The Northman
Robert Eggers goes dark and brutal in his retelling of the legend that inspired Hamlet.
Though the film is brutal (seriously consider your tolerance for gore/stabbing before you buy a ticket because even the sound design in this movie seems intent on making you queasy with juicy axe blows), director Robert Eggers manages to make the film beautiful. Collaborating again with cinematographer Jarin Blaschke (The Lighthouse), Eggers crafts some truly astounding sequences and images. One particular tracking shot as Amleth and his berserkers raid a village is breathtaking in its ferocious splendor. The film also plays with the use of hallucinogens in rituals, which produce some trippy, glorious sequences that spin the viewer into a heightened reality.
While the film offers Eggers’ signature meticulous historic detail, The Northman might be the most straightforward of his films. While The Witch and The Lighthouse delved more into metaphors to explain their histrionics, The Northman is a relatively simple tale of revenge, and the trappings of seeking retribution. Still, even without an extra layer of artifice, The Northman has the bombastic style of The Lighthouse, a film that took big dramatic swings with both performances and visuals.
Verdict: Everything is over the top, from Skarsgård’s abs to the roars of the men he fights (there’s a naked volcano fight, reader). It’s high drama and operatic entertainment done beautifully.
