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The Northman is a film that I have not stopped thinking about since I saw it. The film takes a classic revenge story and adds artistic film elements that you would expect from a Robert Eggers project while also adding a significant amount of surrealism within the film’s narrative. More than anything, what is clear about The Northman is that Robert Eggers’ vision is fully realized no matter how strange and unusual the film is at times. His two previous films, The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019), both are surreal films that explore a certain atmosphere and mood. The Northman is no different, but it does have the biggest scale of any Eggers film. The Northman is a classic revenge tale similar to Hamlet and The Lion King at face value.
While the plot is straightforward, the film is also contrasted by surreal imagery and challenging visuals. The film demands that the audience challenges and analyzes these patriarchal systems that are so relevant in the world today. The film excels at this commentary and makes the audience deeply analyze toxic masculinity, which is relevant to all male protagonists in films with a revenge-driven narrative.
The film follows Amleth, the main protagonist, who is practically in every shot. Amleth is absolutely not a modern man placed into Viking times. His motivations and morality do not align with modern-day sensibilities. His choices make little to no sense to the audience, and they are not supposed to. Anytime he experiences what people in modern times would find meaningful such as love, he abandons it for his so-called journey and fate. Amleth is fascinating to the audience, but not because the audience wants to be him or emulate him. What is great about the motivations and structure of the character of Amleth is they are not those of traditional Hollywood heros.
Just as Eggers turns the conventional protagonist on its head, he also pushes the visuals to unconventional areas. Robert Eggers uses these visuals to illustrate all of the Norse mythology that he studied to make the film. The film was shot in Northern Ireland, which allows the filmmaker to involve stunning landscape shots. Also, while they do not populate the whole film, the battle scenes are an absolute spectacle to look at. Whether it be the tracking shots of Amleth in the first battle or the gorgeous production design in the final battle, it is evident that significant time and effort went into how the battles looked. The New Yorker called The Northman, “the most accurate Viking film of all time.”
The Northman is a film that uses the premise of a straightforward revenge tale but underneath the surface is much more than that. The commentary on toxic masculinity and hierarchy, the superb visuals, the outstanding performances, and the breathtaking production design all make the film worth seeing. The Northman is definitely not for everyone, but if you are at all interested in Viking films and want to see a conceptually and aesthetically unique movie, I would highly recommend you go see The Northman.
