Directed by: Robert Eggers
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, Claes Bang
Rated R, 137 minutes
For as long as there have been stories, storytellers have been going to the gods and mythology in search of a parable for the modern day. Think of the Greek tragedies, or “Ben-Hur.” The Marvel Cinematic Universe, I would argue, is another exercise in mythologizing, the kind of ubiquitous, larger-than-life rendering of humankind that might confuse anthropologists of the next millennium into thinking 21st-century civilization worshiped at the altar of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. We love a timeless character in a timeless struggle.
With “The Northman,” writer-director Robert Eggers adds to this long tradition, setting his sights on Norse mythology and the millennium-old Icelandic saga of Amleth (the inspiration behind a little play called “Hamlet”). The violent tale of a prince seeking vengeance against his uncle for the betrayal and regicide of his father, “The Northman” hits all the touchstones of mythical mise-en-scène: soothsayers and seers, visions of sacred trees and Valkyries, ritual sacrifice to the gods. Rare is the film that relies so heavily on pomp and circumstance and, above all, ceremony; Darren Aronofsky’s humorless biblical epic “Noah” comes to mind.
Eggers leans so far into mythology that even his direction feels classical, inevitable. There are battles, vicious ones, filmed in long takes where noses go flying off of faces and heads off of necks. Skulls crack open and blades slice through flesh with all the wet, fruity sound effects you’ve come to know and love from all the other sword fighting movies you’ve seen. Title cards rendered in runic script convey us from one chapter to the next, while crude, percussive proto-music and scenic views of the undeveloped Icelandic tundra remind us frequently that we are in an era long since passed, looking in upon a primeval version of mankind. It’s simultaneously stately and wild, measured and feral.
If only the food were as impressive as the plate it was served on. Despite the studious attention Robert Eggers pays to Norse mythology and Viking history and cinematic tradition, the film offers relatively little in the way of novelty. Like many folkloric stories, the conclusion is obvious from the start, but Eggers wastes his time trying to treat its inflection points like plot twists. (Did you know you can’t escape your fate? Wait till you get a load of this guy.) And as an action film, it offers impressive camerawork but little else. With neither the boisterous blood ’n’ guts bravura of films like “Braveheart” nor the precise choreography of, say, “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “The Northman” is simply brutish and blunt. Fitting, perhaps, for a story of Vikings, but unsurprising; this is exactly the film you expect it to be.
That’s the trouble, of course, with films based on old myths. The element of surprise is necessarily lacking, and that’s hardly Robert Eggers’ fault. These old stories laid the groundwork for all the stories we know today, so how could we be surprised by them anymore? But in this regard “The Northman” recalls nothing so much as David Lowery’s excellent film “The Green Knight,” released last year, and the comparison is unflattering. Lowery’s film, an old Arthurian legend made wholly new thanks to bold imagery and a curiosity about the weight of its own myth, makes Eggers look staid, almost curmudgeonly, his film exquisitely constructed but banal upon reflection. It is possible yet to inject the old myths with new life, but Eggers’ project is evidently one of preservation, not renovation. Even in its wilder, more psychedelic moments, “The Northman” is terminally grounded in exposition and facile imagery. It’s engaging, but it’s not more than the sum of its parts.
If that doesn’t bother you, then it’s still worth a watch, if nothing else than for the admirably committed performances from Nicole Kidman (“Big Little Lies”) and Alexander Skarsgård (“True Blood”), here playing mother and son with an intimate intensity well matched to the film’s pervasive violence. But otherwise, the only surprise about “The Northman” is just how normal it really is, how by-the-book its unfolding, how controlled its chaos. In Amleth, unhinged and howling along with the wolves, we are meant to see a man freeing himself from the chains of his humanity, but beneath all the blood and spit is just another servant of tradition.
Originally published in The Harvard Press on 5/27/22.