The Northman (2022)

[Deleted]

Nice looking hardback for the movie:


The Northman: A Call To The Gods (Hardcover)

Author: Simon Abrams
Published by: Titan Books

Product Description
Set against the ruthless backdrop of tenth-century Norse territory, The Northman is an epic Viking revenge thriller by acclaimed director Robert Eggers (The Witch [2015] and The Lighthouse [2019]), featuring an all-star cast including Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Willem Dafoe, and Björk.
Compiled from fascinating interviews with the cast and crew, inspiring storyboards, exclusive behind-the-scenes photographs—including the director’s own firsthand account of his creative processes in writing and directing The Northman: A Call to the Gods explores the cold and forbidding world of the Vikings, their customs, traditions, and relentless thirst for battle and vengeance that inspired Eggers to write this compelling Norse saga.
Learn how the wardrobe department recreated the intricate chainmail armour and costumes of Viking berserkers and warriors; and delve into the research behind the art department’s visual inspiration for replicating the villages of Hrafnsey and Freysdalur.


UK: £50
US: $68.60

9781803362274
9781803362274

Forbidden Planet release date: 5 July 2022
Amazon US release date: 6 September 2022
Amazon UK release date: 19 September 2022

Amazon Links:
www.amazon.co.uk/Northman-Call-Gods-Simon-Abrams/dp/1803362278/
www.amazon.com/Northman-Call-Gods-Abrams/dp/1647227771/

There's a different cover at Amazon:

[Jason Aiken]

Very cool, thanks, Hun. I bought the Bluray collectors edition at Target last week, but didn't get a chance to watch any of the bonus features or watch the film itself again.

How often does a film get a companion book like this released when it isn't a big budget blockbuster? I can't think of very many.

[Jason Aiken]

Skallagrim gives his take on the Northman:

[cromsguts]

I watched this on 4k a few days ago. Very well done, the homage to "CtB 82" was nice. This director is starting to become a favorite. I really loved "The VVitch", great movie. I enjoyed "The Lighthouse" but I'm not sure I would purchase it.

Eggars handles the blood and gore very well. Not over the top, and Skarsgard was a good choice. In relation to "The Last Kingdom" and "Vikings" both of these were made for TV audiences. The amount of bloody fighting and sex have been toned down for that reason. Bernard Cornwall"s "The Last Kingdom" novels has plenty of blood and gore and sex. But those are books. There is supposed to be a movie of the final 2 books in the making, so maybe they will get more graphic with that.

I agree we need more films like this, without the PC stuff that currently poisons movie making. To each their own, but Eggars making "Worms of the Earth" would be fantastic. Just no more Marcus Nispel please.

[karasuthecrow]

I just watch the movie a week ago and I will be honest with you, I liked it a lot but I think that the movie suffered from the same issue that Guillermo de Toros "Crimson Peak", the trailers sold you a different product as they only focus on a viking action movie and the end product its more in line of Riddley Scotts "Gladiator" but as one of my teeachers says A VIKING MOVIE MADE BY A REAL NORDIC MAN.
AND AL HAIL CROM FOR THAT!

[Von K]

Jun 21, 2022 17:05:52 GMT -5 Jason Aiken said:

Skallagrim gives his take on the Northman:

Managed to miss this post previously somehow. Thanks Jason, enjoyed the review. This is high praise coming from Skallagrim.

[Von K]

Finally caught up with this at last and thought it was awesome. Could definitely see a few resonances in addition to Milius' CTB 82. It did also have a bit of a Gladiator vibe to it, as Karasuthecrow observed, and some riffs on Shakespeare's Hamlet version, inc a deleted scene with the ghost of his father which is included in the xtra features.

Had a very Magical Realism approach to the presentation of the supernatural which was nicely done. For the most part it presented the supernatural from the personal and cultural pov of what these people thought at the time, such as we know of it.

I agree even more now with the comments above citing Eggers as a good choice to direct a movie based on one of REH's yarns. It would be less of a direct adaptation and more of an interpretation through his directorial lens, but could still be awesome.

Imagine seeing an adaptation of Njal's Saga in Robert Egger's Northman mode.

[almuric]

Finally saw this and wow, that was amazing. Stunning to see a modern Hollywood production commit so completely to the time, place and perspective of an ancient story, even if it sometimes makes for uncomfortable viewing. Production design is bang-on and the only horned helmet on display is for ceremonial purposes. Someone really did their research because I noticed a lot of things I've found in my own reading on the subject, like the berserker ritual, the funeral rites, etc. As to the supernatural elements, you could say that some are clearlt hallucinatory in nature (Olga as a Valkyrie) while others (the Russian priestess's knowledge and the ravens that appear at a key moment) are more ambiguous. Future directors of fantasy movies should take note. This isn't a movie that I'd want to watch regularly because of how long and unrelentingly grim it is, but it's an incredible achievement and its stature will only grow over time.

[Lonewolf]

Finally watched this last night and thought it was just "ok"..... Visually the movie looked great and there were some cool sequences, but I never felt "invested", I just didn't care about any of the characters. IMO Skarsgard was the weak link in the cast, either his portrayal or the writing?, but I didn't feel his character was consistent throughout the movie. I can see the comparisons to the t.v shows "Vikings" and "The Last Kingdom", however there have been instances of brutality/violence in both those shows that I have found more shocking than anything in Northman. I was never bored, but its not a movie I need to see again.

[hyrkanian]

Feb 6, 2023 12:02:38 GMT -5 Lonewolf said:

Finally watched this last night and thought it was just "ok"..... Visually the movie looked great and there were some cool sequences, but I never felt "invested", I just didn't care about any of the characters. IMO Skarsgard was the weak link in the cast, either his portrayal or the writing?, but I didn't feel his character was consistent throughout the movie. I can see the comparisons to the t.v shows "Vikings" and "The Last Kingdom", however there have been instances of brutality/violence in both those shows that I have found more shocking than anything in Northman. I was never bored, but its not a movie I need to see again.

My impressions are similar, and I especially agree with this:

Skarsgard was the weak link in the cast, either his portrayal or the writing?, but I didn't feel his character was consistent throughout the movie.

To quote a part of film review from The Cult of Ghoul blog, by a film critic who writes for the Rue Morgue magazine:

The main character is ZERO, a muscular mass, one of the many identical ones in a movie, but the screenplay is very basic, and the acting is brought to life by the least talented of the Skarsgård family. He's not bad, to be clear, but just not good enough. He lacks the spark, the spirit, "that something" with which, for example, titan of acting aka Mads Mikkelsen brings his Warrior to life in the unattainable VALHALLA RISING. He lacks something to make his character stand out from the crowd, to make him unforgettable, archetypal. Here, he is just correct - which, for this and this kind of story, is not enough.

Another moment where the film partially lost me, but it didn't have to at all (!), because it didn't need that scene, or if it did, it could have staged it differently. Near the beginning, when Amleth has already grown from a blond boy to a brown-haired bodybuilder, we have a beautifully executed scene of a Viking invasion of a Russian (sic!) village where they made a terrible massacre of the civilian population. There our Amleth sees a boy who becomes an orphan before his eyes; and it seemed to us that he took pity on him, recognizing his fate in the boy's; and we think: "Now Hamlet will ask himself 'To be or' to kill, the question is now?!' and to prevent that kid, along with dozens of other villagers, from being burned alive in the church. Yes, we have a scene like the unforgettable one in COME AND SEE, and we have a main character who is part of such a "punitive expedition", we have as the main character a Northern accomplice in the genocide against Slavs, and we hope: now he will oppose, raise his voice , even if it is futile, powerless, individually, to be overpowered by three guys to hold him while he breaks away in an attempt to open the door of the burning church, but in vain, he is alone and they are three hundred proto-Nazis.
But no! Nothing like that. This one doesn't raise a single voice, nor "Um, excuse me, please, can we just banish them to the forest, do we really have to burn them alive?"
Well, excuse me, but in that moment of inaction, that character is lost for me: I no longer care whether he will kill his uncle or not, because why is his revenge privileged, why is it more important than doing something that is actually positive and good (saving lives), instead of a single-minded commitment to what is negative and bad?
What do you say?

"Those were the times!" "That's how they were brought up!" "Don't project your 20th century values onto the fucking ninth century!"

Well, I'm sorry: but the story is either of human interest or it's not, the character is either humane or not, and this one, in that scene, doesn't show me even a trace of humanity. If Mads Mikkelsen had been there, in that role he would have signaled the disagreement and non-belonging of this character to that Nazi genocidal expedition with a twitch of his lips, a twinkle in his eye, a body movement, a micro-act. and I would forgive him. But since we only had a pale copy of dad Stellan, we only got a Void where Something should have been …

[robp]

Feb 6, 2023 12:02:38 GMT -5 Lonewolf said:

Finally watched this last night and thought it was just "ok"..... Visually the movie looked great and there were some cool sequences, but I never felt "invested", I just didn't care about any of the characters. IMO Skarsgard was the weak link in the cast, either his portrayal or the writing?, but I didn't feel his character was consistent throughout the movie. I can see the comparisons to the t.v shows "Vikings" and "The Last Kingdom", however there have been instances of brutality/violence in both those shows that I have found more shocking than anything in Northman. I was never bored, but its not a movie I need to see again.

Same here. Visually fine, the highpoint was the all too brief Thing in the Crypt scene. Aside from that the rest became a bit of a blur. And yes, the lead was not convincing as a fighter, if anything he looked clumsy to me.

[Von K]

Robert Egger's approach is definitely toward the more historically accurate and arthouse side of movie making than the more populist or commercial approach of The Vikings or The Last Kingdom.

The critic quoted by Hyrkanian commented :

"Those were the times!" "That's how they were brought up!" "Don't project your 20th century values onto the fucking ninth century!"

Well, I'm sorry: but the story is either of human interest or it's not, the character is either humane or not, and this one, in that scene, doesn't show me even a trace of humanity.

He's talking about an Amleth who at that point in the narrative had essentially become the drugged-up psyched-up dehumanized member of a berserker band.

Roaming bands of berserkers used to cause great trouble in Norway during Grettir's time, for instance, when they would turn up at a farmstead, challenge the owner to a holmgang and make off with wives and daughters, returning them weeks later before heading off to the next farmstead to repeat the process. The King of Norway banned all holmgang because of this abuse of holmgang.

[Von K]

Feb 8, 2023 11:54:56 GMT -5 robp said:

Feb 6, 2023 12:02:38 GMT -5 Lonewolf said:

Finally watched this last night and thought it was just "ok"..... Visually the movie looked great and there were some cool sequences, but I never felt "invested", I just didn't care about any of the characters. IMO Skarsgard was the weak link in the cast, either his portrayal or the writing?, but I didn't feel his character was consistent throughout the movie. I can see the comparisons to the t.v shows "Vikings" and "The Last Kingdom", however there have been instances of brutality/violence in both those shows that I have found more shocking than anything in Northman. I was never bored, but its not a movie I need to see again.

Same here. Visually fine, the highpoint was the all too brief Thing in the Crypt scene. Aside from that the rest became a bit of a blur. And yes, the lead was not convincing as a fighter, if anything he looked clumsy to me.

That was a great scene. Would have been perfect for an S+S movie (without the hallucination/magic realism bit).

Based on the scene from Milius' Conan, based on Lin Carter's Thing in the Crypt which was based on the original scene from Grettir's Saga where he slugs it out with Kar the Old in his grave howe. Wonder if the writer of Grettir's Saga got it from a previous source in the same way that his fight with Glam was based on Beowulf vs Grendel.