The Northman (2022) Review

Where do I begin. I’ve been a massive fan of Robert Eggers since The Witch, but then I saw The Lighthouse and holy s***… so you can imagine my excitement about his next directorial entry The Northman. I even mentioned it as one of my most anticipated movies of the year on the British Film Buffs Podcast.

An action-filled epic that follows a young Viking prince on his quest to avenge his father's murder.

Writers: Sjon and Robert Eggers

Producer: Robert Eggers

Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama

The marketing for this movie has been phenomenal and I went to the cinema thinking I’m sure it won’t be that busy… So, I drove down to my local cinema and asked for 1 ticket to see that there was only 1 ticket left… I grabbed it and the cinema was packed and I was ready for the movie to begin. My anticipation was expecting a straight up Viking action revenge story as I’m sure most of my cinema were. Disclaimer… it wasn’t just that. There was more to it than that. The action and violence were not the main component of this movie. Yes, the vengeful story was the driving for the plot and leads to Amleths (Alexander Skarsgard) internal struggle towards the end of the movie. The Northman more explored the mythology and spiritualistic nature that the Vikings had and I thought it was really good but it just wasn’t what I expected and I don’t think other people did either as about 7 people left about an hour in.

This movie is exactly what I expected from Robert Eggers, it was fully of long takes. Maybe one of two shots in a scene and a genuine weird world that I feel only he could create. It was very art house and I enjoyed it but I partially think that is because I love movies. I don’t know if mass audiences will be on board with Eggers weirdness and slow and patient style but I hope they do.

The performances of everybody in this movie was absolutely phenomenal Anya Taylor Joy, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Willem Defoe were all great. But the two best performances come in Alexander Skarsgard (Amleth) the heir to the throne and Claes Bang (Fjolnir) the brother of the king.

I love how the script, and I’m assuming it was Robert Eggers influence, wasn’t above a fart joke. He always finds a way to sneak one in and it is still funny. The script was actually pretty good it flowed nice and every scene was investing and got me through the movie easily. The story felt similar as we have seen this kind of narrative before with Hamlet. The dialogue was a bit hit and miss it sometimes felt a bit too expositional but I can’t help but think that might have been some studio interference, at least I hope so as I’ve never seen dialogue so on the nose in an Eggers movie before.

The cinematography in this was unbelievable. The scenes at night were the most accurate depiction of filming at night that I have seen depicted on the big screen. Every shot captured the colour of moonlight perfectly and it made it feel like it was black and white. No idea whether it was colour graded to look that way but my gosh did it look fantastic. The ultra-wide shot of the settings of the night sky with the stars shining, holy s***. Another element of the cinematography was his use of one take. Now I’m sure everybody will think of the big battle scene as it was so greatly choreographed and coordinated but my favourite one take was the scene where Amleth goes to retrieve the sword. It was so mind boggling and I loved it.

I left the cinema feeling so confused it wasn’t at all what I expected but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now I know what to expect I want to see it again. Just don’t go in expecting to see a fully violent and action-packed movie but definitely worth going to watch on the big screen.

4/5.