The Northman

Eggers hat es nicht eilig, er genießt die Symbolik der vielen Traumsequenzen. Er hat sich aber keine Zeit für eine Erklärung und eine Darstellung der Schlüsselwendungen bei den Entscheidungen der Hauptfigur genommen, die für ihre Bedeutung angemessen wären. Dies wurde entweder durch einen unglücklichen Schnitt oder das Drehbuch verursacht. Sein Autor ist fähig, die wichtigste Sache beherrscht er aber nicht – ein dramaturgisch komplexes Erzählen und eine gefühlvolle Arbeit mit seinen Motiven. In The Northman haben mir der Geist eines blutdürstigen Wolfs, die visuelle Seite, die einzigartige Filmwelt sowie die Härte gefallen, die man in Verbindung mit der Inkorrektheit in dem heutigen Mainstream nicht sieht. Je mehr Zeit vergeht, desto sicherer bin ich mir, dass dieser Film nur ein mutiger B-Movie mit einem verlegenen Inhalt und kein "Arthouse–Monumentalfilm" ist. (21.04.2022)

Fortunately, the big-studio system hasn't ground Robert Eggers down; despite the higher budget he has remained his own, uninhibited and original, although I think that of his three films so far this one is probably the least interesting. The narrative is not exactly flawless, especially in the middle part the story drags a lot, as if it doesn't know which way to go, but thank Odin it catches its breath again with the bloody climax and the final fight is an atmospheric blast. You will also enjoy the unusual insights into the life of the Old Norse, their customs and shamanic practices. The manly Skarsgård impresses with his animalism and muscularity, so his traditional puppy dog look doesn't matter. Nicole Kidman, on the other hand, is a horrible sight when the camera filter isn't mercifully working on her; facial liposuction is evil. Ageing also demands grace. (02.06.2022)

The Witch remains my favourite, but I definitely enjoyed The Northman more than the overrated The Lighthouse. In the first half, I believed I would give it a full rating. It’s harsh, stylish and in the raid on the village scene, Alexander Skarsgård is a true “animal”. What I enjoyed the most were the shamanic rituals and the mythical scenes, balancing between hallucination/dream and the supernatural. But in the end, I have to deduct a point for something Eggers tried for the first time in this film, which didn’t convince me much: normal, positive human emotions; love, to be more specific. The Witch and The Lighthouse didn’t have anything positive, but here there’s a rather important story arc (between Skarsgård and Taylor-Joy) built on love, and, in my opinion, it doesn’t work at all. So much so, in fact, that until the last moment I was convinced that the infatuation on one side or the other (or both sides) was just a ruse that would result in some evil twist. (14.04.2022)

I was a little wary of The Northman. I found Robert Eggers's previous films interesting rather than really good, and I was worried that in the case of his new film, the trailers might lie and that the result would be torn between an attempt at epic Viking carnage and a not entirely accessible auteur style. But my worries were unwarranted. Eggers has kept himself very much in check as an artist and auteur in an unexpected way, and The Northman is a very audience-friendly film. There's not much room for any interpretations of images, dialogue or anything else; it's much more about the Viking carnage, which is quite simple at its core, and its creator is aware of that. If you accept the fact that Eggers simply wanted to revive a legend of betrayal and revenge, and more than anything else he was interested in showing the cruel world of the Vikings on screen and having a good time audiovisually, you'll be satisfied. Or maybe you'll be thrilled like me. Musically, it's a treat, the one-shot scenes of the attack of the town, with dozens of people dying and blood spurting, made my jaw drop to the floor, because it must have been a mad dash to think this up and organise it to work. But the result is worth it. There's nothing to fault the actors either, and the fantasy elements are inserted into the plot in a non-violent way and fit in perfectly naturally in a wild world full of strange rituals. I really enjoyed the two and a quarter hours. However, I can imagine that fans of The Lighthouse will be a little upset by this actually unexpectedly audience-friendly film. Personally, though, I haven't seen anything better than The Northman so far this year. (12.04.2022)

The Northman ist die Art von Film, von dem ich wahrscheinlich umso enttäuschter sein werde, je mehr Zeit seit der Vorführung vergangen ist. Robert Eggers war für mich nie ein Geschichtenerzähler, eher ein Meister der Atmosphäre und der unheimlichen Eindrücke. Auch hier funktioniert das am besten, gepaart mit großartiger heidnischer Musik ist es stellenweise ein wunderbar gehaltvolles Ritual. Leider wird die Geschichte von Sjon nicht sonderlich unterstützt, er schreibt die Drehbücher als statuenhafte mythische Szenen ohne erkennbaren Bogen oder Katharsis. Die Kapitelaufteilung ist ziemlich lahm, die Geschichte ist dramaturgisch unterentwickelt und die reichhaltige visuelle Mythologie ist manchmal ein wenig flach. Der Höhepunkt ist für mich die Leistung von Kidman, die zwar das Aussehen einer modernen Frau hat, aber alle Dämonen des Nordens in ihren Augen trägt. Das Gleiche gilt für Skarsgård. So hätte Tarzan eigentlich aussehen sollen. Kurz gesagt, ich laufe Gefahr, diesen Film, der für mich gemacht war, übermorgen zu vergessen. Refns Wikinger-Fetisch Walhalla Rising ist mir immer noch mehr im Herzen geblieben. (13.04.2022)

An animalistic raw Hamlet revenge fest that takes a considerable step back after a riveting opening half hour. Not necessarily to a worse film, no, but to a different one. For me it's a shame, it looked better in the first part, and in the second, it has too much competition with many similarly conceived films. Either way, there's no need to worry, even the more audience-friendly Eggers is still enough of a maverick with a vision that's not for everyone. Though they could (and should) have avoided that “Snyder look” at the end. (14.04.2022)

Eggers’s take on Hamlet conceived as Conan the Barbarian with a bit of Norse mythology thrown in. This also describes the reason that The Northman is fascinating and why, at the same time, it doesn’t achieve the aura of revelation like the director’s previous two films. Whereas The Witch and The Lighthouse were supremely distinctive and original works, The Northman remains a variation on a familiar story. Therefore, viewers may be less absorbed in the narrative and less impressed by the wow effect that they would get from watching something essentially new and more aware of the finesse of execution and adaptive shifts. On the other hand, Eggers’s formalistic signature – from the well-thought-out long shots to the expressive design – is awe-inspiring in and of itself. The film also successfully evokes intense physical experiences by drawing viewers into a world of pagan mythology and merciless brutality. Eggers has stripped Hamlet of its Shakespearean literal insight into the protagonist, but that doesn’t mean that he has dispensed with its tragic or even topical elements. The fatal flaw of his Prince Amleth does not consist in the character’s indecision or any other character trait. Eggers bases his narrative on the contrast between personal will and supposed predestination, which he reveals as an extended arm of the patriarchy as a system of hereditary egocentrism built on self-destructive ideals of masculinity. These are motifs that Eggers had already explored in his previous films, though it is necessary to recognise that he depicted them there in more dreadful and disturbing outlines. (17.04.2022)

Nachdem ich Der Leuchtturm erlebt hatte, war ich ziemlich besorgt über The Northman und vermutete, dass Eggers Kidman als Plakatattraktion besetzen würde, damit sich eine möglichst breite Basis, der ihr Name nicht gleichgültig ist, für den Film interessiert... Aber am Ende ist alles anders. Es ist, als hätte ich vergessen, dass Kidman schon früher mit namhaften Regisseuren zusammengearbeitet hat, von Kubrick bis von Trier. Für die Zuschauer der Vikings aus der Serie kann The Northman außerdem ein schönes Anknüpfen an ein breiteres Thema darstellen. Es gibt keinen Grund, Angst zu haben oder Vorurteile zu hegen, im Gegenteil, es ist ratsam, The Northman auf der großen Leinwand zu genießen und sich von der isländischen Natur mitreißen zu lassen, so wie einst bei Sjöström. (17.05.2022)

A distinctive creative vision. A dark, brooding historical fresco full of evil, prophecy, violence and pagan gods. Formally, everything is fine, script-wise and dramaturgically it is not so well put together. Some story twists and character motives are insufficiently explained and grasped, so the attempt at an artsy historical drama doesn't quite work, although it should be noted that it is presented in an unusually bold, uncompromisingly dark way, with no shortage of violence and brutality. But that alone is not enough. (17.12.2022)

I was kind of expecting a film in the style of Refn's Valhalla Rising, but surprisingly I got something quite different, much more viewer-friendly and accessible than not only the aforementioned film, but also than Eggers's two previous works (especially The Lighthouse). The Northman is a perfect fable with everything: a valiant hero, a tale of revenge, some magic, or rather divine intervention, a woman, betrayal, death, all that. Even though I know Robert Eggers is a master of atmosphere, I was still blown away by what a feast for the eyes the film is, and for the ears! You feel like you're really there, whether in a smoky cave where an ancient ritual is taking place, in a village that wolf raiders conquer in one long take, or at the foot of a steaming volcano. Admirable job. The cast is also admirable, the human-animal Alexander Skarsgård, the charismatic Ethan Hawke and the even more charismatic Claes Bang, the inscrutable Nicole Kidman and the uncannily beautiful and believable Anya Talor-Joy. I'm very, very happy that The Northman was made and that it's so excellent, and I can't wait for Eggers's next film. (27.04.2022)

I am becoming quite concerned that we now label "visionary" those directors who masturbate to their poseur art style instead of providing constructive storytelling. It annoyed me with Ari Aster, and it ruined Eggers's second effort – I enjoyed The Witch because it built up a really oppressive atmosphere and didn't subvert the clarity of the message, but The Lighthouse was a psychedelic patchwork with no heads or tails. And The Northman, that "Monster of a Film" and God knows how else foreign critics have praised it, drags like a welfare queue. I was really prepared for the trivial tale of revenge to be just the necessary Shakespearean framework both for stylistic virtuosity and for Eggers to translate the familiar plot into the uncompromising brutal world of the Vikings. B is ultimately quite right, and if there's one thing I really liked about The Northman, it's that it presents a dense mythological world that we don't see much of on screen. Unfortunately, the expected camera finesse and visionary staging didn't quite come through and apart from the raid on the settlement in the opening part, I didn't find anything particularly formally interesting about. It wants to be realistic and gritty at times, hyperrealistic at others, and then it's a fantasy about Norse mythology. And while at least the music works brilliantly and each shots looks good on its own, the tediousness takes a toll, and it's awfully obvious how Eggers avoids having to deal with the logic of the twists and turns or the protagonist's actions underneath the mystical haze of every dialogue and the MacGuffin-based "written in destiny" thing. The actors are great even when screaming, and the final duel at the volcano is a nice reminder of Obi-Wan vs Anakin, but otherwise I expected more from everything – even the brutality, which must have been absolutely insane at the time. True, the film oozes madness, but having the characters scream a lot and imitate wolves during mushroom rituals does not provide a thoughtful and "visionary" experience. (15.04.2022)

Robert Eggers zum dritten Mal, aber anders. Was Thema und Handlungsstruktur betrifft, gibt es diesmal nichts Neues auf der Welt, aber es basiert auf einer realen skandinavischen Legende, die die Hauptinspiration für Shakespeares Hamlet war, also hätte ich nichts dagegen, wenn jemand es als ambitionierten Barbaren Conan auf Pilzen zugedröhnt bezeichnen würde. Und obwohl die Entwicklung der Motivationen und Emotionen der Hauptcharaktrere im letzten Drittel seltsam turbulent ist, handelt es sich immer noch um ein sehr interessantes, visuell fesselndes Werk, das im Rahmen einer breiteren Kinodistribution erfrischend ist. Für Robert Eggers bedeutet es einen kleinen Schritt in Richtung Mainstream, auch wenn es definitiv kein mainstreamiger Film wie The Northman ist. Der Leuchtturm bleibt vorerst mein Lieblingswerk des Regisseurs, aber ich habe diesen nordischen Schnitt im Kino genossen und wünsche ihm den größtmöglichen kommerziellen Erfolg. Aber lasst uns ehrlich sein, dieser wird genauso unausweichlich tragisch sein wie die Lebensgeschichte von Amleth. (18.04.2022)

Beim Anschauen von The Northman kamen mir mehrere Filme in den Sinn, was nicht heißen soll, dass es sich um eine Art nichtoriginelles Plagiat handelt. Inhaltlich, aber auch formal, bewegt sich Eggers' Film zwischen einem Heldenepos (u. a. die Schwertgeschichte erinnerte an Der Herr der Ringe) und Shakespeare-Drama (vielleicht eine kühne Behauptung, aber augenzwinkernd Macbeth und Hamlet), während mich die Atmosphäre an die früheren Filme des Regisseurs The Witch oder an eine Art nächtliche Version von Asters Midsommar erinnerte. In visueller Hinsicht ist es (trotz einiger "künstlicher Tücken") ein ausgefeiltes Werk mit mehr als einer fesselnden Szene. Auch wenn The Northman ein recht grober Film mit zahlreichen Gewaltszenen ist, so ist er doch nicht überflüssig und sinnlos blutig. Eine kleine Kritik habe ich an den schauspielerischen Leistungen, die stellenweise vielleicht zu theatralisch waren (siehe die Nähe zum Drama) - der Cameo-Auftritt von Björk hat mir aber gut gefallen. (25.04.2022)

A modern-day version of Milius's Conan the Barbarian. That is, a proud barbarian meatloaf that doesn't elevate itself above its station with any subversion or edification, but instead basks in its mythic naivety and thus creates an inner world that reliably operates within the boundaries it sets. When you immerse yourself in it, it is a first-class experience. It's interesting and gratifying to see, a decade on, the cautious return of ambitious formalist blockbusters that model meta-reading (see Reeves's The Batman or Villeneuve's Dune) back into cinemas after it had been completely eradicated for some time. From that period, it's good to recall Immortals, for example, which has a lot in common with The Northman (it chronicles exactly that in-between stage where events straddle reality and myth and influence each other) and whose misunderstanding and failure de facto ended the career of Tarsem Singh. (21.04.2022)

I was so looking forward to this movie, and now I have such a bad feeling about it. Right from the start, I knew something was off: Prince Amleth, his father murdered by his uncle by pouring a sword down his ear, a complicit mother; but okay, I hadn't seen the Viking version yet. The packs of not-exactly-hygiene-obsessed Northerners were picturesque enough, but I wasn’t convinced by their lofty rhetoric. I didn’t like it and found it rather distracting. It made me feel as if the story was set in Christian England rather than among the savage worshippers of Odin. Long story short: lots of talking, little action, occasionally boring, unnecessarily long. I was underwhelmed, yet the potential was there. / Lesson learned: Are you making a film set in the early Middle Ages? Forget Oxford English. (07.10.2022)

Robert Eggers finally leaves the arthouse waters behind with The Northman, serving up solid carnage with a near-hundred-million-dollar budget and top-notch Hollywood stars. The sound design is breathtaking, especially in the first half, and the period atmosphere gives the right bleak impression. Although The Northman is by far the most accessible and watchable of all Eggers films, I have slightly conflicted feelings about it. Both the previous The Witch and The Lighthouse were brimming with an almost neurotic creative trademark and represented quite interesting and innovative works in the field of art films. There's no doubt that The Northman looks nice, and all those booming sounds are quite impressive in the cinema, but narratively it's basically a generic story that is (thankfully) saved by the still strong formal signature of its creator. A weaker 4 stars. [70%] (16.04.2022)

Die Handschrift von R. Eggers ist wieder spürbar und so bekommen wir dank seiner Regie keinen Mainstream-Film, wie es der Trailer vermuten lässt. Im Gegenteil, es handelt sich um ein sehr originelles Werk, das sich nicht scheut, zu experimentieren, manchmal ein wenig über die Stränge zu schlagen und manchmal Stil und Qualität zu zeigen. Am Anfang habe ich mich an die vielen Mythen und eine gewisse Mystik gewöhnt, aber in der Schlussszene des Films habe ich ihn regelrecht genossen. Die Verarbeitung und die schauspielerische Leistung sind gut, das einzige, was fehlt, ist die Handlung. Während sich die Macher bei der Optik ins Zeug gelegt haben, fallen Story und Drehbuch ins Mittelmaß. Die Handlung ist vorhersehbar, die Handlung ist einfach, nichts Schockierendes außer einem hohen Maß an Brutalität. Das senkt die Gesamtbewertung des Films, aber nicht genug, um eine niedrige Bewertung zu verdienen. (27.04.2022)