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
- prezesklubutecza - 2 June 2024
Nothing about nothing.
A pathetic movie about nothing. A slowly developing topic that lacks logic. There is absolutely no secondary plan that would explain what we are watching or introduce a deeper narrative, apart from the main trend drawn with a blunt chisel. Showing off violence and brutality, alternating with boring long-form stories. No concept in the script, other than the one-layered concept of revenge. And finally, the acting, wooden, like a forest that is missing in this film. It doesn't save Nicole Kidman, because it cannot be dismissed as a work based on stupidity. I give three stars for northern landscapes. - gokhandemirel-04503 - 20 April 2024
So much waste
This movie could have been a Viking version of Brave Heart, or Gladiator but so much waste of potential. The actors and the story had a great potential but the way the story is told making it one of the weirdest movies I watched. There is no character development, so none of the emotions passes to the viewer. The fight scenes are also very weak and unrealistic. A love story is tried to be added to the movie but didn't work well either. To be honest, I cannot remember anything that I enjoyed during this long movie. I would suggest not wasting your precious time on this movie, rewatching Brave Heart may be even better use of time. - riddleston-74428 - 23 March 2024
Oh dear,
Oh dear, great script and clever idea so why 4? The accents of the lead women could be straight out of the Keanu Reeves and Dick Van Dyke school!
The fight scenes go from great to stupidity inaccurate and woeful The storyline is paced ok but the speed the Slav girl falls for him is a bit quick.
The oddity of a mother trying it on with her son is weirdly out of sync If the hurling scene could be researched as anywhere near accurate as the film tries for a serious line?
The scenery is great and camera work superb but Nicole Kidman goes from Scandy to Irish to Ozzy in one speech... I ended up wishing for the end and laughing at inappropriate times. - rubyferraday - 6 January 2023
Somehow didn't cut it
Loved the cast, location, concept, but somehow was just pretty boring. I did watch the whole thing, so that is something, but it never really convinced me. I think it was mostly the writing of the main character. He just seemed rather dull, from boyhood all the way through to the finale and quite one dimensional. I never cared about him. I actually found his uncle more personable and his uncle was pretty awful.
On the whole, I think this could have been a really good movie. I would watch it again, as a background movie, because the scenery was so beautiful and it's sort of quiet most of the time. - vandreren - 2 January 2023
Icicle in a fire
"What is reality? An icicle forming in fire." - Dogen
In Shakespeare's "Hamlet," the Prince of Denmark feigns insanity to fulfill his sworn oath of vengeance. For the Northman, sanity is a more open-ended question. Amleth (played by Alexander Skarsgard) is a cold-hearted berserker who's seen too much death and destruction. His smoldering gaze seems fixated on some dark abyss. Watching the Northman, I was reminded of the famous philosopher's observation that, "If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." Skarsgard's portrayal of Amleth is exquisitely subtle, layered and nuanced. Through his eyes we are completely transported into Amleth's tormented soul. The rest of the cast, especially Anna Taylor-Joy, adds balance and richness to the story. Many will watch this and be distracted by the violence, howling, treachery and madness on the surface. Having rewatched it recently, I found new layers to peel back and new depths to plum. How much is real, how much is in his head? All I know for certain is that the scene of the sky riding Valkyrie will remain seared into my memory long after viewing this dark saga of cruelty, vengeance and fate. - pddmitchell - 28 December 2022
Impressed
This was an impressive film. The way they use symbolism and norse mythology is very imaginative. You are constantly rooting for the character throughout the film of course and he battles against many obstacles all the time with his main goal in mind. There is some romantic energy in the film but you can tell the main character is always focused on his main goal no matter what seems to be a distraction at the time. The landscapes were beautiful as well, the scape alone is impressive and fitting of the time and location they would be living in. Acting is impressive by many characters that pull out new talents you have not seen them use before. I would watch again. - ddnm-12776 - 21 December 2022
Lacking content, story and character depth
The spoilers contained are basically the plot, and the smell that comes from this terrible movie.
Tired old story, son of a Viking King sees his father die at the hand of his uncle who then becomes king. Fleeing his homeland he becomes a slave, then winds up traded to his uncle to work the fields. Falls in love with a beautiful slave who saves his heart, his quest and guidance to his visions. There are only a few characters that are shown in the forefront, none of them are really developed well in the story. The only prominent person besides the main character, uncle, his mother and his cousins is a man whose nose he took early in the movie. There is very little action, more stealth killing and Norseman crawling around in all fours growling and acting like dogs barking at each other. I was hoping to see more about the lives of the characters, learn more about the journey of the main character. I kept waiting for something to turn the movie around, I expected that perhaps when the main character grew into a man that might be the case, it was not. There was nothing redeeming about this movie, I am glad i saw it on amazon for free as movie admission would have had left me cheated. - inc-133-70013 - 16 December 2022
Beautiful garbage is still garbage
Historical movies are rare, so I hoped at least some decent attempt at this. Nope. "The Northman" feels like cut-together leftovers of some sort of viking metal music video production studio, the parts that were too dumb to even use in a music video.
Full of cringe, historical mistakes, terrible acting and bad fight choreography, there's nothing good going for "The Northman". If anything, cinematography feels pretty impressive sometimes, but since half of the movie is shot in dark (and further ruined by artificially desaturating those shots), and other half in overcast, (or at least gray filter that simulates one), even eye candy can't really carry this.
"The Northman" basically tries to tell you that at the end of 10th century, peoples of Scandinavia and upper Baltics were mentally ill savages and serial killers, who spent their days dancing around the fire and cutting off limbs, rather than highly mercantile agrarian cultures to whom a trip to Rome or Constantinople wasn't anything special. So, history books lie.
Hollywood will tell you how things really were: they just blindly killed each other and spent rest of their days trying to mimic "Apocalypto", complete with human sacrifice and howling on all fours.
That's, by the way, also the "story". A man decides to kill his uncle and spends entire film in (doing) what looks like watching "Saw" under psychedelic trip. You'll know the ending 15 minutes in, and rest is just endless attempt to do make history look stupid. Or paganism look bad.
Everything looks wrong in this movie. The weapons are wrong, the horse tack and breeds are wrong, the clothes are wrong (and severely lacking for the climate they've shown in), the buildings are wrong, the fighting is wrong.
No historians or history books were anywhere within 100 miles of the movie set. Did you know that what looks like 17 men of light infantry can conquer a swamp city-fort with 4 meter walls in about 2 minutes? Yeah, me neither. Wonder why people built hundreds of them, then, sturdy enough for parts to be found even now, 1300 years later.
I regret every second I spent watching this piece of idiocy. If you ever eat poisonous mushrooms, after neurotoxins do their ugly and quick work, the last thing you probably see is this movie. - therealgclass - 10 December 2022
Should I have taken the Mushroom to watch this?
That mushroom that made the soldiers kill themselves in the movie, I wonder, would it make the movie more interesting if I took one of that delicious portion as well?
Total carbage. Do not waste your time and beers.
Thank me later!
Oh and one more detail to add to this wonderful review that requires me to write at least 600 letters, *sips beer*, oh, need to have a "men's room" rest... Oh well, where did we stop? Bored to read the review? Yeah, WELL, you are going to be very much a like bored to watch this damn cursed movie of Vikings too. I bet even peasant's lives were more interesting that time than that.
Okay, the word count is full.
BYE!!1. - [email protected] - 29 November 2022
Should have been better.
Another case of style over substance and the need for a hoolywood style film of well trodden territory. After the influx of viking tv series and movies, this just seems an over budget tv episode. The amount of film and tv that is filmed in Iceland the cinematography is not even anything new. I really enjoyed Eggers other films but this felt clunky and strained, the fighting was boring and the story done to death. Big budgets dont make the better interpretation.
The mythological areas were good but not enough to carry this very stale movie. I was very hopeful for this but it seemed aimed at people who have never seen a viking or a sword and sandals film.
New.
