When I saw that writer/director Robert Eggers had a new movie coming out, a Viking revenge movie of all things, I knew if nothing else, it was going to be weird. This is the man who gave the world both The Witch and The Lighthouse. Both of those are well-made, weird horror movies where the more normal of the two involves a family being seduced one by one by Satan in the form of a large goat. And considering these were his first two movies, if he can keep that level of quality up, he’ll continue to make well-made and weird movies.
His latest, The Northman, is not really a horror movie, though it does have some horrifying moments. So, what happens when he steps away from horror ever so slightly?
In the year 895 AD, Prince Amleth (Oscar Novak) is happy to see his father King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke) return from another raiding season. Aurvandill was injured badly and takes his son off to go on something like a vision quest to get the boy ready to some day rule in his father’s stead. But moments after leaving the temple, Aurvandill is attacked and killed by his illegitimate half-brother Fjolnir (Claes Bang). Amleth barely gets away, but he swears he will avenge his father, rescue his mother Queen Gudrun (Nicole Kidman), and kill Fjolnir for what he’s done.
Years pass, and Amleth grows into a brutal berserker (now Alexander Skarsgard), and he learns that not long after Fjolnir took his father’s throne and wife that he was forced off the land by a mightier king and set up a small farm colony in Iceland. Amleth figures the only thing to do is sneak in with a group of slaves headed for Fjolnir’s territory. The only ally he has is a Slavic sorceress and fellow slave Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy), but Amleth has dedicated his life to hating Fjolinir, and now that he has a lead and a prophesy or two to guide him, he’ll have his revenge or die trying. However, things are not what they seem, and he may even be able to find peace if he can find a way to love instead of hate.
If this story sounds somewhat familiar, the film is based off the legends that eventually morphed into William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I mean, “Amleth” is just “Hamlet” with the “H” at the end of the name instead of the beginning. However, I think it is safe to say that Eggers, here working with a script co-written by Icelandic writer Sjón, has yet to create a protagonist that comes across as moral or sympathetic. Taylor-Joy’s heroine in The Witch isn’t too far off, but that may be simply because she’s the most sympathetic member of her exiled family. Amleth is a violent man, and what few standards he sets will no doubt be set aside at one point in time or another. If anything, the movie actually does an outstanding job of making Amleth a more questionable figure. Should he get revenge? It’s not like there’s a nonviolent or pleasant character in this movie to root for. It’s a violent movie set in a violent time in a violent world.
But it is a compelling movie. Yeah, there are some weird moments, and there are times when the more, shall we say, supernatural elements are set up in a way to make the audience wonder how many of these things are actually happening and how many are a dream sequence or a product of a drug trip or something. But what made the movie really work for me was that what was set up as a simple revenge story becomes something more as Amleth is forced to contend with the idea that maybe his world view is far too simplistic for the world he lives in. It means the tragedy of Amleth is not the tragedy of Hamlet, but it is still very much a tragedy of a man who arguably learns what life really is when it is far too late.
Grade: A-
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