The Northman - Viking revenge flick from the director of ‘The VVitch’ and ‘The Lighthouse’

[Ahriman]

Metatron weighs in

 

[Power Glove]

I finally got around to watching it last weekend and without a doubt this movie goes in my top 3 of 2022. The cinematography, the cast, the editing, the goddamn brilliant score. Loved it.

 

[Ahriman]

But I liked previous films having white characters.

Ok then, maybe he can tackle Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

Felt like watching the '55 movie, it's really good. It's gonna be hard to top Marlon Brando as Mark Antony.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

So Northman was a bomb? That sucks.

 

[gata]

So Northman was a bomb? That sucks.

non-mainstream movies and bombing at the box office
Name a more iconic duo

But at least it's having success with streaming services. Post-covid movies struggling in the theaters is not surprising.

 

[BrunoMattei]

So Northman was a bomb? That sucks.

Apparently it did well on VOD. So there's hope still.

 

[I-chi]

Watched it yesterday with a friend finally. Definitely get with it being called Eggers' most accessible film; it had the paradoxical atmosphere and tone of a well grounded fantasy adventure film. That said, the amount of slow long takes, the scenery porn, and the constant feeling that we're there with our protagonist at nearly every moment in his mayhem got me a right stiffy.

I can't adequately explain it, but somehow the mystical and supernatural elements felt entirely proper for it. More so than the Vvitch, more so than even The Lighthouse. It's like reality never truly left the building throughout, but sure:

Spoiler

He fights a literal draugr at the bottom of a barrow in order to obtain a magic black sword that can only be drawn at night.

The movie makes me fucking believe it in this world like I'm part of it, and that kind of mystical quality is way above mere praise.

 

[Jarolleon]

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Tbf Joos probably allowed it because everyone in the movie except for the slaves are assholes by the Western standards of any time after the Viking Age, implying a take-home message of "This was the savage world before diversity". The fort battle is strikingly similar to Come and See. Both films show a sadistic Germanic warband sacking a Slavic settlement, herding civilians into a large wooden building and then burning it while laughing and partying. The only differences are the era of the conflict, the fact that they had to overcome the defenders before the slaughter, and that some were taken as slaves. I can appreciate that this film has the balls to let the audience make up their minds though, rather than resorting to some inserted (probably token minority) character to express the viewpoint of the producers in the fashion of a leftist comic.