Final Copy of Review
The Best Viking Movie Ever Made: A Review of The Northman
A
film that was recently released that I believe deserves a lot more praise and
has sadly lacked the amount of attention that it deserves is Robert Eggers
Viking epic, The Northman. Released in 2022 to high praise from critics it
sadly flopped in the box office and was met with a lot less praise by general
audiences. Unfortunately, this is true of almost all of Eggers major releases
so far however, I feel that The Northman in particular has been wronged the
most in the way that it was received by the majority of general audiences.
The brilliance of this movie can be attributed to four
major categories, the performances, the directing, the set design, and Eggers
passionate focus on historical accuracy. Beginning with the most surface level
and easiest to spot triumph of this film, the acting.
Each member of the cast is completely immersed in their
roles and at no point is that immersion dropped. There are some big names in
the cast, Ethan Hawke, Nicole Kidman, Willem Defoe, etc. And whereas sometimes
when you’re watching these actors you’ve seen dozens of times in dozens of
other movies simply read lines and phone it in, never truly feeling like actor
crossed over from themselves into their character, the complete opposite is
true for The Northman. While watching the movie I never felt like I was just
watching any of the actors just read their lines and leave it at that. Every
actor, even down to side characters are wonderfully performing their roles and
truly giving it their all, with the standout performances being the two leads
Alexander Skarsgård and Anya Taylor Joy. Skarsgård in particular is really
amazing. There are literally scenes of him foaming at the mouth, howling at the
sky, and fully embracing the emotion and rage of his character that is great to
watch throughout.
However, as great as an actor may be, the only way to
truly pull great performances out of them is through great directing, which
Eggers once again delivers. Robert Eggers has been one of the most impressive
new directors since releasing The Witch in 2016 and he continues to impress
with The Northman. Egger’s standout trait as a director is his devotion to
being as historically accurate as possible when crafting his films from all
aspects. Whatever time period he’s covering in his movies he’ll study relentlessly
to ensure that everything in his films will come as close as possible to the
reality of that time period. With the Northman you can see that in the
dialogue, set design, costumes, and props throughout the film and it really
adds a layer of authenticity that makes the film a lot more interesting to
watch. When you see a group of Vikings rowing on a large canoe in the film that
isn’t just some old looking boat being maneuvered by a pully system, it’s a
historically accurate Viking boat of the time that’s actually being rowed by
the actors inside of it. When you notice the type of jewelry and clothing that
the characters wear it isn’t just old timey clothes they got from a prop
department, it’s a very meticulously designed wardrobe made to be as accurate
as possible to what people during that time and in that part of the world would
actually wear. And all of these pieces of realness add to the experience of the
film and help support the acting, directing, etc.
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