THE NORTHMAN

-

If this film is anything to go by life in Scandinavia circa 900 was no bed of roses whether you were a king or a peasant. If the former you might get bumped off by your brother, as happens here in the opening scenes when King Aurvandill (an unrecognisable Ethan Hawke) is killed by Fjolnir.  If the latter you were at risk of being the victim of rape and pillage raids or being enslaved.

Our protagonist, Amleth gets to see both sides of this coin.  As a young boy at the start he sees his father Aurvandill get killed.  After fleeing for his life, he ends up years later surreptitiously joining a gang of slaves which is en route to Iceland, having been acquired by Fjolnir who has lost his kingdom and gone down in the world.

At this stage all Amleth can think about is avenging his father’s death and rescuing his mother, Queen Gudrun, who was last seen being carried off by Fjolnir.  However his straightforward desire to wreak vengeance suffers a couple of complications.

Firstly it turns out that his mother is very far from being a damsel in distress.  Gudrun is played by Nicole Kidman, and in the best scene in the film, between her and Amleth, she does a terrific job of conveying Gudrun's wickedness. 

The other complication is that a relationship develops between Amleth and a fellow slave Olga, well played by Anya Taylor-Joy.  Olga represents an opportunity for Amleth to put thoughts of vengeance behind him and to start a new life, a choice which was foretold at the start of the film. 

What elevates this film far above a simple vengeance tale is the interweaving of the story with mythological elements. Some of this is straightforward enough such as a weird ritual in which young Amleth and his father howl like dogs. But other elements are more like hallucinogenic visions, such as Amleth's conversations with 'The Seeress'.  

In less skilled hands I might have found this mingling of reality with myth irritating (I’m not a huge fantasy fan) but here it is done superlatively well.  Surreal images are embedded throughout in a way which is not jarring.  The visceral and immersive visuals are about as good as I’ve ever seen.  

Underpinning the whole experience is an outstanding performance by Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth.

All in all, a very rewarding watch.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WHERE EAGLES DARE

-
Rather embarrassingly I sometimes confuse this film with ‘The Eagle Has Landed’. Admittedly they are both classic WW2 adventures with similar titles - but even so. This film is described by Wikipedia as an ‘’action adventure war thriller spy film" which hints at why it is so beloved - over its 155 minutes it manages to span three or four popular genres. Which is not to say it needs all that runtime - it would be easy to cut 20 minutes or so.  For example, the sequences after  the moment when the chief goal of the mission has been accomplished could surely be trimmed. It is a measure of Richard Burton’s star power in the mid-1960s that all he needed to do was express a wish to be the lead in an action film (for Elizabeth Taylor’s children to enjoy) and hey presto a film studio makes it happen. I had assumed that this film was an adaptation of an existing Alistair Maclean novel but in fact he wrote the screenplay to order, in just six weeks (he then converted it to a novel). Giv...
Read more

UNION PACIFIC

-
Image
To call this a Western would be to give scant justice to its epic scale, but then what else would you expect from a film directed by Cecil B. DeMille?  It has a running time of 135 minutes, extras fill the screen at every opportunity (such as the saloon scenes) and there are two spectacular trainwrecks along with all the other drama.  Considering it is ostensibly a celebration of the completion of a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans it is a surprisingly entertaining film.   It is established early on in the story that a tycoon who pretends to be backing the Union Pacific Railroad secretly wants to sabotage the building of the track in order to make a huge financial killing (the details of which can safely be ignored).  To this end he employs shady gambler and saloon owner, Sid Campeau (Brian Donleavy), to use gambling, booze and women to cause trouble among the labourers. Given the success of Campeau's efforts, the railroad company recruits Captai...
Read more

WICKED

-
As someone who is suspicious of any film musical since 1979's ‘All That Jazz’ (a kind of high water mark), and as one who doesn’t feel that every villain needs a backstory, I approached this film with some trepidation, especially since  turning a stage musical into two lengthy films seemed self indulgent. Despite all of these concerns however, I enjoyed the ride.  It didn’t drag, it has some decent songs (and one very good one), and it wasn't as CGI-heavy as it might have been. It also sprung a few surprises. For example, it's very woke.  Not content with a main character, Elphaba, who is discriminated against solely because of the colour of her skin, the story gives her a sister in a wheelchair, as well as (another surprise) talking animals who are being persecuted. Their oppressor is of course the Wizard of Oz himself, but trying to explain to any young children watching this film why he is being so beastly to the cuddly animals might be challenging.   ...
Read more