c h r i s 🎃’s review published on Letterboxd:
I will avenge you father; I will save you mother; I will kill you Fjölnir!
Took a whole day to compose my thoughts and I am still in fucking awe!
The Northman, Robert Eggers’ mighty Viking epic packs a major punch with its mythological references, blood-drenched action sequences and its animal-pelt covered berserker beast of a man Amleth. A simple yet classic revenge story told times before, warrior prince seeks his bloody vengeance against his fathers killer; with bloodcurdling grunts and howls at the sky that cast an unforgiving echo—there is pain behind these defined and drawn out noises.
The Northman tackles Nordic mythology like no other and the characters each deliver something unique— my only complaint, each character only scratched the surface behind their abilities, could have done with more weird visuals with Björk as an eyeless seeress spewing out mythological dialogue that slithers off her tongue so organically— but this is only Amleth’s story.
Robert Eggers is a savage, a visual mastermind; his attention to detail is something to be deeply admired and Alexander Skarsgård is a Viking warrior GOD. That exterior hard shell of a shield body is a weapon within itself.
A beast. A warrior. A Northman.
At the end of the day, I can go on and on about how Eggers is a force to be reckoned with— those fucking long takes!!— and how his meticulous period piece films continually give my body chills but, I am a simple human, I see Viking butts, a battle at the Gates of Hel I give 5 star rating. 🌋
