I like how eggers made NO attempts of ever trying to make any of these characters relatable, instead he forces you into a journey to understand their mindset
I really enjoyed that too. The film feels very authentic to the historical period as well as the mythology and sagas. Unfortunately, judging by the user reviews on rotten tomatoes, a lot of people didn't like the film because they were expecting a formulaic action story in the style of the Vikings TV show or the Last Kingdom
@@tavirosu25 do you mean to tell me that you don't frequently dance naked around a fire, invoke the spirit of the wolf and raid the nearest Rus settlements? You're missing out.
@@The_Mystical_Platypus People on rotten tomatoes are willfully retarded, literally the lowest trash that think their opinion matters on a fucking dead website from the early 2000's. Also the same type of person that type out their mentally handicapped advice on Quora.
"Toxic masculinity"? Ha ha! Those people are soft and can't seem to understand that the legend the film is based on is set in a much simpler time. The world is not nice and those people need to get punched in the face for once and grow a spine so they can realize that.
It hilarious nowadays that if traditional critics reviews say it's bad than there's almost guaranteed to be a cult following for a film at least. Welcome to bazarow world
Such a shame that we can't get a Viking movie where the men are portrayed as gentle, sensitive, caring and understanding of the deeply complex nature of a woman's role in society and how they're much betterer than men. Like that Mel Gibson movie 'What Women Want' but with Vikings.
The Northman has a score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and 82 on Metacritic. Both scores significantly higher than the audience rating, so it is pretty highly acclaimed by the "professional" critics.
@@mirinah4719 If they do make movies like that, I can assure you that those cultures would be treated with utmost respect, unlike what they did to viking culture here.
@@aserr5660 I like most of movies I saw with him. Still could not make to finish watching Before/After trilogy, feels very boring to see only dialog as a plot, occasionally trying.
What I love about Eggers' work isn't just how he captures the look of historical times, but the mindset. People didn't just talk and dress differently back then, they THOUGHT differently. Their values and morals weren't just different, but utterly alien to anything we'd recognize today. People inhabited worlds that were smaller, more dangerous, and more incomprehensible than the ones we inhabit today. Things that we explain with modern science were back then rationalized as the work of spirits and gods that were temperamental and lurking behind everything.
That's exactly what makes Eggers' works great. He walks the thin lines connecting historical drama, character study, documentary fiction of group dynamics, psychological thriller, surrealist film about mythological symbolism and supernatural horror flick with such panache that in result he creates his own niche genre. And every film he has made with this approach has an interesting story to tell in its very own style. That's so refreshingly creative, stylistically innovative and narratively unique, and at the same time he shows how these classic tales can still speak to us today. He has done his historical research well and understands constants of the human psyche just as well as the confinements of time, place, social imprints and psychological nurture, peer pressure and ideological/mythological bonds upon an individual's mindset, the effects of the natural, cultural and technological surroundings on social norms and the environmental effects of both shared world knowledge and secretive/exclusive in-group rituals/techniques on group behavioural dynamics. In short, Robert Eggers' movies are like a translation of a past zeitgeist into a present age cinematic art aesthetic.
Holy Crap! Razorbeak, I can't tell you how refreshing it is to read someone that actually 'gets' history! (I say 'gets' because, as you explained, we simply *cannot* understand it. It is long since beyond our ken) Thank you!
This movie is actually based on real Scandinavian history/folklore, which also later became the template inspiration behind William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
@@je-freenorman7787 It's history and folklore. Ancient history that was written down centuries after it's events, and before that went down in generations as stories of ancient tales of heroes. The Vikings weren't exactly known for writing down alot themselves, and most documented history about them at the time was written down by the English and the French at the time, and alot of stories/ancient tales/folklore/history was also written down several centuries later in Iceland. So while there are most definately alot of truth and history to stories about legendary Vikings such as Ragnar Lodbrok for example, there is also a good portion of fairytales, as these stories have been told by word of mouth from generation to generation for several hundreds of years before they were written down, some of it is bound to have been exhaggerated to create more legendary and elaborate tales about certain events, while staying mostly true to actual historical events that have been cross referenced in several sources. So that's why it's ''history/folklore''.
Indeed. In this case, it's from the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus. Tales of revenge are very common in Norse sagas. Some think that they glorify it, but I personally think they warn against it.
@@kjetilhansen5363 Most likely norwegians in this movie, as they were the ones to actually establish themselves on Iceland. Icelanders are all descendants of Norwegians
@@bobmalibaliyahmarley1551 I dont see much history in movies sorry. That was all Aryan culture back then and was converted by the Romans. Our real history has been hidden. There is no such thing as a Hero Our days of the week are all named after Norse Gods, that connected to the Roma/Greko Pagan beliefs. Then it was all converted. Every government today is Roman and had been for hundreds of years
My favorite thing about this movie is that they didn’t try to add heroic traits to Amleth, he was out for vengeance and butchers countless people to get it. The tragedy is he’s a giant Viking Berserker made out of nuclear hot rage who only knows his anger and even when he has the opportunity to live in relative peace he can’t give up his vengeance.
There were hints at a heroic side to him peppered throughout the film, which made it even more tragic. To name a few: the way he internally flinches at the barbarism involving innocents, the fact that he saves his half brother during the knattleikr match and then saves multiple slaves on different occasions, including Olga. These moments all paint him as a potentially heroic figure...but then there's another perspective.
Yes, this is the most historically accurate depiction of Norse culture ever put to film and was designed to be that way, the director actually changed the film slightly multiple times to accommodate what the historical expert was telling him
That's one of the things I love about Robert Eggers. He's extremely devoted to historical accuracy for whatever time period his films depict. As someone who studied to be a historian, I greatly appreciate this. I wish more directors were like him, but unfortunately, 99.99% of them couldn't care less about historical accuracy.
@@supermonkey321 I think it will change in the future, most of the modern directors are old and were taught way before the internet started to analyse and breakdown movies for their historical accuracy, in the future I believe the newer filmmakers will be more cognisant of making things more accurate
@@supermonkey321 "99.99% of them couldn't care less about historical accuracy." Of course they don't. Especially when it concerns EUROPEANS. Who do you think controls all the media? Hollywood? You know who they are. They don't take any refugees either. They send them all to you. Who do you think came up with feminism? Communism? Who do you think promotes race mixing on whites and whites ONLY? You can't name them here either because it's THEIR website. Their fake names usually end with "berg" and "stein".
The lighthouse was a masterpiece. The northman is Robert eggers going bigger and more ambitious with his style. Good to know people are appreciating movies like this
Just saw the Northman with a friend and this was my first Robert Eggers movie. My buddy that I saw it with is a huge fan. I wasn't sure about this movie but I got sucked in immediately. This is the first movie in a while where I was fully immersed. Even the weirder elements felt real. At no point was I pulled out of the movie or even feel like I was "watching" a movie. Instead I felt fully immersed in this world and when the screen went black I looked at my friend saying "that was awesome!". We need more movies like this.
There's a making of video where Willem Dafoe comments about how Eggers approached The Northman with the same level of detail as The Lighthouse despite it being a profoundly larger production. Eggers himself comments on how the production crew had to basically ignore everything about viking culture in popular culture, films, TV shows, etc, and instead look at museums because he didn't want stuff that looked 'cool', he wanted stuff that looked as authentic as possible with the budget he had. Also the score and sound design for this is phenomenal, it's a rare example of a 'cinematic film', something that is definitely best experienced in a cinema where you can feel the bass rumbling around you.
Completely agree. This film reminded me why I still have an AMC Stubs A-List subscription and go to the movies. Completely immersive cinematic experience.
Thanks for this interesting bit of info, i dont watch movies often a handful a year or so but i do appreciate cinematography when well done and film makers striving for detail accuracy is the kind of thing that makes me actually want to watch a movie, i have not seen this yet but it is now going on the watch list.
It's more the existence of Disney swallowing up other studios that is the problem. That means producers/directors/actors end up having to follow their guiderule or risk being deprived of a lot of work. That being said Everything Everywhere All At Once was better than The Northman and came out this year too. Men from A24 is another one that just came out.
Ikr all robbert eggers movies had the same audience ratings. i truely feel sad about the society when cgi bloated garbage gets higher praise than these masterpieces. the imperfections and the pure storytelling is what makes these perfect
Honestly a masterpiece, not since Kubrick have we had a director that cares so much about details and accuracy and research, and it shows. He's made 3 superb movies and he's not even in his 40s yet, I just hope he gets to continue to evolve and perfect his visions without having to comply or bend to dipshit studios aiming for the lowest common denominator.
I hope so, but like Denis Villeneuve - his movies are struggling to break even at the box office. I just hope he can Continue to get backing for the great movies he wants to make. We need them.
A friend of mine was an extra in this film. He spoke to him a few times on set. He said he was a really great guy. Regards his work he said he is somebody to watch. That was a good couple of years ago when the film was being made.
I remembered watching this in the cinema it was such a satisfying cinema experience. The volcano fight at the end was so memorable, dark, brutal and nihilistic. Two men who took everything from each other killing one another with nothing but death as an empty prize.
While I generally agree, I don't think your conclusion is accurate. Death was no empty prize to Amleth (hamlet?). The only way to keep his progeny safe from the king was to kill him, at any cost. The king's family was already gone, so for him it may have been empty if his revenge is empty, but for Amleth it was the way to preserve the lives of the future queen and her brother.
Oh my god, that climatic duel in the volcano was just an outstanding piece of cinema. In the dark of the theatre, with the minimal light and the resounding boom of the bass in the speakers all around, it rattled my bones in the best kind of way.
Between this and Dune, it's so refreshing to experience big budget, epic films that aren't just an endless conveyor belt of cgi action sequences, but are instead thoughtful visual journeys that immerse you in whole new worlds lovingly crafted down to the smallest detail.
I don't disagree but studios have to cater to the masses. While movies can be art it's a business 1st. Not many people are going to want to spend $100 million on an art piece that gets you $20 million in the box office. As a result we get the movies that make big $. Unlike other forms of art movies are a consumable. There's not 1 original copy worth more that it cost to make. Music has the same problem.
I love how you can always tell The Drinker's disposition towards the movie he's reviewing just by listening to his "Go away now" - such a priceless epithet!
The scenes with the Valkyrie are some of the most beautiful/artistic scenes I have ever seen in any movie and they make the mythological character believable as an immortal deity-like being without being over the top, I really loved this movie.
The ending scene is so beautiful...the way his eyes light up..the valkyrie...amazing movie. Just finished playing god of wqr ragnarok too so it made it even better
@@jesusdelarosa1204that’s carvings/tattoos which is accurate from the sources. They’re not supposed to be beautiful Angels but terrifying beings that bring only the best warriors to Odin.
Eggers is one of those increasingly rare directors who fully understands that movie making is VISUAL story telling. A lot of 'The Northman' is simply immersive world building, time taken to transport you back in time so you can lose yourself in the setting. It's not really critically important to moving the plot, but it makes the movie better than the sum of it's parts, so it's also not wasted time. It was the same with 'the lighthouse', which wasn't an overly complicated plot but the look and tone of the movie helped give the plot impact. Many other directors these days from the the 'JJ school' of packing everything single minute of screen times with just stuff going on as if they're afraid 30 seconds of just admiring the scenery is enough for the entire audience to up and leave, which leads to ever more convoluted plots or actual wasted time as characters do nothing of any importance just to provide white noise There is nothing wrong with minimalism, or retreading age old ideas in interesting ways. There are very few original stories left to tell, and the really good storytellers are the ones who know the devil is in the details.... not the quantity. A simple story told well will stand the test of time, and movies like 'The Northman' will be remembered long after most of it's contemporaries are simply forgotten.
I loved it. I really hope it makes enough money in the long run that it's considered a success. We need more movies that actually feel unique. This one certainly does.
@@adonirammccarthy3994 making movies and the movie industry are two separate things - I feel like Eggers is a movie maker and whatever money gets made is merely a biproduct of telling great stories. Fuck me it's a beautiful thing.
@@fiercedeitymetal yeah, Eggers has actually really good movies that will still feel relevant 20 years from now, regardless of how much they make in theaters. But I would love to see more mid budget stuff like this, so I hope it does well overall.
I'm surprised that you didn't mention that this was an interpretation of actual Nordic folklore/history. It was reapeated orally via epic poetry from the 900s onward, partly recorded by Saxo Grammaticus via manuscript, and was the inspiration by Shakespeare to write 'Hamlet'. This is a true treasure of historical myth into cinema, and it was fucking epic. One of the true modern treasures of European cinema recalling ancient tales. Way better than Hollywood's Beowulf.
You're surprised he didn't mention that??? Come on, man, you know that's a super niche area of historical (which is why you flexed your knowledge), yeah obviously he didn't about it beforehand
Years ago, my dad took me to see the movie Gladiator in the theater. To this day, it is one of my favorite films as well as one of my favorite movie-going experiences. Hearing all the positive feedback, I decided to invite my dad to go see the film as his birthday is coming up. He rarely sees movies anymore but if the Northman is as good as people say, it will be a good film with a great memory attached.
It is going to be quite a bit different than Gladiator. Dont expect the Hollywood gamification and contrived dialogue that is inherent within Gladiator. You will be seeing something Ritter, dirtier, nastier, stranger and rough. I hope you both find it worth your time.
It’s going to be quite a different experience from Gladiator, aside from the time period and story and all; but man you and your dad are in for one hell of a true cinematic experience! Enjoy!
dont be a looser, watch predator or die hard with your dad , this film will be shit , its not manly its a tuttie futtie parade, go out side and do 100 press ups .... everyone.... and im taking to you drinker... eye roll emogi
That's going to be a tough call depending on your reasons for liking Gladiator. Gladiator was a complete Hollywoodation of history, but a lot of people seemed to like it. The Northman is a bit more realistic, but it still shows men being men, which is a rarity today, so your dad might like it. If you're not sure, go see it first and decide; but whatever you do make all the great memories with your pops while you still can.
That part where he catches the spear and throws it back, has got to be one of the most primal things I've ever watched on film. You really felt like you were watching barbarians attack a town. It was also a trick that real vikings would do in order to gain prestige
A movie that's just a movie, I can't believe this is genuinely an uncommon thing in modern high budget films. At this point you may as well ignore anything that's from a big studio.
What are you even talking about dude. The whole point of movies is to force feed my ideology down your throat and show you how much more enlightened I am than you and that you're also probably a racist or something....geeze. Stop talking about things you don't know about bigot....who would even go to a movie that doesn't have "the message" beings injected straight into your veins. So many duckin weirdos on UA-cam
Skarsgård wanted to make a Viking film for a while and it shows in his very committed performance. Eggers was the right man for the job and I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't all in Old Norse like he wanted, but this was a visually arresting film that completely engrosses you in the world it sets up from the moment it starts with an erupting Hekla. It's entirely alien to today's modern values, and yet has a timeless familiarity that coincides with the twist at the end of Act II, making you question if you should even be rooting for Amleth at all. It's morally grey done very right while still cherishing the values and rituals the people of that time held dear. Despite all the fever dream sequences of spiritual enlightenment and rage, this is the most realistic film I've seen in a while. Eggers' signature in his three films seems to be meshing reality and the protagonist's own POV, which may or may not be hallucinatory or spiritual in nature, and ultimately comes to the conclusion that it doesn't really matter if it was real or not; as long as it affects the characters, it might as well be real. He did it in The VVitch, he did it in The Lighthouse and he does it in The Northman. It is uncompromising in its vision and accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do with no frills and modern baggage attached. I honestly would love Eggers to do a biopic on Shaka Zulu all in the Zulu language (and the other Bantu tribes he conquered) as he seems to be the king of highly immersive period pieces with very high fidelity. I know it would be amazing. But because of the color of his skin, he wouldn't be "allowed" to and that's a shame.
@@haydeng3541 he wanted it all in Old Norse but realized he would never get the funding he wanted for it. The Berserker ritual scene and the end of Amleth's monologue at the foot of Mt. Hekla are the only scenes where characters speak Old Norse
But do not be too easily fooled. The disgusting, vile forces that are so fond of subh°mans - *WANT* that we get culled drastically in a badly organized "civilwar" ( its just WAR, really - cut the civil out of it ). So they show us cool, based and powerful Vikings to awake a similar masculine force in us now. When the media is still against us and would support criminal subh°mans all over to fight us. Be aware. The crescentmoon is a banana.
So few movies where scenes actually make your jaw drop -- this is one of them. Truly amazing piece of work. Eggers is fantastic. The Witch. Lighthouse. The Northman. Jesus, there's something to put on your resume.
The first two movies were very good yes, the witch was one of my favs..this film however did nothing for me, it was actually worse than I expected. kinda heartbreaking actually, the fight scenes were corny as hell..so cheeseball.
I left the theater thinking, “So, this is what film craft is. This is what you get when a creator cares about the art of film making and nothing more.” And for a moment, however brief, all of the bull shit politics and insanity was erased from the world.
@@roguewasbanned4746 The problem I had with this movie is that from the first trailer I predicted the whole "I will save you mother" plot twist. Because of that I knew how the movie will go and never really got gripped by the story itself and was just going through the paces so to speak while watching the movie. I enjoyed the movie from a cinematic perspective and I agree with everything The Drinker said. I just did not feel any emotion while watching it. Still a good move though. Just nothing new and a very predictable plot.
@@leonardopribic2661, with so much criticism, why do you believe that it’s still good? I mean, I just read your post and I feel the exact opposite; I feel like I should keep at least a 10-metre distance between me and this movie at all times. This isn’t sarcasm, by the way, I’m genuinely curious as to what you found good about the movie and, under the weight of so much criticism, what saved the movie for you?
@@kennethguthrie180 The movie is very good as a film. Because it is shot well. The cinematography, soundtrack, ambience are all excellent. The characters are somewhat complex (except for the main guy), as much as they can be as this is not some biography drama and everybody is morally all over the place. Both the characters, themes and setting are realistic (though Kidman doesn't fit really) . And as the Drinker said, there is no woke politics or other bullshit that plagues other modern Hollywood movies. The action is very brutal but this is not 300 or some hack'n'slash action/adventure blockbuster. It is much more artistic. All of these are positives. The truly only problem I had is with the story. There is nothing new here and since it draws inspiration from other old classics like Hamlet (and every other revenge story), it is very predictable. The biggest plot twist of the movie can be easily guessed from the first trailer, you just need to imagine, "Now what would need to happen for the main character to have an oh shit moment with a big dose of irony?" Maybe it is just me. But I literally had the feeling as if I had read the plot beforehand and now I am just watching it for the visuals. And the main character for 95% of the movie is full on angry revenge mode, but this is not John Wick. We did not get an emotional start (with a puppy)so that we would care for his plight or that he has any other character traits except that he is very good at killing and looking good shirtless. Everybody is an asshole but nobody has the charisma to be likeable. With this movie, I did not care at all what would happen to anybody and was not surprised by anything that happened. I enjoyed it as a movie experience in the cinema but I was detached and not really engaged while watching it.
@@roguewasbanned4746 Well, I had mixed feelings about the movie too. But no matter what you feel about the finished product, the point still stands that the filmmakers prioritized film craft first. Whereas, in most new Hollywood productions, it seems that political virtue signaling is always the first priority.
@@smoke1739 Nah I get ya. I agree. At the very least get people to help make everything as authentic as possible if you can't get certain people to act in the roles.
“It’s amazing in this time of all this Marvel nonsense, we were able to make a strange and original movie about Vikings that wasn’t based off an already existing IP or sequel.” - Eggers
It's in a Forbes article / interview. Robert Eggers: Well, it’s a good idea to make a Viking movie right now. I think the History Channel’s Vikings TV show inspired more TV shows and video games, all with a similar aesthetic that is completely invented but consistent, and the Marvel nonsense was also helpful. So, when I had a Viking script of a certain size, the studio’s marketing team said, ‘Yeah, we can actually make this work. Whoa!’ I’m super grateful that all that stuff I mentioned is in right now because I did not expect my third film to be so much exponentially larger and more complicated than my second film.
@@AlexDragonfire96 I just posted the full comment so people would see it in its proper context. While I personally view Marvel movies as garbage, it's easy to see that he did not intend his use of the word "nonsense" as a slight against Marvel. It wasn't praise, but nor was it a detraction. People are just eager to jump onto anything remotely resembling drama.
One of the best things about this film is that it wasn't fantasy, but the surreal and otherworldly scenes were actually a peek into the mindsets and experiences of the characters. And for them, there wasn't such a clear distinction between fantasy and reality that we have in the post-enlightenment era. These hallucinogenic and transcendent experiences were as real as anything for the characters, and so it's presented that way to the audience. The visions Amleth has (drug-induced or otherwise) were a fundamental part of how people in those times expeienced and understood themselves, others and the world around them. And Eggers lets us experience that first hand.
The visuals were breathtaking, the characters were nuanced. This wasn’t a heroic tale, and the movie made it clear from the moment we saw Amleth as an adult. And the understanding how Fjolnir was no longer any kind of king, just a man merely hanging on to what is left of his loyal followers, and family, just sunk that point in further. It was uncomfortable at times, but damn if it wasn’t completely compelling! It was a gem in this creatively dry time for movies.
It was a heroic tale, but not a classical western cinema hero. He was the hero of the story, but like most norse stories, that doesn't at all mean he's a "good" person.
@@brigandboy1425 I mean, kinda. My only knowledge of Norse stories comes from mythology stories. And I always took them to be highly metaphorical rather than literal. Take for instance the story of Thor's first encounter with the world serpent, the giant who manned the boat was killed by Thor for simply trying to save his life. But giants represented chaos, so in that sense, it was heroic of Thor to spit in the face of chaos trying to get in the way of a glorious battle. It wasn't meant to be a human-on-human interaction. I think this movie needs to be taken much in the context of a story like that, instead of literally. In my original comment, I was going at it with a mindset of classical western archetypes, but from a Norse perspective, yeah it's a metaphorical story through and through. Or maybe I'm wrong and it was meant to be taken at face value, and Norse culture really was so harsh that Thor killed a giant for cutting the rope because it was not okay to save everyone's life.
I remember reading an article defending the Eternals. The writer said the people giving it negative reviews missed the point and it was good. He didn't mention plot, character development or anything. All he mentioned was representation. He never answered the question, "Is the story good?" It's good to hear that our entertainment industry can still put out a compelling story on rare occasions. I wasn't really interested in this movie because I think the viking thing is kind of played out. This review changed my mind. I might go ahead and see it in the theater.
why is no one talking about how good the soundtrack was for this movie!? All the deep bass throat singing, etc. Such an important part of the experience of the film.
Eggers is amazing. One of the very few directors I'll watch in the theater by default. Dude has the artistic vision and love of the art and hasn't sold out to the modern agitprop Hollywood system
I had mixed emotions on this movie at first. But compared to the absolute shit Hollywood has been putting out. The Northman is an absolute masterpiece of cinema.
it really is not : it only disguise itself as an artistic movie with deep thoughts but when you really think about it - it is not a good movie at all . and the fact that this is the worst era in the history of cinema and others are producing complete garbage or that they perhaps portrayed vikings mythology and world somewhat more accurate than others does not change that . i refuse to use "well yeah this is good because it is not so bad as the others" as an excuse or as redeeming quality . the actors are cringe at times - the actor playing young amleth is terrible (he is about as believable and immersed in his role that i expect him to pull out his iphone and take a selfie in the middle of doing his "northman impression") the adult amleth supposedly in his mid 20s is played by an actor who is 20 years older than he should be and he gives me " discount jaime lannister / n.c.waldaus stunt double during his captivity faze with brienne" vibes . the best part/acting of the movie is nicole kidman revealing the true nature of her character and pulling out some shakespearean/oidipus level tragedy s...t on us - that was actually really good and caught me off guard , because the rest of the movie was pretentious , self serious , boring s..t . happy i was not in the theatre to see this one . i usually agree with drinker 95% of the time , but on this one i just can´t . the northman is only trying to fool everyone into thinking that it´s a good movie .
@@darkglobe406 I saw it purely on the grounds that I trust the Drinker. I was bored almost throughout the entire film. I watched Dune today, which I really enjoyed. The Northman, like Dune, had beautiful scenery, but the characters and dialogue were so cliched. I've no idea why people rave about it -maybe I'm just getting old.
@@darkglobe406 I just watched and I agree, the OP is just another sheep who goes by what the Critical Drinker tells him to. It was ok, but not some masterpiece 😆
I loved how they didn't shy away from showing how brutal the times and culture of the Vikings were. You see them gleefully killing women and children and sacking villages - because that is a big part of what Vikings did.
I just rewatched The Witch last night after seeing The Northman last week. Eggers has a knack for making an "artsy" movie, without making you think it's an art house movie. Same with The Lighthouse. I saw a lot of people thinking that this was supposed to be some epic action movie set to Norse historical/mythical ideas, and I was asking people if they've ever seen any of Eggers work. If you're expecting a Michael Bay style action film, you'll likely be disappointed. If you like good story, and great cinematography, you'll like this movie.
A simple premise, executed beautifully. The score was stirring, the visuals were incredible, a great deal of historically authenticity, and absolute brutality. Also some well done moral ambiguity. The movie didn’t need to hold your hand and lead you to it. This movie absolutely amps you up as you get to commune with a part of you that daily life and polite society obscure from you. I was buzzing leaving the theater and I will be seeing it again.
In my opinion this is what cinema is supposed to be. A captivating tale that can allure you and wrap you in it's story, and even at times change your perspectives. This is what alot of movies today are missing.
@@roguewasbanned4746 Yeah, I like drinker and can certainly appreciate the craftsmanship of the movie, but it was a snooze fest for both me and my wife.
Something to also keep in mind specifically about norsemen and their Berserker traditions, is that prior to going to battle, they would typically partake in the consumption of various mushrooms and other substances that would put them partially in a hallucinating trance, to blur the difference of their mind and reality to keep them fighting harder and believe themselves to be supernatural in their abilities - which they generally then turned out to become as a result (as in being able to overcome natural bodily functions and limitations and thus perform feats that would otherwise be impossible for a regular soldier to do. So the whole idea of hallucinations and the blurred line between what is real and what exists solely as conjurings inside his mind, can be traced as a direct reference to how Berserkers lived and fought.
Funny enough, this is only half true.. Mushrooms *were* involved, definitely, but not in the way we used to think. According to more modern research, it seems that one warrior was volunteered, and he consumed copious amounts of mushrooms and mead.. his buds only a little. Then, when old mate inevitably had to urinate, they did so in a large bowl, which was topped up with more mead or ale. His buds drank this. The reason being, the amount of mushies needed for the feats described, would also make the bloke too sick and nauseous to do those things. Drinking his urine essentially used his body to filter out the bad stuff, while still getting the benefits. Likely the OG usage of the term "pissed".. 😉
If you are thinking That the plot of this movie sounds a little familiar and that Amleth kind of sounds like Hamlet then you would be right. The saga of Amleth, prince of Jutland is the direct inspiration for William Shakespeare's Hamlet. There was an earlier attempt to bring this saga to the big screen in 1994 with Christian Bale as Amleth, but I guess "Prince of Jutland" wasn't a catchy enough title for an international audience
God. Did every single person immediately watch the same 2-3 UA-cam videos leading up to this movie? I swear you guys sound like parrots. “HAMLET!”, “AMLETH!”…”CAWWWW!” Everyone fucking knows this at this point. Nobody will shut up about it. Christ 🤣
@@mikeroman5208 Some people can read very quickly believe it or it, so while I’m swiping through comments repetitive words start to pop out at me. I’m sure it’s nice to spend 30 minutes combing a 100 character comment, but for people like me, we can skim over about 50 comments in 30 seconds. So while nobody “forced” me to read any of them, it’s a ludicrous straw man argument to make and doesn’t - in any way - invalidate the fact that all of a sudden everyone overnight became experts in Hamlet (specifically) and Amleth. Perhaps it’s just me though. I hadn’t read Hamlet in 20 years, and didn’t even draw comparisons to it while watching this movie, but I guess every other person here clung to every word of that play - just waiting for a moment like now to say “aCtuAlLy iTs jUsT lIkE hAmLeT!” to each other. That or they read the play annually for fun. See, I’m the kind of person that is okay with admitting I don’t know every single thing immediately, and that when I don’t - I just Google it. But hey, what do I know? 🤷🏻♂️ Maybe you all just like bursting into the comments with your favorite youtuber’s talking points and presenting them as your own thoughts? Or maybe every other person in here really just is an avid Shakespeare historian, but just with “Hamlet” of course. Who knows? 🤣
Anna Taylor-Joy is beautiful, Bjork's Seeress is my favorite character in the film, and Nicole Kidman's character is not supposed to look like she belongs: she is not Norse -- she's a Breton from northwest Frankia (France) captured as a slave and brought to Iceland. IOW, they were all perfect for their roles.
Kidman’s plastic face detracted from her role though. I don’t know if anyone else noticed but she really doesn’t look natural anymore and wasn’t fully expressing with the Botox and fillers. It’s sad what this degenerate society pressures women to do these days and I hope it changes.
I don't think this is a good reason to like a movie. Don't get me wrong, a lot of movies these days push an agenda and create poor stories and characters as a result, but to say you knew you were going to enjoy it purely because of this is indicative of a deeper problem. There have been great movies with diverse casts, and bad movies that didn't try to push an agenda. I'm not saying this film wasn't good, but I am saying that whether the film did or didn't push an agenda shouldn't be the primary reason to enjoy it.
@@Drengodr To be clear, I didn't say I was going to enjoy it because it didn't push diversity, etc. What I meant is I respect the director and was more willing/excited to see it since the director wasn't trying to push the same narratives down the audience's throat compared to a large majority of other movies made today.
@@imsteph21 That's definitely fair. At this point, I'm just worried that the hyperfocus on this sort of thing is giving people on the other side of the line ammunition. It's fine to point out an agenda as a potential reason why a movie failed, but because such things can almost always be traced back to badly written characters and plot elements, I'm not sure it's necessary. I understand the sentiment, but when it can so easily be misconstrued as bigotry it becomes ultimately unhelpful.
Since you already watched Cowboy Bebop, might wanna try Vinland Saga. It's also about Vikings. Good cast, great antagonist and good narrative. It's a pretty good story. Despite being made in Japan and being an anime, it managed to have more historical accuracy than most western shows
I worked with Mr Skarsgard on the tv series The Stand in 2019. I remember asking what he had coming up afterwards and he mentioned a “Viking project that he’s really excited for.” I couldn’t be more pleased with the end result and his performance. He is a seriously kind man and he deserves praise for this movie.
@@castle0417 I absolutely agree. Some of the cast did an amazing job and did their best with the material given. But we had Amber Heard and Ezra Miller … and well…. Can imagine how that was.
I really liked that they did a good job at telling a very historically accurate film about a story that is grounded in Norse mythology pretty well. They even resisted doubling down on the classic Hollywood love story that viewers love so much in exchange for a tale that stayed true to the Norse virtue of dying well. My biggest complaint with the film was the flattening of the supernatural it engaged in. The Drinker claims that the film remains unclear about whether what is happening is supernatural or not, but I disagree. Every major scene that had some supernatural element critical to the plot was (sometimes immediately) followed up by another scene that proved that it wasn't all happening for real. For instance, Amleth gets saved by some crows from a fatal situation in one scene, only for the audience to discover that he was actually saved by another character. In another scene he battles an undead villain just moments before it's revealed that the battle never actually happened and it was all in his head. Admittedly, other parts of the film seemed to engage in some supernatural activity that wasn't watered down. Like when one character seems to be control the wind by prayers to the nature gods, and a couple times where Amleth has visions that influence his decisions in important ways. But none of these seem particularly important to the plot. Even Amleth's obsession with fate is made somewhat irrelevant by the main plot twist. Heck, Amleth's sabotage of Fjolnir - one of the most significant sections of the film - involves Amleth causing mayhem within Fjolnir's settlement in natural albeit clever ways while the people constantly suspect that the mayhem is being caused by demons and the gods. The movie almost seems to be mocking religious belief at this point as mere fanciful superstition, only to tease the value of such beliefs within Amleth's character himself, especially regarding prophecy. It's a weird synthesis where the supernatural is valued only at the psychological level, but never to such an extent as to entail real-world meaningful consequences.
I thought the combination of supernatural elements with realistic reasons for them happening was actually a strength, not a take away. I looked at it as showing how an actual Northman, with belief in Norse mythology, would view the things happening to him. Even though there were realistic reasons for everything, Amleth is obviously a follower of Norse Mythology, so of course he (And by extension us as the audience) would see them from that lense. I also think it ties in well with the themes of losing innocence and not everything being as it seemed. Just like how Amleth thought he was saving his mother, when really she was the one who orchestrated the whole thing, Amleth also views himself as a viking hero of legend going on an epic quest, battling undead Kings and riding with Valkyries. In reality, its not the case. Just like how Fjornir isn't a King, but just some asshole on a hill. And what I think is the real magic of this story is that, despite all the fantastical elements not being real, despite his heroic quest not seeming to be so, he still accomplishes it. He kills his Uncle one-on-one in battle, making sure his own two children are safe from retribution, extending the tree, and dies with a sword in his hand, avenging his father, and goes to Volhol. Despite it all, it still ends as a Norse Saga. Absolutely beautiful imo.
I hate everything that comes out in cinemas. Except this. This movie is good. Watch the Lighthouse first. Symbols, omens, dreams, rituals and violent theatre verging on horror are all at play here. You’re in good hands and with “Northman” the director clearly enjoys telling the story he has for you. Refreshing.
is there a reason i should watch the lighthouse first? it sounds entirely uninteresting to me, but this northman one seems up my alley, though i stopped this show at 1 minute to prevent spoilers, so i don't know what expectations were subverted yet.
What kind of personality disorder does Queen Gudrun most embody? She seems to hide it well most of the time. But when she drops the mask, boy does she...
I watched the Lighthouse because it got recommended online a lot and it featured Willem Dafoe and Robter Pattinson wich I consider as good actors. But I didn't get the movie at all. The acting was good, especially from Dafoe, but I felt there was no plot, no goal, nothing except a fucking weird ass movie that grossed me out. It felt like what I imagine being on acid feels like.
@gilbert godfrey so you casually justify murder, think vicious killers of the night are better than your relatives and are not excited for shows about evil vampires. You’re relatives are either evil or you might just be a violent person who your relatives don’t like thus making you see them as mean
The movie is great yes. It is intensly and beautifully well shot and the story isn't bad either. Yes we have to support more movies like these and yet I was kinda disappointed with this film. This is by fat Eggerts worst film, still being great. For me it was way to violent. I do know and understand that it belongs to the story and to the lives the people lived at that time and yet for me it felt like the first hour was the best part of the film and the second hour kinda fell flat. Go watch it anyway but it didn't subvert my expectations in a good way. I kinda thought the movie didn't really have much to offer from a different point of view.
@@Leprutz I agree. It was violent, but Eggers never compromises for historical accuracy. The ritualistic slaughter/pillaging/slavery was extremely uncomfortable to watch. But it was an accurate portrayal, and something that is sorely needed in mainstream media. It fuels the veins of historians everywhere.
If you like this then I would highly recommend the anime "Vinland saga" which also tells a subversion on the revenge story set during the Viking period that has a great story, plot and themes with multi layered characters and historical accuracy. It's about a boy who's father is killed by another Viking and ends up following him around, seeking to get revenge by defeating him in an "honorable warriors duel". Vinland saga is remarkably grounded for an anime series and has no shortage of brutal realistic violence. I could not recommend it enough.
Vinland Saga is unreal, you're bang on the money about it sharing the subversion of the vengeance story trope, can't wait for season 2. I'd love for drinker to try some anime out if he hasn't already, the medium is so full of very high quality stuff
I also like, how it's a saga, so not completely historical but with some mythical/legendary stuff in it. That made it possible for Thorkel to be an absolute beast and a marvel to watch.
Didn't expect to find fellow Vinland Saga fans on this channel. I would absolutely recommend the manga too if you're interested in that type of media (although it does head in a slightly different direction from what you're used too by the anime)
I heard that the 2nd season is more about character development and much slower paced than the first season, with less action. That's just from a UA-cam preview, not from my own judgement
The Northman is the first movie I’ve seen in a very long time that I remember each and every scene from. I really can’t recommend it enough. The story isn’t a grand, overarching story deciding the fate of the universe, and that is great. Back in the day that might be a plus but in this day and age the fact that this movie has the sense to just tell a normal story focusing on a single, well developed character is a god send.
what a crazy time we live in where movies about superheros who can literally do anything and bend the forces of reality to their will are boring and a film about vikings is imaginative😂
Came here after watching in theaters. Dude I'm still speechless, I got in my car and drove home with the radio off just thinking about what I just saw and I agree.. we do need more movies like this. Didn't know it was the same director from the Lighthouse but man it blew my expectations out of the water. Brutal and beautiful.
Go watch 'The VVitch' and 'The Lighthouse' by Eggers as well, then. Each time he does this thing where he hooks up a costume film with the zeitgeist mindset of the period, connects it to psychological group or relationship dynamics, social norms and supernatural beliefs and short-circuits these historical drama & psycho-thriller elements with a mythical horror flick ambience. If you are hooked on this type of genre-bending approach, by all means go for more. Each movie by Robert Eggers is unique in style, setting and theme.
The ritual scene before the battle had an awesome detail. The main worshipper, "lead singer" I might say, was an actual odinistic spear dancer! With the bird helmet and all. That is a real thing and depicted in many sources. Survive The Jive has a great video explaining the whole icon.
A minor correction: The Lighthouse was not inspired by vintage movies from the 50s. The style Eggers was trying to emulate with that film is german expressionism (1920s).
I recently watched this movie and all I can say is: *THIS MOVIE F**KING ROCKS!* This film felt like a massive love letter to Norse mythology and *HOLY SHIT!* it was amazing!
@Thor Odin son sorry your modern nanosecond attention span couldn't handle a little art. I found the film to be highly entertaining and the lack of dialogue allows you to focus on scenery as part of the story, not apart from it. Since the movie isn't pushing any sort of moral/ethical stance that modern films so often do, the characters seem somewhat distant or alien to us, as they are products of their time, not ours. This only adds to the feel of authenticity, with the vague nature of his visions providing both mystery and subtle foreshadowing.
@@fragilehandlewithcare3967 Green Knight has nice visuals but it was awful. The new Dune sucked because it was boring, had awful cinematography and little to no action.
Finally found the time to see this yesterday. Movie ended up being a lot more psychedelic than I expected but ultimately it was an experience I was glad to have.
The movie truly does feel epic, the whole while it was reminiscent of Shakespeare, and ancient Greek myths. The twists, the tragedy, the nebulous supernatural elements, even some of the more poetic dialog was all positively epic.
This movie dared to have white people in it. This incredibly rare display of antiracism must be supported. The Tribe wants whites gone from cinema and streets. Let us instead simply say no.
The more I think about the movie the more I think it's a masterpiece. This should be added to film schools to show what a good character arch is. From seeking revenge out of rage and hatred to looking at the bigger picture and thinking of the greater good made this a perfect example of why modern cinema has become so shallow
Sadly it really isn't, u should always guess what happenes next in a movie, but in this one u can predict every scene, motivation and plot its not even funny anymore..
@@mischiii6076 Bull*hit. You can´t predict even if there is a shaman literaly describing (in "cryptic" medieval terms) what will happen because the main character had a chance to ignore what she foretold, he just decided to fulfil the prophecy because that is how people were thinking during the medieval times.
You mentioned Conan the Barbarian as a possible inspiration for this movie, but actually the story of Amleth is the "original" one (there are some versions of it), being also the inspiration for the Shakespeare's Hamlet tragedy 👍🏻
Pretty sure he knew which way around it was. Robert E Howard indeed more likely used the original Amleth story rather than the Shakespeare Hamlet as inspiration for Conan, albeit with a heavy dose of pseudo archaeological mystery added in (Conan's sword is from Atlantis).
I wish they'd do a proper Conan movie. Swartz was all wrong, and the movie just didn't make it for me. I had been a childhood fan since long before the movie and was very disappointed. Weak, just "product".
While the story didn’t grab me like it did most of you, I have to say this was one of the best looking films I’ve seen in a long while that didn’t rely on much of any CGI trickery. Eggers is a tour-de-force and, while The Northman isn’t a film I feel compelled to watch over and over (a lot like The Lighthouse), I’m glad I watched it and will be watching his career with great interest.
It’s an adaptation of Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum, direct inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Eggers included tropes of Macbeth as well, and he’s the only contemporary director that treats the classics so reverently.
When I heard the Drinker say the main character's name, I thought it sounded like Hamlet (I guess it's Amleth??) and was wondering if it was intentional -- especially after the part saying his Uncle killed his father to get his kingdom and the mother. The allusions to the difficult choices and psychological drama made this more possible. Alas, there seems to have been no Laertes in this story.
When I walked into the movie I expected Braveheart and some big dramatic battles. What I got was a grounded revenge tale that was on a smaller level and it was much more believable. The cinematography was incredible. Such brilliant visuals that I won't soon forget. The violence when it did happen was in par for someone who can deliver the type of violence that a bezerker can. All in all I loved it. This is a movie we all should support. Whether you like it, love it or are somewhat disappointed you will not feel like you wasted time. At the end of the day we won't be getting many(or any) movies like this very often so let's show Hollywood that we want more then just marvel movies.
Loved The Northman, a film that shows how you truly 'subvert expectations,' you know what I mean if you've seen it. The Lighthouse was amazing, but his best is still The Witch. Staggering debut....
That third act was one of the most powerful cinematic experiences I've had in a very long time. When certain truths were uncovered and the entire film up to that point was totally re-contextualized, I was absolutely floored, emotionally. And that final fight scene was a true stunner in every conceivable way. What a film, man.
This movie was genuinely one of the first movies in the past 2-3 years that I liked progressively more after leaving the theater rather than disliking it more and more after thinking about it.
The best movie I’ve seen this year. Waited to watch this review until I saw it. Watched it a couple days ago and it blew me away. Robert Eggers is definitely one of the best directors of our time and I can’t wait to see what he does next.
By chance I watched Egger's "The Witch" (also featuring Anya Talor-Joy) and found it very entertaining. The cast and overall scale are small and it very much works in favor of the movie.
The Northman was Eggers' first real film with scale (The VVitch follows a small New England family in the mid-17th century and The Lighthouse literally just has Dafoe and Pattinson on an island for 100 minutes) and he proves without a shadow of a doubt that he's up to the task of taking an uncompromising, immersive vision and scaling it upward to near-blockbuster status. I sincerely hopes it makes its money back as this is one of the few film productions I've seen in a while in which everyone absolutely deserves it. Eggers is clearly a master of his craft already, despite only having made 3 films. I can't wait for his next project.
The Witch, for me is the most disturbing horror I've seen in the last 20 years. It played on the imagination wonderfully well. I didn't know Eggers directed it until it crossed my mind when I saw the actor who played the Father from the Witch.appeared as the sailor giving passage.. With Anja Taylor Joy in it also I thought..maybe it's the same director.
We need more Viking media like The Northman and Vinland Saga, rather than the “Netflix Adaptation” version of this time period which just makes it look like a joke.
It's insane the way certain sections of the media are actually denouncing The Northman as Nazi, white supremacist, etc. The director even said he was reticent about going there with the viking stuff in case such people latched onto it. Truth is, the film is simply honest, uncompromised, and historically accurate, and if certain people are embracing it particularly hard then that's not the film's fault; it's because it bucks the trend of awkwardly-inserted "diversity" mandates that have denied them, for a decade or more, films that simply reflect their history and culture. It wouldn't be such a focal-point if it wasn't such a rarity. Rightly, the question ought to be: how did we ever reach a point where a film set in Northern Europe in 914AD can actually be accused of racism for "failing" to shoehorn in people of sub-Saharan African descent?
Or the fact other directors are too lazy to make a film of African, Asian, or Middle Eastern culture instead of relying on European mythologies? Like there is so much untapped potential and sources they can draw from yet they do absolutely nothing to represent the cultures instead of shoehorning diverse people into an out of place setting.
@@toledochristianmatthew9919 Exactly. I'm a fan of what's (disparagingly, imho) called "world cinema" and when I watch a film that's Japanese, Russian, Brazilian, or whatever, it's because I want to be immersed for 2 hours in a culture that's not my own. I want it to reflect the culture that birthed it, not to reflect the same 21st Century urban racial mix that's right outside my door and available anytime. Yes, it would be good to see Hollywood take some risks and bring us stories we haven't seen a hundred times before, like, as you say, African, Asian, or Middle Eastern stories. And, if they did, I'd actively WANT the casting in those films to be appropriate to the time and place, for the immersion factor. They don't need to stick out-of-place white people in it just to make me feel "included."
@@blatherskite3009 i bet my ass that the reason holywood does not make movies of other cultures and races as often as it should is because of the structural racism thing... that shit it the talking point of some annoying people but it still is real as fuck even more prevalent than the individual personal racism nowadays... if majority of people were interested in those other stories from different cultures than the european and north american we could have more cool different movies
@@galahadgalaaz2568 the main reason they don’t make such movies is that they don’t make as much money. Turns out a lot of white people also like to see people like them in movies and tend to ignore movies that don’t include them. For the longest time, Will Smith couldn’t be cast with another Black lead, especially romantic leads, because audiences would treat it as a “black people” movie, and it wouldn’t get the same returns. It turns out “the message” isn’t so much about inclusion as it is about trying to lure more people in to make more money. Sometimes, though, it’s so clumsy and obvious that it repels the very people it tries to attract while also repelling historical/source material purists and racists/bigots. To be clear, I’m not accusing purists of being racists/bigots. They’re just both groups that don’t like seeing PoC in fiction where they’re out of place.
I eagerly anticipated this film from its announcement but unfortunately didn't get a chance to see it in theatres. I just watched it yesterday on blu ray and god damn it was worth the wait. Incredibly well made and performed. I really hope that the box office performance doesn't hurt Robert Eggers career as he is exactly the type of director we so badly need right now.
I was pleasantly surprised by the lighting and cinematography. The vision scenes were some of my favorite moments in the film. The valkyire scenes gave me chills and are some of my favorite scenes in cinema. Absolutely stunning. And the last scene of the valkyrie riding him on her horse to Valhalla almost moved me to tears. Was just a stunning film and will be owning this on bluray.
Yeah I can't wait for the bluray either, as you say the lighting and cinematography are superb, with fantastic tracking shots, it's dark and gritty but with great use of colour, I like how bright everything is when they're on the boat about to escape, as if the gods themselves are showing him how he could have a wonderful future, until his fate steps in, I almost shouted no stay on the boat lol
I thought the last scene - well, scenes - took away from the movie as a whole. As Drinker says, as the movie goes along, it shows that there's some moral complexity, amorality, and even immorality, in the protagonist. Then he fights next to lava like he's Obiwan or Anakin, and goes traipsing off to Valhalla like a righteous, victorious warrior, not the vengeful loser abandoning his wife and unborn children to fight and die for the non-existent honor of a long-dead and abusive father, against someone who lost their kingdom long ago.
@@calmbbaer He chose both kindness for his kin and hatred for his enemies. He knew Fjolnir would hunt him and his family down and kill them. He knew he would grow too old to protect his family one day, and his son's would suffer for the sins of the father.
@@PiracyandDumbbells - How is that even possible when he's in the younger generation? He could defend his family longer than his uncle could pursue them... if he could. Deprived of all his resources, I don't even see how the uncle could pursue him even if he lived forever.
@@calmbbaer The same way Amleth pursues him. You say that like Fjolnir can't bribe some men or pull some favors to have him killed. It doesn't matter the resources when it comes to revenge even if it took another 20 years he'd never stop hunting them.
Phenomenal film. I’m grateful to have witnessed such a masterpiece. I want to see more like this. No modern politics, unapologetic, not compromising. I love it.
It’s sad rn it’s not making that much money. This movie is one of my favorites in a long time and Robert Eggers yet again creates an amazing movie. The rituals, the culture, the mythology. It all came together so gracefully into a great film that illustrates that you don’t need some action packed balls to the wall movie for it to be good. Hopefully it starts picking up soon cuz I don’t want Eggers to shy away from these types of movies
I watched this movie with my wife, and during some of the “dancing naked in the woods” scenes i leaned over to her and said “your ancestors sure knew how to party back then”. Boy did they sure know how to pillage and fuck shit up too.
This movie was incredible. I thought the vision sequences were overall pretty easy to determine what was real and what wasn't. The deaths are brutal, visceral, and grounded in reality. The whole movie feels very real, outside of the spiritual dip here and there. Even the reactions of the characters to some of the events in the movie seem realistic given the time period. It's like an epic short story etched on a glorious painting. The visuals are incredible. You will not be disappointed if you choose to watch this film.
Fun fact, he's originally almost casted as Thor before Chris Hemsworth. But then his dad Stellan Skarsgard is playing Dr Erik Selvig, Thor's scientist friend.
Glad there are still gems like this still coming out. Everything everywhere all at once was also another great indie that came out recently and also looking forward to watching The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Looks bonker and aweseome at the same time! lol
This movie is a masterpiece! And probably the only movie that truly felt Norse to me, in feeling and mood, showing a more realistic view of that time period, but even more so getting into the mindset of people who believed their mythology was real and not fantasy, how it moved and motivated them. The cinematography was absolutely stunning and breathtaking, with an incredible cast. Robert Eggers is fast becoming one of my favorite film makers. We definitely need more movies and film makers like this!
As accurate as one can be with oral traditions, some written down centuries after the actual events occurred. Film does a good job with what source material it has ngl.
That's good to hear. As much as I love shows like Vikings, it's very apparent they kind of beautified the culture. I'm looking forward to seeing something authentic.
This was the first movie I've seen since Mad Max: Fury Road that I loved. To be fair, I rarely watch movies, but WOW was this good. Too bad its "underperforming" at the box office so the chances of more like this is nill.
Yea I was sad to see that because I loved this movie. A shame though I hope they don’t feel that they should deliver “The Message” to get more people to see it. The movie is nearly perfect the way it is. Simple story. Love it
@@djblue056 Loved almost every minute of this movie in cinema (was bit to long for my taste). Its a sad statement to our brain damaged idiocracy society that superhero movies earn more than double the amount of money at the box office while a grounded movie with a great insight into norse mythology failed at the box office. While watching Northman, for some seconds it sometimes felt like I was transferred to a different world (Valkyrie scene!!) and when I left the cinema, I left with many thoughts, questions and feelings.... you know, things a good movie does do you! Unlike a superhero movie where afterwards I always have the feeling to be dumber than before.
I like how eggers made NO attempts of ever trying to make any of these characters relatable, instead he forces you into a journey to understand their mindset
I really enjoyed that too. The film feels very authentic to the historical period as well as the mythology and sagas. Unfortunately, judging by the user reviews on rotten tomatoes, a lot of people didn't like the film because they were expecting a formulaic action story in the style of the Vikings TV show or the Last Kingdom
I mean...this is a viking story from the year 900. How can anyone relate to it? Some people can't even relate to the ones before the internet...
@@tavirosu25 do you mean to tell me that you don't frequently dance naked around a fire, invoke the spirit of the wolf and raid the nearest Rus settlements? You're missing out.
This is why I like grimdark fantasy books. That characters are fascinating and complex without needing to be relatable at all.
@@The_Mystical_Platypus People on rotten tomatoes are willfully retarded, literally the lowest trash that think their opinion matters on a fucking dead website from the early 2000's.
Also the same type of person that type out their mentally handicapped advice on Quora.
As soon as the "professional" critics criticized it for "toxic masculinity" I put it on my "To be watched in theatres" list.
"Toxic masculinity"? Ha ha! Those people are soft and can't seem to understand that the legend the film is based on is set in a much simpler time. The world is not nice and those people need to get punched in the face for once and grow a spine so they can realize that.
Amen to that
It hilarious nowadays that if traditional critics reviews say it's bad than there's almost guaranteed to be a cult following for a film at least. Welcome to bazarow world
Such a shame that we can't get a Viking movie where the men are portrayed as gentle, sensitive, caring and understanding of the deeply complex nature of a woman's role in society and how they're much betterer than men. Like that Mel Gibson movie 'What Women Want' but with Vikings.
The Northman has a score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and 82 on Metacritic. Both scores significantly higher than the audience rating, so it is pretty highly acclaimed by the "professional" critics.
A movie that tells a good story, has great characters and respects the lore/history…sign me up.
minus the black female warrior part.
woke BS.
I saw a good movie the other day, 'The Outfit'. It was a break from the usual and free of wokeness. Worth a view!
It does NOT respect viking history. It portrays vikings as evil, filthy subhumans.
It was amazing, go see it. Worth every fee/moment of your time.
@@mirinah4719 If they do make movies like that, I can assure you that those cultures would be treated with utmost respect, unlike what they did to viking culture here.
Ethan Hawke is a woefully under appreciated actor. Has massively improved with age
glad im not the only one who thinks this
He’s been great all along the way. Since Dead Poets Society, Before Sunrise and Training Day.
@@aserr5660 loved him since say 1. Before Sunset is one of my favorite trilogies
@@aserr5660 I like most of movies I saw with him. Still could not make to finish watching Before/After trilogy, feels very boring to see only dialog as a plot, occasionally trying.
Just saw him recently in The Black Phone. He was exceptionally threatening and it's totally worth the watch
What I love about Eggers' work isn't just how he captures the look of historical times, but the mindset. People didn't just talk and dress differently back then, they THOUGHT differently. Their values and morals weren't just different, but utterly alien to anything we'd recognize today. People inhabited worlds that were smaller, more dangerous, and more incomprehensible than the ones we inhabit today. Things that we explain with modern science were back then rationalized as the work of spirits and gods that were temperamental and lurking behind everything.
This is what I like about Eggers. He does very extensive research before making his films.
That's exactly what makes Eggers' works great.
He walks the thin lines connecting historical drama, character study, documentary fiction of group dynamics, psychological thriller, surrealist film about mythological symbolism and supernatural horror flick with such panache that in result he creates his own niche genre.
And every film he has made with this approach has an interesting story to tell in its very own style.
That's so refreshingly creative, stylistically innovative and narratively unique, and at the same time he shows how these classic tales can still speak to us today.
He has done his historical research well and understands constants of the human psyche just as well as the confinements of time, place, social imprints and psychological nurture, peer pressure and ideological/mythological bonds upon an individual's mindset, the effects of the natural, cultural and technological surroundings on social norms and the environmental effects of both shared world knowledge and secretive/exclusive in-group rituals/techniques on group behavioural dynamics.
In short,
Robert Eggers' movies are like a translation of a past zeitgeist into a present age cinematic art aesthetic.
“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” -- L.P. Hartley
sounds great. gotta check all his movies.
Holy Crap! Razorbeak, I can't tell you how refreshing it is to read someone that actually 'gets' history! (I say 'gets' because, as you explained, we simply *cannot* understand it. It is long since beyond our ken)
Thank you!
This movie is actually based on real Scandinavian history/folklore, which also later became the template inspiration behind William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
So what is it? History or folklore? lol
Hollywood is NOT real
and Shakespeare couldn't write his own name
lol
@@je-freenorman7787 It's history and folklore. Ancient history that was written down centuries after it's events, and before that went down in generations as stories of ancient tales of heroes. The Vikings weren't exactly known for writing down alot themselves, and most documented history about them at the time was written down by the English and the French at the time, and alot of stories/ancient tales/folklore/history was also written down several centuries later in Iceland. So while there are most definately alot of truth and history to stories about legendary Vikings such as Ragnar Lodbrok for example, there is also a good portion of fairytales, as these stories have been told by word of mouth from generation to generation for several hundreds of years before they were written down, some of it is bound to have been exhaggerated to create more legendary and elaborate tales about certain events, while staying mostly true to actual historical events that have been cross referenced in several sources. So that's why it's ''history/folklore''.
Indeed. In this case, it's from the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus. Tales of revenge are very common in Norse sagas. Some think that they glorify it, but I personally think they warn against it.
@@kjetilhansen5363 Most likely norwegians in this movie, as they were the ones to actually establish themselves on Iceland. Icelanders are all descendants of Norwegians
@@bobmalibaliyahmarley1551 I dont see much history in movies sorry. That was all Aryan culture back then and was converted by the Romans. Our real history has been hidden. There is no such thing as a Hero
Our days of the week are all named after Norse Gods, that connected to the Roma/Greko Pagan beliefs. Then it was all converted. Every government today is Roman and had been for hundreds of years
My favorite thing about this movie is that they didn’t try to add heroic traits to Amleth, he was out for vengeance and butchers countless people to get it. The tragedy is he’s a giant Viking Berserker made out of nuclear hot rage who only knows his anger and even when he has the opportunity to live in relative peace he can’t give up his vengeance.
So.....like Guts from Berserk?
There were hints at a heroic side to him peppered throughout the film, which made it even more tragic. To name a few: the way he internally flinches at the barbarism involving innocents, the fact that he saves his half brother during the knattleikr match and then saves multiple slaves on different occasions, including Olga. These moments all paint him as a potentially heroic figure...but then there's another perspective.
Well he's a hero of another age and another culture. But there are some moments in which he is heroic in the way we mean it, as mentioned before
@@mateoreyes6921 no
So he's basically Kratos in God of War.
Yes, this is the most historically accurate depiction of Norse culture ever put to film and was designed to be that way, the director actually changed the film slightly multiple times to accommodate what the historical expert was telling him
That's one of the things I love about Robert Eggers. He's extremely devoted to historical accuracy for whatever time period his films depict. As someone who studied to be a historian, I greatly appreciate this. I wish more directors were like him, but unfortunately, 99.99% of them couldn't care less about historical accuracy.
@@supermonkey321 I think it will change in the future, most of the modern directors are old and were taught way before the internet started to analyse and breakdown movies for their historical accuracy, in the future I believe the newer filmmakers will be more cognisant of making things more accurate
@@supermonkey321 "99.99% of them couldn't care less about historical accuracy." Of course they don't. Especially when it concerns EUROPEANS.
Who do you think controls all the media? Hollywood? You know who they are. They don't take any refugees either. They send them all to you. Who do you think came up with feminism? Communism? Who do you think promotes race mixing on whites and whites ONLY? You can't name them here either because it's THEIR website. Their fake names usually end with "berg" and "stein".
Legend
It's in no way historically accurate. The basics, yes, but they got a lot of the details wrong.
The lighthouse was a masterpiece. The northman is Robert eggers going bigger and more ambitious with his style. Good to know people are appreciating movies like this
Aaand the Witch?
Nah, this movie was boring ass shit.
It was antiwhite as hell.
Sooooo.... We're all going to ignore the Witch? Movie scared the Toilet Duck right outta me.
@@giovannichiaranti9775 said the same thing before I saw your comment.
Just saw the Northman with a friend and this was my first Robert Eggers movie. My buddy that I saw it with is a huge fan. I wasn't sure about this movie but I got sucked in immediately. This is the first movie in a while where I was fully immersed. Even the weirder elements felt real. At no point was I pulled out of the movie or even feel like I was "watching" a movie. Instead I felt fully immersed in this world and when the screen went black I looked at my friend saying "that was awesome!". We need more movies like this.
@Elon and depp. And everyone can’t wait till it leaves… for good!
Watch Vinland Saga , it's amazing
Better than The Lighthouse ?
It flopped big time, so we won't get more movies like this.
@@rodycaz8984 Flopped? It came out a week ago and had done fine, pretty much off of word of mouth.
The Northman is the only movie this year where you’ll see two Vikings battle it out, butt-ass naked, while surrounded by lava.
Charlie Kelly vs Jack Kelly, 954 A.D.
and it was fucking awesome
Pretty based
Really wanted him to make it back to olga
I'm pretty sure it's the first time in history someone put those words together
Spot on!! But you didn’t even mention William Dafoe’s short but creepy-awesome performance!
What a masterpiece Eggers is like Tarantino in that he always does something according to his specific vision and it is always interesting
Yesss he was great like always
William Dafoe was amazing as always...
>
There's a making of video where Willem Dafoe comments about how Eggers approached The Northman with the same level of detail as The Lighthouse despite it being a profoundly larger production. Eggers himself comments on how the production crew had to basically ignore everything about viking culture in popular culture, films, TV shows, etc, and instead look at museums because he didn't want stuff that looked 'cool', he wanted stuff that looked as authentic as possible with the budget he had.
Also the score and sound design for this is phenomenal, it's a rare example of a 'cinematic film', something that is definitely best experienced in a cinema where you can feel the bass rumbling around you.
Completely agree. This film reminded me why I still have an AMC Stubs A-List subscription and go to the movies. Completely immersive cinematic experience.
@Jesus Gonzalez go off king
needs more horned helmets to be realistic
The soundtrack shared a lot in common with Witcher 3. I love the hurdy gurdy
Thanks for this interesting bit of info, i dont watch movies often a handful a year or so but i do appreciate cinematography when well done and film makers striving for detail accuracy is the kind of thing that makes me actually want to watch a movie, i have not seen this yet but it is now going on the watch list.
It's really sad we live in a time where an enjoyable movie like this is the exception, not the rule.
Movies like this used to come out all the time before liberals get a hold of things and ruin everything they touch.
It's more the existence of Disney swallowing up other studios that is the problem.
That means producers/directors/actors end up having to follow their guiderule or risk being deprived of a lot of work.
That being said Everything Everywhere All At Once was better than The Northman and came out this year too.
Men from A24 is another one that just came out.
Ikr all robbert eggers movies had the same audience ratings. i truely feel sad about the society when cgi bloated garbage gets higher praise than these masterpieces. the imperfections and the pure storytelling is what makes these perfect
True!! 80 & 90s had such movies in full force.
Plenty of movies like this get released every year, you just want the movies to come to you, rather than look for the movies yourself.
Honestly a masterpiece, not since Kubrick have we had a director that cares so much about details and accuracy and research, and it shows. He's made 3 superb movies and he's not even in his 40s yet, I just hope he gets to continue to evolve and perfect his visions without having to comply or bend to dipshit studios aiming for the lowest common denominator.
I hope so, but like Denis Villeneuve - his movies are struggling to break even at the box office. I just hope he can Continue to get backing for the great movies he wants to make. We need them.
I wonder how Robert eggers would handle sci-fi
@@mrnukes797 Well he's more into historical accurate stuff, not sure he cares about sci fi.
@@mrnukes797 He cares too much about history, he's honestly more historian than director, but I'm sure it'd still be sick
A friend of mine was an extra in this film. He spoke to him a few times on set. He said he was a really great guy. Regards his work he said he is somebody to watch. That was a good couple of years ago when the film was being made.
I remembered watching this in the cinema it was such a satisfying cinema experience. The volcano fight at the end was so memorable, dark, brutal and nihilistic. Two men who took everything from each other killing one another with nothing but death as an empty prize.
While I generally agree, I don't think your conclusion is accurate. Death was no empty prize to Amleth (hamlet?). The only way to keep his progeny safe from the king was to kill him, at any cost. The king's family was already gone, so for him it may have been empty if his revenge is empty, but for Amleth it was the way to preserve the lives of the future queen and her brother.
Oh my god, that climatic duel in the volcano was just an outstanding piece of cinema. In the dark of the theatre, with the minimal light and the resounding boom of the bass in the speakers all around, it rattled my bones in the best kind of way.
Thanks for the spoiler alert warning. Now I don't have to see it.
Between this and Dune, it's so refreshing to experience big budget, epic films that aren't just an endless conveyor belt of cgi action sequences, but are instead thoughtful visual journeys that immerse you in whole new worlds lovingly crafted down to the smallest detail.
Would say Batman also partly fits into this, although it didnt connect with me as much as Northman and Dune
I don't disagree but studios have to cater to the masses. While movies can be art it's a business 1st. Not many people are going to want to spend $100 million on an art piece that gets you $20 million in the box office. As a result we get the movies that make big $. Unlike other forms of art movies are a consumable. There's not 1 original copy worth more that it cost to make. Music has the same problem.
Except Dune was all into pushing THE MESSAGE, pozzed to a good degree
@@quantum_immortal69 what exactly is this THE MESSAGE that you speak of?
@@carsonnewton6923 did you even watch the video?
Loved that a lot of the shots are long and uncut, refreshing from seeing movies overly edited, cutting between 50 different angles every 3 seconds.
It had other resemblances to Tarkovsky, too. Especially Andrej Rublev
100%. The camera work and choreography was 100x better than any big budget film or show I've seen lately.
@@ChristophelusPulps but you gotta have coverage, coverage, coverage!!!
Couldn't agree more. So sick of that crap.
Yes, and I loved the scenes at night where it’s just silhouettes of Amleth doing his dark deeds.
When his "go away now" sounds like a friendly uncle encouraging the kids to go outside and play, you know this movie is good
I love how you can always tell The Drinker's disposition towards the movie he's reviewing just by listening to his "Go away now" - such a priceless epithet!
The scenes with the Valkyrie are some of the most beautiful/artistic scenes I have ever seen in any movie and they make the mythological character believable as an immortal deity-like being without being over the top, I really loved this movie.
You mean Tessa Thompson doesn’t embody the pinnacle of how the mythical Valkyrie is to be portrayed?😵
@@williamflowers9435 gotta love the dumbasses in hollyweird deciding to blackwashing Brunhilde, even if it indirectly.
The ending scene is so beautiful...the way his eyes light up..the valkyrie...amazing movie. Just finished playing god of wqr ragnarok too so it made it even better
Does the Valkyrie have brackets??? Excellent film tho
@@jesusdelarosa1204that’s carvings/tattoos which is accurate from the sources.
They’re not supposed to be beautiful Angels but terrifying beings that bring only the best warriors to Odin.
Eggers is one of those increasingly rare directors who fully understands that movie making is VISUAL story telling. A lot of 'The Northman' is simply immersive world building, time taken to transport you back in time so you can lose yourself in the setting. It's not really critically important to moving the plot, but it makes the movie better than the sum of it's parts, so it's also not wasted time. It was the same with 'the lighthouse', which wasn't an overly complicated plot but the look and tone of the movie helped give the plot impact.
Many other directors these days from the the 'JJ school' of packing everything single minute of screen times with just stuff going on as if they're afraid 30 seconds of just admiring the scenery is enough for the entire audience to up and leave, which leads to ever more convoluted plots or actual wasted time as characters do nothing of any importance just to provide white noise
There is nothing wrong with minimalism, or retreading age old ideas in interesting ways. There are very few original stories left to tell, and the really good storytellers are the ones who know the devil is in the details.... not the quantity. A simple story told well will stand the test of time, and movies like 'The Northman' will be remembered long after most of it's contemporaries are simply forgotten.
Man. Well fucking said. Truly. 🤝
I loved it. I really hope it makes enough money in the long run that it's considered a success. We need more movies that actually feel unique. This one certainly does.
@@adonirammccarthy3994 making movies and the movie industry are two separate things - I feel like Eggers is a movie maker and whatever money gets made is merely a biproduct of telling great stories. Fuck me it's a beautiful thing.
Well said!
@@fiercedeitymetal yeah, Eggers has actually really good movies that will still feel relevant 20 years from now, regardless of how much they make in theaters. But I would love to see more mid budget stuff like this, so I hope it does well overall.
I'm surprised that you didn't mention that this was an interpretation of actual Nordic folklore/history. It was reapeated orally via epic poetry from the 900s onward, partly recorded by Saxo Grammaticus via manuscript, and was the inspiration by Shakespeare to write 'Hamlet'. This is a true treasure of historical myth into cinema, and it was fucking epic. One of the true modern treasures of European cinema recalling ancient tales. Way better than Hollywood's Beowulf.
Beowulf is underrated! Idk what you mean by that...
This movie was a Sheake spear ripoff 🤤
@@Ronin3453 It's a viking Hamlet... #BASED
Beowulf is a pretty different poem from a pretty different place and a superior movie to the Northman in several aspects.
Both are great, though.
You're surprised he didn't mention that??? Come on, man, you know that's a super niche area of historical (which is why you flexed your knowledge), yeah obviously he didn't about it beforehand
Years ago, my dad took me to see the movie Gladiator in the theater. To this day, it is one of my favorite films as well as one of my favorite movie-going experiences.
Hearing all the positive feedback, I decided to invite my dad to go see the film as his birthday is coming up. He rarely sees movies anymore but if the Northman is as good as people say, it will be a good film with a great memory attached.
It is going to be quite a bit different than Gladiator. Dont expect the Hollywood gamification and contrived dialogue that is inherent within Gladiator. You will be seeing something Ritter, dirtier, nastier, stranger and rough. I hope you both find it worth your time.
It’s going to be quite a different experience from Gladiator, aside from the time period and story and all; but man you and your dad are in for one hell of a true cinematic experience! Enjoy!
That's a good idea. I think I'll invite my dad too.
dont be a looser, watch predator or die hard with your dad , this film will be shit , its not manly its a tuttie futtie parade, go out side and do 100 press ups .... everyone.... and im taking to you drinker... eye roll emogi
That's going to be a tough call depending on your reasons for liking Gladiator. Gladiator was a complete Hollywoodation of history, but a lot of people seemed to like it. The Northman is a bit more realistic, but it still shows men being men, which is a rarity today, so your dad might like it. If you're not sure, go see it first and decide; but whatever you do make all the great memories with your pops while you still can.
That part where he catches the spear and throws it back, has got to be one of the most primal things I've ever watched on film. You really felt like you were watching barbarians attack a town. It was also a trick that real vikings would do in order to gain prestige
I saw that scene 4 times, twas too badass
Primal is a brilliant word to describe that moment! The way he moves with the Bear skin cloak, almost like Peter Pan dancing around the campfire 😂
I watch that scene over and over.
That part seemed kind of silly to be honest. A little to Hollywood for me.
@@44magnum555 you taking the Mick? 🤣 It's literally something we have historical evidence of actually happening 🤣
A movie that "just wants to tell a good story"? Heresy! On a happier note, I finally got my Critical Drinker Plushie. It's perfect.
Does it matter if it's a story BASED on truth? AMERIKKKA is a "good story". So what?
@we did it
Y vu
A movie that's just a movie, I can't believe this is genuinely an uncommon thing in modern high budget films. At this point you may as well ignore anything that's from a big studio.
why aren't there any black lesbian trans women vikings? -libtards
What are you even talking about dude. The whole point of movies is to force feed my ideology down your throat and show you how much more enlightened I am than you and that you're also probably a racist or something....geeze. Stop talking about things you don't know about bigot....who would even go to a movie that doesn't have "the message" beings injected straight into your veins. So many duckin weirdos on UA-cam
Skarsgård wanted to make a Viking film for a while and it shows in his very committed performance. Eggers was the right man for the job and I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't all in Old Norse like he wanted, but this was a visually arresting film that completely engrosses you in the world it sets up from the moment it starts with an erupting Hekla. It's entirely alien to today's modern values, and yet has a timeless familiarity that coincides with the twist at the end of Act II, making you question if you should even be rooting for Amleth at all. It's morally grey done very right while still cherishing the values and rituals the people of that time held dear. Despite all the fever dream sequences of spiritual enlightenment and rage, this is the most realistic film I've seen in a while. Eggers' signature in his three films seems to be meshing reality and the protagonist's own POV, which may or may not be hallucinatory or spiritual in nature, and ultimately comes to the conclusion that it doesn't really matter if it was real or not; as long as it affects the characters, it might as well be real. He did it in The VVitch, he did it in The Lighthouse and he does it in The Northman. It is uncompromising in its vision and accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do with no frills and modern baggage attached.
I honestly would love Eggers to do a biopic on Shaka Zulu all in the Zulu language (and the other Bantu tribes he conquered) as he seems to be the king of highly immersive period pieces with very high fidelity. I know it would be amazing. But because of the color of his skin, he wouldn't be "allowed" to and that's a shame.
This ^^ 🙌🏽🙌🏽
did he want the whole thing in old Norse? I remember reading that he wanted the intro monologue in old Norse, not the whole thing
@@haydeng3541 he wanted it all in Old Norse but realized he would never get the funding he wanted for it. The Berserker ritual scene and the end of Amleth's monologue at the foot of Mt. Hekla are the only scenes where characters speak Old Norse
Woulda been even cooler in Old Norse. Alas.
It was refreshing seeing a movie like this, one that isn't about "the message" and focuses on a good story, characters and historic realism.
Truth be told, movies with "the message" rarely seem to succeed
Remember when Hollywood use to make movies like that? (Brave heart, Gladiator to name a few).
But do not be too easily fooled.
The disgusting, vile forces that are so fond of subh°mans - *WANT* that we get culled drastically in a badly organized "civilwar" ( its just WAR, really - cut the civil out of it ).
So they show us cool, based and powerful Vikings to awake a similar masculine force in us now.
When the media is still against us and would support criminal subh°mans all over to fight us. Be aware. The crescentmoon is a banana.
@@FreedomAndPeaceOnly What the actual fuck are you talking about?
@u know what i did Yeah, you did about a billion spams 💩 head…
So few movies where scenes actually make your jaw drop -- this is one of them. Truly amazing piece of work. Eggers is fantastic. The Witch. Lighthouse. The Northman. Jesus, there's something to put on your resume.
The first two movies were very good yes, the witch was one of my favs..this film however did nothing for me, it was actually worse than I expected. kinda heartbreaking actually, the fight scenes were corny as hell..so cheeseball.
Eh, not bad but a bit overrated honestly
I left the theater thinking, “So, this is what film craft is. This is what you get when a creator cares about the art of film making and nothing more.” And for a moment, however brief, all of the bull shit politics and insanity was erased from the world.
@@roguewasbanned4746 makes sense. It is the legend that Shakespeare's Hamlet was based on.
@@roguewasbanned4746 The problem I had with this movie is that from the first trailer I predicted the whole "I will save you mother" plot twist. Because of that I knew how the movie will go and never really got gripped by the story itself and was just going through the paces so to speak while watching the movie. I enjoyed the movie from a cinematic perspective and I agree with everything The Drinker said. I just did not feel any emotion while watching it. Still a good move though. Just nothing new and a very predictable plot.
@@leonardopribic2661, with so much criticism, why do you believe that it’s still good? I mean, I just read your post and I feel the exact opposite; I feel like I should keep at least a 10-metre distance between me and this movie at all times.
This isn’t sarcasm, by the way, I’m genuinely curious as to what you found good about the movie and, under the weight of so much criticism, what saved the movie for you?
@@kennethguthrie180 The movie is very good as a film. Because it is shot well. The cinematography, soundtrack, ambience are all excellent. The characters are somewhat complex (except for the main guy), as much as they can be as this is not some biography drama and everybody is morally all over the place. Both the characters, themes and setting are realistic (though Kidman doesn't fit really) . And as the Drinker said, there is no woke politics or other bullshit that plagues other modern Hollywood movies. The action is very brutal but this is not 300 or some hack'n'slash action/adventure blockbuster. It is much more artistic. All of these are positives. The truly only problem I had is with the story. There is nothing new here and since it draws inspiration from other old classics like Hamlet (and every other revenge story), it is very predictable. The biggest plot twist of the movie can be easily guessed from the first trailer, you just need to imagine, "Now what would need to happen for the main character to have an oh shit moment with a big dose of irony?" Maybe it is just me. But I literally had the feeling as if I had read the plot beforehand and now I am just watching it for the visuals. And the main character for 95% of the movie is full on angry revenge mode, but this is not John Wick. We did not get an emotional start (with a puppy)so that we would care for his plight or that he has any other character traits except that he is very good at killing and looking good shirtless. Everybody is an asshole but nobody has the charisma to be likeable. With this movie, I did not care at all what would happen to anybody and was not surprised by anything that happened. I enjoyed it as a movie experience in the cinema but I was detached and not really engaged while watching it.
@@roguewasbanned4746 Well, I had mixed feelings about the movie too. But no matter what you feel about the finished product, the point still stands that the filmmakers prioritized film craft first. Whereas, in most new Hollywood productions, it seems that political virtue signaling is always the first priority.
You see, everytime someone like us Scandinavians are doing the acting for a movie about Scandinavian history and folklore it ends up perfectly.
This is indeed true.
Hmmm it's almost like it's their culture...
@@lastmanstanding7155 Indeed, my point is why these americans are in the acting roles of such movies when Scandinavians know it all better.
@@smoke1739
Nah I get ya. I agree. At the very least get people to help make everything as authentic as possible if you can't get certain people to act in the roles.
@@lastmanstanding7155 Yup
“It’s amazing in this time of all this Marvel nonsense, we were able to make a strange and original movie about Vikings that wasn’t based off an already existing IP or sequel.” - Eggers
Did he really say that?
He said marvel non sense quite literally in a interview I listened to some days ago, I don't remember which one tho :(
It's in a Forbes article / interview.
Robert Eggers: Well, it’s a good idea to make a Viking movie right now. I think the History Channel’s Vikings TV show inspired more TV shows and video games, all with a similar aesthetic that is completely invented but consistent, and the Marvel nonsense was also helpful. So, when I had a Viking script of a certain size, the studio’s marketing team said, ‘Yeah, we can actually make this work. Whoa!’ I’m super grateful that all that stuff I mentioned is in right now because I did not expect my third film to be so much exponentially larger and more complicated than my second film.
He said that as a compliment.
Eggers aknewledges how the Thor movies has sparked new interest again in the norse mithology in Hollywood
@@AlexDragonfire96 I just posted the full comment so people would see it in its proper context. While I personally view Marvel movies as garbage, it's easy to see that he did not intend his use of the word "nonsense" as a slight against Marvel. It wasn't praise, but nor was it a detraction. People are just eager to jump onto anything remotely resembling drama.
One of the best things about this film is that it wasn't fantasy, but the surreal and otherworldly scenes were actually a peek into the mindsets and experiences of the characters. And for them, there wasn't such a clear distinction between fantasy and reality that we have in the post-enlightenment era. These hallucinogenic and transcendent experiences were as real as anything for the characters, and so it's presented that way to the audience. The visions Amleth has (drug-induced or otherwise) were a fundamental part of how people in those times expeienced and understood themselves, others and the world around them. And Eggers lets us experience that first hand.
One of the many reasons this movie was so awesome.
The visuals were breathtaking, the characters were nuanced. This wasn’t a heroic tale, and the movie made it clear from the moment we saw Amleth as an adult. And the understanding how Fjolnir was no longer any kind of king, just a man merely hanging on to what is left of his loyal followers, and family, just sunk that point in further. It was uncomfortable at times, but damn if it wasn’t completely compelling! It was a gem in this creatively dry time for movies.
Did you play with yourself while watching this?
Reek, naw man. We invited your mom over.
@@jjones797 Did you use a condom?
It was a heroic tale, but not a classical western cinema hero. He was the hero of the story, but like most norse stories, that doesn't at all mean he's a "good" person.
@@brigandboy1425 I mean, kinda. My only knowledge of Norse stories comes from mythology stories. And I always took them to be highly metaphorical rather than literal. Take for instance the story of Thor's first encounter with the world serpent, the giant who manned the boat was killed by Thor for simply trying to save his life. But giants represented chaos, so in that sense, it was heroic of Thor to spit in the face of chaos trying to get in the way of a glorious battle. It wasn't meant to be a human-on-human interaction. I think this movie needs to be taken much in the context of a story like that, instead of literally. In my original comment, I was going at it with a mindset of classical western archetypes, but from a Norse perspective, yeah it's a metaphorical story through and through. Or maybe I'm wrong and it was meant to be taken at face value, and Norse culture really was so harsh that Thor killed a giant for cutting the rope because it was not okay to save everyone's life.
I remember reading an article defending the Eternals. The writer said the people giving it negative reviews missed the point and it was good. He didn't mention plot, character development or anything. All he mentioned was representation. He never answered the question, "Is the story good?" It's good to hear that our entertainment industry can still put out a compelling story on rare occasions. I wasn't really interested in this movie because I think the viking thing is kind of played out. This review changed my mind. I might go ahead and see it in the theater.
@no way lol Indian man tricking people but they fail at it 🤣
@CCP Tube can't believe that the trailers made me pay to see that garbage
@@matthewk2501 Or the spirits whispering from all corners of the cinema during the initiation scene. Creepy.
Was hoping he’d give this exposure. The soundtrack was also insanely good. Saw it in a Dolby cinema theater. Was insane
I actually thought I was having a trip flashback during the cave king vision quest ceremony with Willem Dafoe chanting in the darkness lol.
Hurdy Gurdys are so cool
69 likes hehe
This movie exudes *Toxic Masculinity* in all it's forms.
Sound was amazing. I'll be honest the the constant scenes were everyone is screaming their face off got a tad annoying
why is no one talking about how good the soundtrack was for this movie!? All the deep bass throat singing, etc. Such an important part of the experience of the film.
Honestly Mr. Eggers is slowly becoming one of my new favorite film makers since he isn't afraid to take chances.
ua-cam.com/video/o-YBDTqX_ZU/v-deo.html&ab_ its finally here
The best director in hollywood right now IMO
And he knows where to take them, there's always a great payoff that justifies the risk.
One of the best in our present tbh
@@Astorath_the_Grim Damn, last time I checked Denis Villeneuve was still breathing.
‘The Witch’ by the same director is also definitely worth a watch! Less action, but similar artistic / dark style
Eggers is amazing. One of the very few directors I'll watch in the theater by default. Dude has the artistic vision and love of the art and hasn't sold out to the modern agitprop Hollywood system
My favourite horror film
Don’t you mean The VVitch?
Great movie
The Northman proves that good cinema can be as simple as having a half decent creative idea and the skills to use a camera right
I had mixed emotions on this movie at first. But compared to the absolute shit Hollywood has been putting out. The Northman is an absolute masterpiece of cinema.
it really is not :
it only disguise itself as an artistic movie with deep thoughts but when you really think about it - it is not a good movie at all .
and the fact that this is the worst era in the history of cinema and others are producing complete garbage
or that they perhaps portrayed vikings mythology and world somewhat more accurate than others does not change that .
i refuse to use "well yeah this is good because it is not so bad as the others" as an excuse or as redeeming quality .
the actors are cringe at times - the actor playing young amleth is terrible
(he is about as believable and immersed in his role that i expect him to pull out his iphone and take a selfie in the middle of doing his "northman impression")
the adult amleth supposedly in his mid 20s is played by an actor who is 20 years older than he should be and he gives me
" discount jaime lannister / n.c.waldaus stunt double during his captivity faze with brienne" vibes .
the best part/acting of the movie is nicole kidman revealing the true nature of her character and pulling out some shakespearean/oidipus level tragedy s...t on us -
that was actually really good and caught me off guard ,
because the rest of the movie was pretentious , self serious , boring s..t .
happy i was not in the theatre to see this one .
i usually agree with drinker 95% of the time , but on this one i just can´t .
the northman is only trying to fool everyone into thinking that it´s a good movie .
@@darkglobe406 I saw it purely on the grounds that I trust the Drinker. I was bored almost throughout the entire film. I watched Dune today, which I really enjoyed. The Northman, like Dune, had beautiful scenery, but the characters and dialogue were so cliched. I've no idea why people rave about it -maybe I'm just getting old.
@T Mac Exactly! It felt like a tragedy.
@@darkglobe406 I just watched and I agree, the OP is just another sheep who goes by what the Critical Drinker tells him to. It was ok, but not some masterpiece 😆
@@darkglobe406 I wish I had seen this comment before I tried to watch it. I got 28 mins in and gave up.
I loved how they didn't shy away from showing how brutal the times and culture of the Vikings were. You see them gleefully killing women and children and sacking villages - because that is a big part of what Vikings did.
no ray-pe though, they're still pretending that didn't happen
which is PC
@@seabreeze4559 No. They make it pretty clear that it's happening. Crystal clear in fact. They just don't actively show it on screen.
In the Seventies, a shampoo commercial used their savagery towards women as a joke!
That is a big part of what almost any culture did. lol.
@@FromtheHerts81 I would love to see that commercial.
I just rewatched The Witch last night after seeing The Northman last week. Eggers has a knack for making an "artsy" movie, without making you think it's an art house movie. Same with The Lighthouse. I saw a lot of people thinking that this was supposed to be some epic action movie set to Norse historical/mythical ideas, and I was asking people if they've ever seen any of Eggers work. If you're expecting a Michael Bay style action film, you'll likely be disappointed. If you like good story, and great cinematography, you'll like this movie.
I was expecting an action movie and honestly I'm glad I got this, it just utterly blew me away
A simple premise, executed beautifully. The score was stirring, the visuals were incredible, a great deal of historically authenticity, and absolute brutality. Also some well done moral ambiguity. The movie didn’t need to hold your hand and lead you to it. This movie absolutely amps you up as you get to commune with a part of you that daily life and polite society obscure from you. I was buzzing leaving the theater and I will be seeing it again.
In my opinion this is what cinema is supposed to be. A captivating tale that can allure you and wrap you in it's story, and even at times change your perspectives. This is what alot of movies today are missing.
Or it takes you nowhere. It’s either really bad or really good depending on who watches it. I am in the former partyz
@@roguewasbanned4746 Yeah, I like drinker and can certainly appreciate the craftsmanship of the movie, but it was a snooze fest for both me and my wife.
@@roguewasbanned4746 I have to agree. This movie didn't work for me at all.
@@roguewasbanned4746 well my guy, sometimes, it do be like that
I'm honored to have witnessed this masterpiece on the big screen! Definitely was overlooked, don't sleep on this film peeps.
Only movie I watched at the theater in 2022. Great choice!
Something to also keep in mind specifically about norsemen and their Berserker traditions, is that prior to going to battle, they would typically partake in the consumption of various mushrooms and other substances that would put them partially in a hallucinating trance, to blur the difference of their mind and reality to keep them fighting harder and believe themselves to be supernatural in their abilities - which they generally then turned out to become as a result (as in being able to overcome natural bodily functions and limitations and thus perform feats that would otherwise be impossible for a regular soldier to do.
So the whole idea of hallucinations and the blurred line between what is real and what exists solely as conjurings inside his mind, can be traced as a direct reference to how Berserkers lived and fought.
I like mushrooms too.
@@deraykrause4517 Great you are one step closer to being a Berserker. Now just go out and pillage some English settlements.
Funny enough, this is only half true..
Mushrooms *were* involved, definitely, but not in the way we used to think.
According to more modern research, it seems that one warrior was volunteered, and he consumed copious amounts of mushrooms and mead.. his buds only a little. Then, when old mate inevitably had to urinate, they did so in a large bowl, which was topped up with more mead or ale. His buds drank this.
The reason being, the amount of mushies needed for the feats described, would also make the bloke too sick and nauseous to do those things. Drinking his urine essentially used his body to filter out the bad stuff, while still getting the benefits.
Likely the OG usage of the term "pissed".. 😉
Mushrooms were explicitely involved in the movie too, I mean that's at least part of the reason for the hallucinations
Can you cite your sources where this has been proven? All of the scholarly educators I've found claim there is zero proof of this.
If you are thinking That the plot of this movie sounds a little familiar and that Amleth kind of sounds like Hamlet then you would be right.
The saga of Amleth, prince of Jutland is the direct inspiration for William Shakespeare's Hamlet. There was an earlier attempt to bring this
saga to the big screen in 1994 with Christian Bale as Amleth, but I guess "Prince of Jutland" wasn't a catchy enough title for an international audience
Not as catchy as Norseman.
God. Did every single person immediately watch the same 2-3 UA-cam videos leading up to this movie?
I swear you guys sound like parrots. “HAMLET!”, “AMLETH!”…”CAWWWW!”
Everyone fucking knows this at this point. Nobody will shut up about it. Christ 🤣
@@drawmelikeafrenchgirl I have a question: who's the sadistic bastard that forced you at gunpoint to read all those thousands of Hamlet comments?
@@drawmelikeafrenchgirl No, I didn't watch any UA-cam videos. I've known for decades.
@@mikeroman5208 Some people can read very quickly believe it or it, so while I’m swiping through comments repetitive words start to pop out at me. I’m sure it’s nice to spend 30 minutes combing a 100 character comment, but for people like me, we can skim over about 50 comments in 30 seconds.
So while nobody “forced” me to read any of them, it’s a ludicrous straw man argument to make and doesn’t - in any way - invalidate the fact that all of a sudden everyone overnight became experts in Hamlet (specifically) and Amleth.
Perhaps it’s just me though. I hadn’t read Hamlet in 20 years, and didn’t even draw comparisons to it while watching this movie, but I guess every other person here clung to every word of that play - just waiting for a moment like now to say “aCtuAlLy iTs jUsT lIkE hAmLeT!” to each other. That or they read the play annually for fun.
See, I’m the kind of person that is okay with admitting I don’t know every single thing immediately, and that when I don’t - I just Google it.
But hey, what do I know? 🤷🏻♂️ Maybe you all just like bursting into the comments with your favorite youtuber’s talking points and presenting them as your own thoughts? Or maybe every other person in here really just is an avid Shakespeare historian, but just with “Hamlet” of course.
Who knows? 🤣
Anna Taylor-Joy is beautiful, Bjork's Seeress is my favorite character in the film, and Nicole Kidman's character is not supposed to look like she belongs: she is not Norse -- she's a Breton from northwest Frankia (France) captured as a slave and brought to Iceland. IOW, they were all perfect for their roles.
Kidman’s plastic face detracted from her role though. I don’t know if anyone else noticed but she really doesn’t look natural anymore and wasn’t fully expressing with the Botox and fillers. It’s sad what this degenerate society pressures women to do these days and I hope it changes.
ATJ is a sexy space alien
Next to Skarsgard and Ethan Hawke's performances, Anya's performance was absolutely wonderful to watch!
@@cringeproof100 She looked awful on Nine Perfect Strangers though. Like ugggh!
ATJ is such a lovely lady, Nicole is good actress, but looks unnatural.
Very good film. Looks incredible in person and the moral ambiguity of the plot makes it a fine art.
The mere fact that the director didn't attempt to "diversify" the movie or push "the message" was enough to win me over from the beginning.
This is an antiwhite movie that portrays the vikings as evil, filthy subhumans. You'd NEVER see non-White cultures portrayed in this way.
As the horses broke the hilltop - you could see the pride flags waving in the wind. 😂
I don't think this is a good reason to like a movie. Don't get me wrong, a lot of movies these days push an agenda and create poor stories and characters as a result, but to say you knew you were going to enjoy it purely because of this is indicative of a deeper problem. There have been great movies with diverse casts, and bad movies that didn't try to push an agenda. I'm not saying this film wasn't good, but I am saying that whether the film did or didn't push an agenda shouldn't be the primary reason to enjoy it.
@@Drengodr To be clear, I didn't say I was going to enjoy it because it didn't push diversity, etc. What I meant is I respect the director and was more willing/excited to see it since the director wasn't trying to push the same narratives down the audience's throat compared to a large majority of other movies made today.
@@imsteph21 That's definitely fair. At this point, I'm just worried that the hyperfocus on this sort of thing is giving people on the other side of the line ammunition. It's fine to point out an agenda as a potential reason why a movie failed, but because such things can almost always be traced back to badly written characters and plot elements, I'm not sure it's necessary. I understand the sentiment, but when it can so easily be misconstrued as bigotry it becomes ultimately unhelpful.
Since you already watched Cowboy Bebop, might wanna try Vinland Saga. It's also about Vikings. Good cast, great antagonist and good narrative. It's a pretty good story. Despite being made in Japan and being an anime, it managed to have more historical accuracy than most western shows
It’s kinda sad that Japan manages to portray the Viking culture more accurately than the west, where the Vikings came from.
I worked with Mr Skarsgard on the tv series The Stand in 2019. I remember asking what he had coming up afterwards and he mentioned a “Viking project that he’s really excited for.”
I couldn’t be more pleased with the end result and his performance. He is a seriously kind man and he deserves praise for this movie.
If The Stand was an adaptation of the Stephen King novel, then its timing was painfully ironic.
@@FromtheHerts81 the very same
Love this comment!
The Stand reboot was a letdown as well. The casting was so potential...and then again not...
@@castle0417 I absolutely agree. Some of the cast did an amazing job and did their best with the material given. But we had Amber Heard and Ezra Miller … and well…. Can imagine how that was.
I really liked that they did a good job at telling a very historically accurate film about a story that is grounded in Norse mythology pretty well. They even resisted doubling down on the classic Hollywood love story that viewers love so much in exchange for a tale that stayed true to the Norse virtue of dying well.
My biggest complaint with the film was the flattening of the supernatural it engaged in. The Drinker claims that the film remains unclear about whether what is happening is supernatural or not, but I disagree. Every major scene that had some supernatural element critical to the plot was (sometimes immediately) followed up by another scene that proved that it wasn't all happening for real. For instance, Amleth gets saved by some crows from a fatal situation in one scene, only for the audience to discover that he was actually saved by another character. In another scene he battles an undead villain just moments before it's revealed that the battle never actually happened and it was all in his head.
Admittedly, other parts of the film seemed to engage in some supernatural activity that wasn't watered down. Like when one character seems to be control the wind by prayers to the nature gods, and a couple times where Amleth has visions that influence his decisions in important ways. But none of these seem particularly important to the plot. Even Amleth's obsession with fate is made somewhat irrelevant by the main plot twist.
Heck, Amleth's sabotage of Fjolnir - one of the most significant sections of the film - involves Amleth causing mayhem within Fjolnir's settlement in natural albeit clever ways while the people constantly suspect that the mayhem is being caused by demons and the gods. The movie almost seems to be mocking religious belief at this point as mere fanciful superstition, only to tease the value of such beliefs within Amleth's character himself, especially regarding prophecy. It's a weird synthesis where the supernatural is valued only at the psychological level, but never to such an extent as to entail real-world meaningful consequences.
I thought the combination of supernatural elements with realistic reasons for them happening was actually a strength, not a take away. I looked at it as showing how an actual Northman, with belief in Norse mythology, would view the things happening to him. Even though there were realistic reasons for everything, Amleth is obviously a follower of Norse Mythology, so of course he (And by extension us as the audience) would see them from that lense.
I also think it ties in well with the themes of losing innocence and not everything being as it seemed. Just like how Amleth thought he was saving his mother, when really she was the one who orchestrated the whole thing, Amleth also views himself as a viking hero of legend going on an epic quest, battling undead Kings and riding with Valkyries. In reality, its not the case. Just like how Fjornir isn't a King, but just some asshole on a hill.
And what I think is the real magic of this story is that, despite all the fantastical elements not being real, despite his heroic quest not seeming to be so, he still accomplishes it. He kills his Uncle one-on-one in battle, making sure his own two children are safe from retribution, extending the tree, and dies with a sword in his hand, avenging his father, and goes to Volhol. Despite it all, it still ends as a Norse Saga. Absolutely beautiful imo.
I hate everything that comes out in cinemas. Except this. This movie is good. Watch the Lighthouse first. Symbols, omens, dreams, rituals and violent theatre verging on horror are all at play here. You’re in good hands and with “Northman” the director clearly enjoys telling the story he has for you.
Refreshing.
The Witch was good as well. The Lighthouse was a fever dream. Excellent filmmaking
is there a reason i should watch the lighthouse first? it sounds entirely uninteresting to me, but this northman one seems up my alley, though i stopped this show at 1 minute to prevent spoilers, so i don't know what expectations were subverted yet.
What kind of personality disorder does Queen Gudrun most embody? She seems to hide it well most of the time. But when she drops the mask, boy does she...
Lighthouse is free on Prime right now. I watched it a few days before. It's good to get the vibe, eggers really does have a unique visual language.
I watched the Lighthouse because it got recommended online a lot and it featured Willem Dafoe and Robter Pattinson wich I consider as good actors. But I didn't get the movie at all. The acting was good, especially from Dafoe, but I felt there was no plot, no goal, nothing except a fucking weird ass movie that grossed me out. It felt like what I imagine being on acid feels like.
This movie was phenomenal on every level. storytelling, cinematography, pacing, everything
Haven't watched it yet nor this video, but I'm excited now.
OwO
@no way Not clicking
What made the cinematography phenomenal?
Daily mail showed how this movie is liked by white supremacists.
I can't wait to see his take on the vampire. Hoping he'll take them back to the terrifying, hideous monsters they were at the start.
@gilbert godfrey so you casually justify murder, think vicious killers of the night are better than your relatives and are not excited for shows about evil vampires. You’re relatives are either evil or you might just be a violent person who your relatives don’t like thus making you see them as mean
The witcher 3 type vampire monsters would be cool
I want 30 Days of Night sort of vampires again
Oh oh sh- *tyler one scream* WHOOOOOAH
@gilbert godfrey hahahahhahahaha you have no f hashtag clue.
anyone who enjoyed this movie and would give anime a chance should totally try watching vinland saga. 10/10 would recommend
Silly as hell, but would 100% recommend
@@dwarfwithinternetaccess yeah, but the last episode of the first season was extremely good.
Robert Eggers is a breath of fresh air, every time.
Northman was incredible.
100 percent. Can't wait to see what he does next.
It was brutal but very good
@Colin it was not brutal, it was not a good movie, and I fell asleep during it.
The movie is great yes. It is intensly and beautifully well shot and the story isn't bad either. Yes we have to support more movies like these and yet I was kinda disappointed with this film. This is by fat Eggerts worst film, still being great. For me it was way to violent. I do know and understand that it belongs to the story and to the lives the people lived at that time and yet for me it felt like the first hour was the best part of the film and the second hour kinda fell flat.
Go watch it anyway but it didn't subvert my expectations in a good way. I kinda thought the movie didn't really have much to offer from a different point of view.
@@Leprutz
I agree. It was violent, but Eggers never compromises for historical accuracy.
The ritualistic slaughter/pillaging/slavery was extremely uncomfortable to watch.
But it was an accurate portrayal, and something that is sorely needed in mainstream media. It fuels the veins of historians everywhere.
If you like this then I would highly recommend the anime "Vinland saga" which also tells a subversion on the revenge story set during the Viking period that has a great story, plot and themes with multi layered characters and historical accuracy. It's about a boy who's father is killed by another Viking and ends up following him around, seeking to get revenge by defeating him in an "honorable warriors duel". Vinland saga is remarkably grounded for an anime series and has no shortage of brutal realistic violence. I could not recommend it enough.
Vinland Saga is unreal, you're bang on the money about it sharing the subversion of the vengeance story trope, can't wait for season 2.
I'd love for drinker to try some anime out if he hasn't already, the medium is so full of very high quality stuff
I also like, how it's a saga, so not completely historical but with some mythical/legendary stuff in it. That made it possible for Thorkel to be an absolute beast and a marvel to watch.
Didn't expect to find fellow Vinland Saga fans on this channel. I would absolutely recommend the manga too if you're interested in that type of media (although it does head in a slightly different direction from what you're used too by the anime)
Right, now it's arriving the 2nd season, it's sad that for a realistical Viking saga we had to trust Japan!😢
I heard that the 2nd season is more about character development and much slower paced than the first season, with less action. That's just from a UA-cam preview, not from my own judgement
The Northman is the first movie I’ve seen in a very long time that I remember each and every scene from. I really can’t recommend it enough. The story isn’t a grand, overarching story deciding the fate of the universe, and that is great. Back in the day that might be a plus but in this day and age the fact that this movie has the sense to just tell a normal story focusing on a single, well developed character is a god send.
Yeah. It's all superhero bullshit now.
Where I could find and the watch the film
I feel you but this movie is just plain weird and imo bad. I wouldn’t pay money to go see it in theaters at all. 2+ hours of nonsense
@@byus6928 Tell me you have an IQ of 40 without telling me you have an IQ of 40.
No reprezentayshun though? Where the wogz?
One of the best movies I've watched in a long time. Glad to see the Norse mythology depicted with full expression
what a crazy time we live in where movies about superheros who can literally do anything and bend the forces of reality to their will are boring and a film about vikings is imaginative😂
Because it’s one of the few movies that has something new instead of “the message”
@@marcar9marcar972 What's the message? And why are you against the message?
@@blackalien6873 go away now
@@blackalien6873 they get all butthurt about LGBT or whatever. Sad ppl.
@@blackalien6873 "the message" is bad, they tried to pretend to hide the negative of "the message."
Came here after watching in theaters. Dude I'm still speechless, I got in my car and drove home with the radio off just thinking about what I just saw and I agree.. we do need more movies like this. Didn't know it was the same director from the Lighthouse but man it blew my expectations out of the water. Brutal and beautiful.
Go watch 'The VVitch' and 'The Lighthouse' by Eggers as well, then. Each time he does this thing where he hooks up a costume film with the zeitgeist mindset of the period, connects it to psychological group or relationship dynamics, social norms and supernatural beliefs and short-circuits these historical drama & psycho-thriller elements with a mythical horror flick ambience. If you are hooked on this type of genre-bending approach, by all means go for more. Each movie by Robert Eggers is unique in style, setting and theme.
The ritual scene before the battle had an awesome detail. The main worshipper, "lead singer" I might say, was an actual odinistic spear dancer! With the bird helmet and all. That is a real thing and depicted in many sources. Survive The Jive has a great video explaining the whole icon.
A minor correction: The Lighthouse was not inspired by vintage movies from the 50s. The style Eggers was trying to emulate with that film is german expressionism (1920s).
I recently watched this movie and all I can say is: *THIS MOVIE F**KING ROCKS!* This film felt like a massive love letter to Norse mythology and *HOLY SHIT!* it was amazing!
This movie fucked up so boring
Moive sucked
@Thor Odin son sorry your modern nanosecond attention span couldn't handle a little art. I found the film to be highly entertaining and the lack of dialogue allows you to focus on scenery as part of the story, not apart from it. Since the movie isn't pushing any sort of moral/ethical stance that modern films so often do, the characters seem somewhat distant or alien to us, as they are products of their time, not ours. This only adds to the feel of authenticity, with the vague nature of his visions providing both mystery and subtle foreshadowing.
@@fragilehandlewithcare3967 Green Knight has nice visuals but it was awful. The new Dune sucked because it was boring, had awful cinematography and little to no action.
@@ruse8509 That's your opinion.
Finally found the time to see this yesterday. Movie ended up being a lot more psychedelic than I expected but ultimately it was an experience I was glad to have.
The movie truly does feel epic, the whole while it was reminiscent of Shakespeare, and ancient Greek myths. The twists, the tragedy, the nebulous supernatural elements, even some of the more poetic dialog was all positively epic.
This movie dared to have white people in it. This incredibly rare display of antiracism must be supported. The Tribe wants whites gone from cinema and streets. Let us instead simply say no.
Actually it's the other way around Shakespeare's Hamlet was inspired by Amleth
It only felt unintentionally funny. How did you not die of laughter during the pretending to be dogs scene?
If you want more films like this, make sure you support this one.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on "Everything Everywhere All At Once." That was one risky film!
Loved it.
Second this. Definitely want a Drinker Review of "Everything Everywhere All At Once"
👍👍
Absolutely LOVED that movie
Don't waste your time asking for a review. This guy got the "I'm special" virus.
The more I think about the movie the more I think it's a masterpiece. This should be added to film schools to show what a good character arch is. From seeking revenge out of rage and hatred to looking at the bigger picture and thinking of the greater good made this a perfect example of why modern cinema has become so shallow
Sadly it really isn't, u should always guess what happenes next in a movie, but in this one u can predict every scene, motivation and plot its not even funny anymore..
@@mischiii6076 lmao I'm willing to bet my arm that you haven't seen the movie
100%
@@mischiii6076 Bull*hit. You can´t predict even if there is a shaman literaly describing (in "cryptic" medieval terms) what will happen because the main character had a chance to ignore what she foretold, he just decided to fulfil the prophecy because that is how people were thinking during the medieval times.
@@bmbm1 I´m willing to bet my money she saw the trailer, got outraged because of lack of "representation" and started to badmouth it everywhere. :D
You mentioned Conan the Barbarian as a possible inspiration for this movie, but actually the story of Amleth is the "original" one (there are some versions of it), being also the inspiration for the Shakespeare's Hamlet tragedy 👍🏻
Also a bit of Macbeth (the "cant escape your fate" theme)
Pretty sure he knew which way around it was.
Robert E Howard indeed more likely used the original Amleth story rather than the Shakespeare Hamlet as inspiration for Conan, albeit with a heavy dose of pseudo archaeological mystery added in (Conan's sword is from Atlantis).
I wish they'd do a proper Conan movie. Swartz was all wrong, and the movie just didn't make it for me. I had been a childhood fan since long before the movie and was very disappointed. Weak, just "product".
While the story didn’t grab me like it did most of you, I have to say this was one of the best looking films I’ve seen in a long while that didn’t rely on much of any CGI trickery. Eggers is a tour-de-force and, while The Northman isn’t a film I feel compelled to watch over and over (a lot like The Lighthouse), I’m glad I watched it and will be watching his career with great interest.
Yeah I found it really boring, nearly walked out. But I can’t deny how great the cinematography is.
Agree. Thin story. Acted and shot amazingly well though.
It’s an adaptation of Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum, direct inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Eggers included tropes of Macbeth as well, and he’s the only contemporary director that treats the classics so reverently.
This reads like a 💩post. I can't believe that everything you wrote is true
😂
When I heard the Drinker say the main character's name, I thought it sounded like Hamlet (I guess it's Amleth??) and was wondering if it was intentional -- especially after the part saying his Uncle killed his father to get his kingdom and the mother. The allusions to the difficult choices and psychological drama made this more possible. Alas, there seems to have been no Laertes in this story.
When I walked into the movie I expected Braveheart and some big dramatic battles. What I got was a grounded revenge tale that was on a smaller level and it was much more believable. The cinematography was incredible. Such brilliant visuals that I won't soon forget. The violence when it did happen was in par for someone who can deliver the type of violence that a bezerker can. All in all I loved it. This is a movie we all should support. Whether you like it, love it or are somewhat disappointed you will not feel like you wasted time. At the end of the day we won't be getting many(or any) movies like this very often so let's show Hollywood that we want more then just marvel movies.
I went to see this on a whim one night in Belfast, where many scenes were filmed. Singlehandedly restored my faith in modern cinema.
Nicole Kidman looks like she doesn't belong because she isn't from there, she was a trophy from England
That's not what he said.
Loved The Northman, a film that shows how you truly 'subvert expectations,' you know what I mean if you've seen it.
The Lighthouse was amazing, but his best is still The Witch. Staggering debut....
That third act was one of the most powerful cinematic experiences I've had in a very long time. When certain truths were uncovered and the entire film up to that point was totally re-contextualized, I was absolutely floored, emotionally. And that final fight scene was a true stunner in every conceivable way.
What a film, man.
This movie was genuinely one of the first movies in the past 2-3 years that I liked progressively more after leaving the theater rather than disliking it more and more after thinking about it.
The best movie I’ve seen this year. Waited to watch this review until I saw it. Watched it a couple days ago and it blew me away. Robert Eggers is definitely one of the best directors of our time and I can’t wait to see what he does next.
By chance I watched Egger's "The Witch" (also featuring Anya Talor-Joy) and found it very entertaining. The cast and overall scale are small and it very much works in favor of the movie.
Yea that movie was good yet underrated
One of my favorite movies.
The Northman was Eggers' first real film with scale (The VVitch follows a small New England family in the mid-17th century and The Lighthouse literally just has Dafoe and Pattinson on an island for 100 minutes) and he proves without a shadow of a doubt that he's up to the task of taking an uncompromising, immersive vision and scaling it upward to near-blockbuster status. I sincerely hopes it makes its money back as this is one of the few film productions I've seen in a while in which everyone absolutely deserves it. Eggers is clearly a master of his craft already, despite only having made 3 films. I can't wait for his next project.
'The VVitch' is amazing.
The Witch, for me is the most disturbing horror I've seen in the last 20 years. It played on the imagination wonderfully well. I didn't know Eggers directed it until it crossed my mind when I saw the actor who played the Father from the Witch.appeared as the sailor giving passage.. With Anja Taylor Joy in it also I thought..maybe it's the same director.
We need more Viking media like The Northman and Vinland Saga, rather than the “Netflix Adaptation” version of this time period which just makes it look like a joke.
I thought the first couple of seasons of 'Vikings' was great and Ragnar Lothbrok is one of best tv show characters of the past decade.
Ah yes, Vinland Saga. One of the best things that I've ever watched in 2020, and way better than the overrated and bloated Demon Slayer.
Ahh yes, the saga of Blackthane Wokesdottir. Who can forget that one.
Imagine a Vinland saga Netflix adaptation 💀
@@sonicdash9652 Demon slayer is still enjoyable. It’s more focused on spectacle though which isn’t a bad thing necessarily
It's insane the way certain sections of the media are actually denouncing The Northman as Nazi, white supremacist, etc. The director even said he was reticent about going there with the viking stuff in case such people latched onto it. Truth is, the film is simply honest, uncompromised, and historically accurate, and if certain people are embracing it particularly hard then that's not the film's fault; it's because it bucks the trend of awkwardly-inserted "diversity" mandates that have denied them, for a decade or more, films that simply reflect their history and culture. It wouldn't be such a focal-point if it wasn't such a rarity.
Rightly, the question ought to be: how did we ever reach a point where a film set in Northern Europe in 914AD can actually be accused of racism for "failing" to shoehorn in people of sub-Saharan African descent?
Or the fact other directors are too lazy to make a film of African, Asian, or Middle Eastern culture instead of relying on European mythologies? Like there is so much untapped potential and sources they can draw from yet they do absolutely nothing to represent the cultures instead of shoehorning diverse people into an out of place setting.
@@toledochristianmatthew9919 Exactly. I'm a fan of what's (disparagingly, imho) called "world cinema" and when I watch a film that's Japanese, Russian, Brazilian, or whatever, it's because I want to be immersed for 2 hours in a culture that's not my own. I want it to reflect the culture that birthed it, not to reflect the same 21st Century urban racial mix that's right outside my door and available anytime.
Yes, it would be good to see Hollywood take some risks and bring us stories we haven't seen a hundred times before, like, as you say, African, Asian, or Middle Eastern stories.
And, if they did, I'd actively WANT the casting in those films to be appropriate to the time and place, for the immersion factor. They don't need to stick out-of-place white people in it just to make me feel "included."
@@blatherskite3009 i bet my ass that the reason holywood does not make movies of other cultures and races as often as it should is because of the structural racism thing... that shit it the talking point of some annoying people but it still is real as fuck even more prevalent than the individual personal racism nowadays... if majority of people were interested in those other stories from different cultures than the european and north american we could have more cool different movies
@@galahadgalaaz2568 the main reason they don’t make such movies is that they don’t make as much money. Turns out a lot of white people also like to see people like them in movies and tend to ignore movies that don’t include them. For the longest time, Will Smith couldn’t be cast with another Black lead, especially romantic leads, because audiences would treat it as a “black people” movie, and it wouldn’t get the same returns.
It turns out “the message” isn’t so much about inclusion as it is about trying to lure more people in to make more money. Sometimes, though, it’s so clumsy and obvious that it repels the very people it tries to attract while also repelling historical/source material purists and racists/bigots. To be clear, I’m not accusing purists of being racists/bigots. They’re just both groups that don’t like seeing PoC in fiction where they’re out of place.
dude, give proof before saying things like that
I eagerly anticipated this film from its announcement but unfortunately didn't get a chance to see it in theatres. I just watched it yesterday on blu ray and god damn it was worth the wait. Incredibly well made and performed. I really hope that the box office performance doesn't hurt Robert Eggers career as he is exactly the type of director we so badly need right now.
"Weird but in a good way" about sums her up in every movie she's in.
I don't like Kidman and that other girl. They are always the same and have absolutely no charisma.
I was pleasantly surprised by the lighting and cinematography. The vision scenes were some of my favorite moments in the film. The valkyire scenes gave me chills and are some of my favorite scenes in cinema. Absolutely stunning. And the last scene of the valkyrie riding him on her horse to Valhalla almost moved me to tears. Was just a stunning film and will be owning this on bluray.
Yeah I can't wait for the bluray either, as you say the lighting and cinematography are superb, with fantastic tracking shots, it's dark and gritty but with great use of colour, I like how bright everything is when they're on the boat about to escape, as if the gods themselves are showing him how he could have a wonderful future, until his fate steps in, I almost shouted no stay on the boat lol
I thought the last scene - well, scenes - took away from the movie as a whole. As Drinker says, as the movie goes along, it shows that there's some moral complexity, amorality, and even immorality, in the protagonist. Then he fights next to lava like he's Obiwan or Anakin, and goes traipsing off to Valhalla like a righteous, victorious warrior, not the vengeful loser abandoning his wife and unborn children to fight and die for the non-existent honor of a long-dead and abusive father, against someone who lost their kingdom long ago.
@@calmbbaer He chose both kindness for his kin and hatred for his enemies. He knew Fjolnir would hunt him and his family down and kill them. He knew he would grow too old to protect his family one day, and his son's would suffer for the sins of the father.
@@PiracyandDumbbells - How is that even possible when he's in the younger generation? He could defend his family longer than his uncle could pursue them... if he could. Deprived of all his resources, I don't even see how the uncle could pursue him even if he lived forever.
@@calmbbaer The same way Amleth pursues him. You say that like Fjolnir can't bribe some men or pull some favors to have him killed. It doesn't matter the resources when it comes to revenge even if it took another 20 years he'd never stop hunting them.
Phenomenal film. I’m grateful to have witnessed such a masterpiece. I want to see more like this. No modern politics, unapologetic, not compromising. I love it.
This movie, The Batman, Sonic 2, Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Black Phone are doing good because they stay out of the political pool.
@@wiinterflowers4277 Well, The Batman did have that _one_ line, but I agree. And thanks for reminding me to watch EEAAO!
Hahahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha. No.
ngl man, this movie put me to sleep,
@@aneffortlesssmile "That one line" actually made sense considering who it was coming from but go ahead & look for things to be bothered by
I’ve lost count as to how many times I’ve seen this movie. It will forever be on my top movies list to continue to watch before I die.
It’s sad rn it’s not making that much money. This movie is one of my favorites in a long time and Robert Eggers yet again creates an amazing movie. The rituals, the culture, the mythology. It all came together so gracefully into a great film that illustrates that you don’t need some action packed balls to the wall movie for it to be good. Hopefully it starts picking up soon cuz I don’t want Eggers to shy away from these types of movies
If it had Marvels stamp it would be the white Black Panther lol
Another great movie that didn't make much money you should check out is "Upgrade" that movie was awesome
Today’s movie going audience is using it seeing nothing but a new superhero film come out every second week.
I cant go to the cinema because of a young kid but would fully support this movie. I might even pay to see it and not just stream it for free lol.
@@braxxian Duh, they're advertised well and don't need blood and nudity and brutality to attract an audience
I watched this movie with my wife, and during some of the “dancing naked in the woods” scenes i leaned over to her and said “your ancestors sure knew how to party back then”. Boy did they sure know how to pillage and fuck shit up too.
Yeah that’s so cool isn’t it 😒
@@hbsblkk3842 yes
@@bildo8053 really just a bunch of Pagan nonsense tbh.
The ones dancing in the woods were the Rus Slav slaves that were brought with Amleth, not the Norse/Vikings.
@@hbsblkk3842 Yes.
Robert Eggers is one of the directors that I always look forward to. The man has talent.
I watched this in theaters with my dad and it was awesome
This movie was incredible. I thought the vision sequences were overall pretty easy to determine what was real and what wasn't. The deaths are brutal, visceral, and grounded in reality. The whole movie feels very real, outside of the spiritual dip here and there. Even the reactions of the characters to some of the events in the movie seem realistic given the time period. It's like an epic short story etched on a glorious painting. The visuals are incredible. You will not be disappointed if you choose to watch this film.
Alexander skarsgard was a fucking beast in this film, in many ways literally.
He went from playing a vampire, to playing Tarzan, to taking down Godzilla and Kong, to this…..
Fun fact, he's originally almost casted as Thor before Chris Hemsworth. But then his dad Stellan Skarsgard is playing Dr Erik Selvig, Thor's scientist friend.
Glad there are still gems like this still coming out. Everything everywhere all at once was also another great indie that came out recently and also looking forward to watching The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Looks bonker and aweseome at the same time! lol
I loved The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Would highly recommend it.
This movie is a masterpiece! And probably the only movie that truly felt Norse to me, in feeling and mood, showing a more realistic view of that time period, but even more so getting into the mindset of people who believed their mythology was real and not fantasy, how it moved and motivated them. The cinematography was absolutely stunning and breathtaking, with an incredible cast. Robert Eggers is fast becoming one of my favorite film makers. We definitely need more movies and film makers like this!
Loved this movie, its very accurate in its depiction of Norse culture, language and mythology.
As accurate as one can be with oral traditions, some written down centuries after the actual events occurred.
Film does a good job with what source material it has ngl.
@@LazyLifeIFreak True. Even the original folk poem of Amleth is long lost.
That's good to hear. As much as I love shows like Vikings, it's very apparent they kind of beautified the culture. I'm looking forward to seeing something authentic.
Thank god the director didn’t f*ck it up just to please the SJWs and modern Feminists
@@saurk7 oooh, you sly man, you🤣
This was the first movie I've seen since Mad Max: Fury Road that I loved. To be fair, I rarely watch movies, but WOW was this good. Too bad its "underperforming" at the box office so the chances of more like this is nill.
Yea I was sad to see that because I loved this movie. A shame though I hope they don’t feel that they should deliver “The Message” to get more people to see it. The movie is nearly perfect the way it is. Simple story. Love it
@@djblue056 Loved almost every minute of this movie in cinema (was bit to long for my taste). Its a sad statement to our brain damaged idiocracy society that superhero movies earn more than double the amount of money at the box office while a grounded movie with a great insight into norse mythology failed at the box office. While watching Northman, for some seconds it sometimes felt like I was transferred to a different world (Valkyrie scene!!) and when I left the cinema, I left with many thoughts, questions and feelings.... you know, things a good movie does do you! Unlike a superhero movie where afterwards I always have the feeling to be dumber than before.
I’m glad it’s underperforming. It’s so overrated, especially compared to the vastly superior Fury Road.
We need more people to go out and support this movie.
why , so more people can support shit films?
The volcano fight scene, while silly was amazing.