While some accuse (not necessarily wrongly) Hollywood cinema of having fallen into a certain torpor by cultivating a taste for risk-free films with identical foundations (action, humor, and fan service, the three laws of modern entertainment), Robert Eggers continues to shake up the cinephile community by offering crazy projects. And we'd be crazy to miss out. After shaking up genre cinema with The Witch and sending Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe to get lost in a lighthouse in The Lighthouse, the director is heading to Northern Europe to delve into Norse mythology. After 2 hours and 15 minutes, the result is clear: the Vikings series is to The Northman what Wall-E is to Robocop.
The Northman tells the story of Prince Amleth, who, barely past the age of manhood, witnesses the assassination of his father and the kidnapping of his mother by his uncle, Flölnir. Having promised to avenge his people, Amleth becomes a berserker, a Viking warrior fighting with bestial fury. When, two decades later, the opportunity arises, he disguises himself as a slave to approach his uncle. With the help of Olga, a young Slavic woman who is also a slave, he sets his revenge in motion.
Hamlet: The Barbarian of the North
Starting from a story with a fairly classic ending reminiscent of Shakespeare's Hamlet, the director creates a work that blends family tragedy, heritage, and madness, all with the savagery of Conan the Barbarian. And even if Alexander Skarsgård's monstrous build brings to mind Arnold Schwarzenegger, this connection is more reminiscent of Robert E. Howard's writings than John Milius's film, as we find the agility and intelligence of the romantic character that his muscular Austrian counterpart was slightly lacking.
The Northman also draws closer to Howard's stories by taking on the appearance of a tale in which the exploits of men become legends to be recounted and where beings of flesh and blood rub shoulders with the immaterial. Of course, this fantastic dimension is not so much due to the labors of Hercules as to the Viking folklore that the director and his co-writer Sjon (himself a novelist) have immersed themselves in.
The Northman immerses us completely in Norse mythology by placing great importance on the rites and beliefs prevailing among the tenth century Vikings. By making no distinction between reality and the psyche of its characters, the film gives a tangible aspect to its most fantastic aspects. Magic and the divine exist because their presence is unmistakable in the minds of the protagonists. We see what they see, no matter what those visions are.
Far from being just a banal tale of revenge, Eggers gives us a broad picture of a culture with its games, its customs, the transformation of its warriors into half-men and half-animals... All of this material enriches the work and accompanies the warrior's destiny.
God of War
Although it doesn't ultimately prove to be as generous with carnage as one might expect, The Northman constantly reminds us that Alexander's stature isn't there for aesthetics. When the warlike fury is unleashed, the film suddenly takes on a much more horrific tone with a taste for meat that would please Mel Gibson. The violence is palpable and the cruelty oh so visual.
The Northman is a violent film, whether in its image or its words, led by a cast driven by madness, regardless of its nature. Robert Eggers offers us a primal cinema where human beasts devour each other in steel and blood.
The director gives birth to an uncompromising work that multiplies phantasmagorical shots to link man and animal, dream and reality, poetry and barbarism. Beauty is unease, cruelty is majesty, and the whole is enveloped in a flamboyant soundtrack. The filmmaker had the ambition to make the ultimate Viking film. We're not far from thinking he succeeded.
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