The Northman (2022)
Directed by Robert Eggers
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.
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34 films that influenced The Northman
What critics say influenced The Northman
Heading into this movie, I hadn’t looked up Amleth’s story, only to leave the theater thinking to myself how much the story reminded me of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet .
A brutal, blood-soaked Viking epic based on a Scandinavian legend – the same legend that inspired William Shakespeare’s Hamlet – director Robert Eggers’s third film is probably his most punishing.
The Northman is the legend of Amleth, the story that inspired William Shakespeare’s Hamlet , and with a prayer to Odin the film opens on the North Atlantic in 895 AD as the hero as a young boy (Oscar Novak) anticipates the long-awaited arrival of King Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke).
The Northman is loosely based on the Scandinavian legend of Amleth, a figure that also inspired William Shakespeare to write Hamlet.
If you know the story of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, you know the broad strokes here, as Hamlet was based on Amleth's tale.
And so, this scion of art-house royalty has much to prove in a starring role that borrows heavily from “Gladiator” and pretty much every Mel Gibson movie (but mostly “Braveheart”).
The overall endeavor is sure to feel reminiscent of other contemporary historical epics that are motivated by vengeance, along the lines of Gladiator , Braveheart , or even 300 .
Though lacking a well-realized emotional register, the film achieves an elemental, opulent vibe that splits the difference between Braveheart and Gladiator, or maybe The Revenant and The Lion King .
This film will resonate with cinephiles, bookworms, and history buffs alike because it draws from some of the best cinematic and literature influences: Hamlet , Beowulf , 300, King Arthur , Braveheart , Macbeth , Game of Thrones , Gladiator , and even The Lion King .
But when brutality isn’t the focus, the film vacillates between the atmosphere and storytelling of “Braveheart,” “Spartacus,” Roger Corman’s tatty peplum pictures “Deathstalker” and “Barbarian Queen,” “Krull,” “Sleepy Hollow,” some of the mythological works of Harryhausen, and the very recent David Lowery release “The Green Knight.”
The Northman is a refreshingly R-rated historical adventure like the days of Braveheart and Gladiator.
It’s a Viking epic unlike anything we’ve seen since Nicolas Winding Refn’s awesome Valhalla Rising, and I’d put this one right up there with it as the best this particular subgenre has to offer.
Though as exhilaratingly violent as one of its most obvious filmic cousins with Nordic ties, Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Valhalla Rising,” “The Northman” stays true to Eggers’ more offbeat sensibilities, contrasting gruesome imagery of brutally slaughtered bodies with the ethereal mysticism of a hero’s visions, whether of his past and future family tree, alarming premonitions, or ancient deities.
The Northman is a far more ambitious affair, a full-on Viking epic that tries to succeed where previous attempts – sorry, Nicolas Refn’s Valhalla Rising – failed, and thankfully, I got to see it in a better state of health, as well.
If anyone can recall that over dramatic swashbuckling action film starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis as friends and rivals in the 1958 classic, The Vikings , Robert Eggers’ vision will definitely knock any remaining memory from your mind.
There haven’t been too many Viking movies, most likely because the time and place involved pretty seriously restrict the format to two things—sailing and marauding, and the more violent the better; Richard Fleischer’s 1958 The Vikings , which was very violent for its time, still stands tall in the mini-genre.
Yet the period detail is unstinting; scholars of Old Norse who were unconvinced by Tony Curtis’s miniskirt, banded with chevrons, in “The Vikings” (1958), will be reassured by Eggers’s dedication.
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He is Amleth, first seen as a child on his father’s return from battle in opening scenes reminiscent of John Boorman’s Excalibur , although it soon becomes clear that very many scenes are familiar here and it is Eggers’ signature on them that will count in the end.
The romance between Amleth and Olga also has time to blossom during all this, complete with a post-coital respite in the woods right out of John Boorman’s Excalibur .
The overall endeavor is sure to feel reminiscent of other contemporary historical epics that are motivated by vengeance, along the lines of Gladiator , Braveheart , or even 300 .
The reins are removed in such a way to suggest Zack Snyder’s exuberant 300 had he had more narrative wherewithal.
The ghosts of Monty Python and Zack Snyder’s 300 haunt the halls and battlefields of this testosterone-soaked Viking drama from the director Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse).
This film will resonate with cinephiles, bookworms, and history buffs alike because it draws from some of the best cinematic and literature influences: Hamlet , Beowulf , 300, King Arthur , Braveheart , Macbeth , Game of Thrones , Gladiator , and even The Lion King .
Nonetheless, if the chilling tone and visual starkness can be compared to anything, it might be to Ingmar Bergman’s then-scandalous 1960 rape drama The Virgin Spring .
One shot, recalling Elem Klimov’s antiwar flick “Come and See,” finds a burning house filled with wailing villagers as a backdrop to Amleth’s unflinching gaze into the camera.
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The Northman ends up in the so-called ‘Gates of Hell’ for a sequence which takes itself incredibly seriously yet brings to mind memories of Harry Hamlin in Clash Of The Titans — precisely not what Eggers is aiming for.
Though his classical style still owes a sizable debt to Scandinavian film legends like Ingmar Bergman and Carl Theodor Dreyer, The Northman feels most like Eggers’ faithful tribute to Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God , imbuing landscapes with a sinister presence that justifies the spiraling mental states of those foolhardy enough to try to tame them.