Once a King’s Son, a Viking Seeks to Avenge His Father

Alexander Skarsgård in "The Northman"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

I’ll admit, when I found out that Robert Eggers’ third movie was going to be an epic viking drama, I was a little disappointed that he wasn’t doing a horror movie, given the superb work that he did in the genre in 2016 with “The Witch” and 2019 with “The Lighthouse.”  While a viking film sounded enticing, I was looking forward to Eggers giving us another horror masterwork.

However, having seen his latest film, “The Northman,” I can say that his transition from the horror genre into a brutal tale of vengeance showcases Eggers as one of today’s most versatile and distinctive filmmakers.

In 895 A.D., King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke) returns to his kingdom on the island of Hrafnsey after his ventures overseas, reuniting with his wife, Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman), and his son, Amleth (Oscar Novak).  When the king is murdered by his brother, Fjölnir (Claes Bang), Amleth flees his home and vows to avenge his father’s death.  Years later, Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård), now a viking, finds the opportunity to have his vengeance.

Skarsgård evokes a ferocious performance as Amleth, an unstoppable beast who will do whatever he can to exact his revenge.  This is a very physical performance, with Skarsgård’s character taking part in a violent village raid as he exhibits the intense aggression of his viking persona, which prepares us for what he’s capable of doing as he moves forward in his journey to kill his uncle.  However, despite the storm-like strength that Skarsgård brings to his role, he also does well in diving into the emotional side of his character.  He brings forth the tortured individual who’s haunted by what he witnessed as a child, carrying us along on this life-altering quest as he shows unbreakable determination to bring his plan to fruition.

Anya Taylor-Joy, who had the lead in Eggers’ “The Witch,” delivers a strong performance of a slave named Olga who helps Amleth with his quest.  She displays a resilience in her character as Olga builds an alliance with Amleth, evoking a power and sense of cunning that makes her engaging to watch.  The fortitude that Taylor-Joy employs when portraying Olga shows a character who will do whatever she can to survive her situation and work with Amleth so they can find their freedom together.

The rest of the supporting cast, including Hawke, Kidman, Bang, Willem Dafoe as Heimir the Fool, and Gustav Lindh and Thorir, Fjölnir’s oldest son, offers superb performances throughout.  However, a highlight is Icelandic singer Björk’s work as the Seeress, a character with whom Almeth meets and has his fate described to him.  She’s only in the film for one scene, but she gives a captivating performance that helps to emphasize the fantastical elements of the story.  This is Björk’s first acting credit in 17 years, but her commitment to just a few minutes of screen time offers a wonderful supernatural performance that’s a lot of fun to watch.

The screenplay by Eggers and Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson takes the revenge story off of which Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” was based, and delivers an epic that gives us a layered saga of a man who has to go through intense and deadly hardships if he’s going to enact his revenge.  There’s enough of a setup to introduce us to this setting and the mystical elements surrounding it, showcasing a world that absorbs us in the story as the scope begins to expand and introduce us to other factors that are at play.  With some surprising revelations that present characters in different lights later on, as well as some clever visual and thematic parallels between Almeth’s childhood and his life as a viking, this is the kind of narrative that uses its epic-ness not just from an action standpoint, but from the standpoint of a strong focus on the characters and details about the world that they inhabit.

In keeping with going for a bigger scope, Eggers re-teams with his “Witch” and “Lighthouse” cinematographer Jarin Blaschke to bring us stunning visuals of the landscapes and well-choreographed battle scenes.  In one of the film’s biggest set pieces, which is the village raid that introduces us to the older Almeth, Blaschke’s camerawork has the sequence unfold in an accomplished long take that brings us through the village as the vikings and village’s defenders clash.  However, aside from the long takes in the fight sequences, we also have plenty of them that track the characters through shots that allow us to see the environments and become engaged in the gorgeous imagery, whether it be the stormy seas, the woods during a snowfall, or lush, green hills. 

Between his depiction of the 17th-century New England in “The Witch” and 19th-century New England in “The Lighthouse,” Eggers is one to build his movies with a wonderful attention to period detail, and he continues that talent with “The Northman,” not only going to a whole new part of the world, but a different millennium.  The levels of commitment to which he goes to bring us to these places and eras is what makes his movies stunning, immersive experiences.  As Eggers takes us to these settings, he balances between moments of brutality and moments of pure drama in order to create something that’s a magnificent example of what it means when a filmmaker’s uninhabited vision is given the chance to flourish. 

After Eggers’ break from horror into a revenge epic, “The Northman” expresses his intense versatility as a filmmaker, and I can’t wait to see the genre he’ll venture into next.

Grade: A