The Northman: Robert Eggers and his Marquee Cast Go for Full-On Viking Glory
By Karen Gordon
Rating: A
Brutality, mysticism, magic and shades of Shakespeare’s Hamlet mix in together in writer/director Robert Eggers’ Viking revenge drama The Northman.
It is a wild and trippy ride that mixes “reality,” with sequences that dip into the mystical world of the Vikings, and back out again. It’s also meticulously made, with an attention to detail as close to actual 10th century Viking life as is possible.
Ten-year-old Prince Amleth, (Oscar Novak), is excited to welcome his beloved father King Aurvandil, (Ethan Hawke) back to their rocky island home. That night, in a hallucinatory ceremony, Aurvandil and the court’s jester/shaman Heimir the Fool (Willem Dafoe) initiate Amleth as heir to the throne.
The Northman: Alexander Skarsgård in Berzerker mode.
But the joy is short lived. The next day Amleth watches his uncle Fjölnir, (Claes Bang) murder his beloved father, carry off his mother Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman) and claim the throne. Amleth escapes to sea vowing to return, to save his mother and avenge his father.
Over years, the rage calcifies in Amleth, now an adult played by the terrifyingly buff Alexander Skarsgård. He has become a Viking Berserker, the legendarily fearsome fighters and brutal killers, who pillage Eastern Europe.
In the aftermath of one brutal assault, Amleth wanders trance-like, and encounters a seer (Björk), who tells him his time has come. Vengeance is thrown a curveball though, with the news that his uncle has lost his throne and now runs a farm in Iceland.
When some captured villagers are to be sold as slaves to his uncle, he boards the slave-ship as one of them, meeting a captured witch onboard named Olga of the Birch Forest (the literally entrancing Anya Taylor-Joy). In Iceland, Amleth slaves away, discovers his mother’s fate, and hatches violent schemes.
Welcome to the world of Robert Eggers. The Northman is his third film, and even though it’s his biggest budget yet, and possibly his most mainstream, it has his very distinctive trademark moves.
Fans of his work - and I am one of them - have fallen for his singular way of mixing stories based in historical periods, that toggle between the basic narrative, with side trips to the supernatural.
In his debut feature The Witch (2015), he studied transcripts of the American witch trials, and other writing and superstitions from the era, to create story and dialogue that added to the very creepy mood of the film. His follow up The Lighthouse (2019), mixed sea lore, into a crazy salad of a film about two men stranded on at an island lighthouse without a means of escape.
As wild a ride as his films are, Eggers is a stickler for historical detail. The sets, the costumes, the artifacts, the way of life were all designed to be as accurate to the period as is possible.
In The Northman, Eggers’ authenticity means brutal conditions and brutal battles, and strong characters, both male and female, whether in war, or in love. Even the story’s flights into the mystical world are based in the Viking and Nordic beliefs of the time.
To create the story for this film, Eggers teamed with Icelandic novelist and screenwriter Sjón. The two dug into Viking history and culture, sagas, poems and Danish legends, one of which was the story of Prince Amleth. That 12th century saga, was also the source material for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, (Hamlet is an anagram of Amleth). There are obvious similarities between the two storylines, but this Prince has none of Hamlet’s angst.
This entire project started with Skarsgärd, who,with this film, is fulfilling a decade-long dream to make a Viking film, and who is one of the producers of the film. (Fans may recall that his True Blood character’s name was Eric Northman)
To prepare for the role, he’s buffed up impressively, and that physical intensity is matched by emotional force. He’s well matched with the other players in this drama, including Kidman, Danish actor Bang, and Bjork as a seeress who reminds Amleth of his destiny. The two Eggers regulars, Dafoe and Taylor-Joy are especially compelling.
The Northman is big and mythic and violent, and wonderful. It threatens at times, to go over the top, but it never does. Robert Eggers, once again proves that he’s not only a filmmaker with his own crazy and specific vision, but that he has the skills to pull it off. There are rumours that hIs next film will be a remake of Nosferatu. I can hardly wait.
The Northman written by Robert Eggers and Sjón, directed by Robert Eggers. Starring Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Ana Taylor-Joy, Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke. The Northman opens in theatres Friday, April 22.