The Northman
Prince Amleth is on the verge of becoming a man when his father is brutally murdered by his uncle, who kidnaps the boy's mother. Two decades later, Amleth is now a Viking who's on a mission to save his mother, kill his uncle and avenge his father.
- Released: 2022-04-07
- Runtime: 137 minutes
- Genre: Action, Drama, History
- Stars: Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Claes Bang, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Björk, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Gustav Lindh, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Murray McArthur, Ian Gerard Whyte, James Yates, Olwen Fouéré, Edgar Abram, Rebecca Ineson, Eric Higgins, Kevin Horsham, Jack Gassmann, Tadhg Murphy, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Elliott Rose, Jonas Lorentzen, Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney, Jon Campling, Magne Osnes, James Harper-Jones, Katie Pattinson, Luca Evans, Seamus O'Hara, Chris Finlayson, Scott Sinclair, Gareth Parker, Eldar Skar, Phill Martin, Oscar Novak, Jack Walsh, Ian Whyte, Andrea O’Neill, Nille Glæsel, Ineta Sliuzaite, Finn Lafferty, Helen Roche, Faoileann Cunningham, Mark Fitzgerald, Gavin Peden, Joel Hicks, Matt Symonds, Thomas Harper-Jones, Sheila Fitton, Lily Bird, Sunil Beniwal, Michael McGeown, Peter Vamos
- Director: Robert Eggers
Comments
- mikecoopey - 25 June 2024
Brutal. Beautiful. Excellent.
I'm glad I finally caught The Northman. I don't agree with the critics at all.
No, its not your typical Hollywood flick, but that doesn't simply write it off as arty and pretentious. It wasn't at all. My non-movie-type gf and I found it totally accessible, engaging and exciting from start to finish. We both loved it.
I rewatched Braveheart recently and was struck by how dated, cheesy and formulaic it is. Good in its time, but it hasn't aged well. The Northman resets the scales for a generation that expects MORE, as Casino Royale rebooted the tired 007 franchise. Out is the cheesy, bank holiday popcorn flick, and enter a tale that honours the brutality, rawness and grim reality of the time. It's not "arty" in the least. It is a beautifully crafted film which simply endeavours, and succeeds, in portraying the true nature and era of the vikings, with all the harshness, barbarity, mythology, and primordial rituals of the age, none of which was at the sacrifice of good storytelling and engagement. At no point did we find it slow or pretentious. It wasn't 'fun', as Robert Eggars films never are, but for my money, its his best and most accessible yet. At its heart, it is a classic action/revenge movie, but built with a real passion and understanding of the time and people it portrays.
All-in-all, the film itself isn't necessarily weird or unpleasant, but the era it portrays very much is. The story and visuals are raw and bloody, but not without heart, beauty and hope, and its a true glimpse into the fascinating brutal reality and mythology of a past age.
The critics may be hoping for more generic Hollywood cheese; American accents, colourful characters, a bit of action, romance, fantasy and comedy, blaming the trailer for their expectations (I don't think the trailer is misleading at all) I imagine a great number of cinema goers assume all movies are made from the same Avatar/Marvel production line, but (thankfully) The Northman is born from a much more grown-up, raw and visionary mind, and we're all the better for it. - spaweb88 - 13 May 2024
Slow, non-engaging.
Slow, non-engaging characters or plot, good overacting cast..Very disappointing all in all. I found the movie slow, one of those you could stop and watch throughout 2 or 3 days despite the end being pretty obvious from the start. Some of the landscapes were far more interesting than what the actors' dialogues and acting at the moment. Most dialogues seemed forceful, artificial.. Nothing seemed natural except for, again, some of the landscape. Very unconvincing and non engaging movie. This kind of work comes to show how important directing and script writing are to appreciate how well actors can perform.
