartest move was casting Skargård, who is perfectly suited and built for the role, and Bang (less recognizable with beard and long hair from his previously dapper roles) is equally well-suited to play his antagonist. Possibly one of Eggers’ greatest early achievements with The Witch is discovering Anya Taylor-Joy, who is back in a particularly terrific supporting but just as important role to Skarsgård.
The varied attempts at recreating ancient Norse accents is somewhat of a mixed bag with Skargård and Bang obviously not having to strain too hard, unlike Kidman and even Taylor-Joy, whose accents tend to detract from their performances. (Fans of Icelandic pop star Bjork will just have to contend with the disappointment that she’s really only in one single scene in the film.)
Even so, it’s impossible not to appreciate the visuals Eggers and his team have created in telling this story, as his crafts team that has really outdone itself in creating both the worlds grounded in reality, and also the film’s more supernatural and fantasy elements.
Where The Northman’s story and pace really pick up and thereby makes it easier for the film to win over the doubters until that point is the final act when Amleth starts to enact his revenge on Fjölnir. Again, there’s no need to go into the (literally) gory details, but it’s the kind of payoff most will be hoping for after such a lengthy build-up.
At times, The Northman may be a chore to fully absorb, but it’s a movie with a scale and scope that can be fully appreciated through visuals that keep you riveted to the screen. It might feel a bit like a slow build, but you’ll know pretty quickly if you’re the kind of person Eggers is trying to reach with his distinctive storytelling. As with Eggers’ other films, The Northman is not a movie for those who don’t consider themselves at least slightly adventurous and open-minded.
Rating: 7.5/10