“The Northman” is the newest addition to critically acclaimed director Robert Eggers’ filmography.
Eggers has mostly done horror films in the past with such highly regarded films as 2015 film “The Witch” and 2019 film “The Lighthouse”, but with the recent release of “The Northman”, Eggers is approaching this viking historical epic and excels at everything it tries to accomplish.
From a director who has always been excellent with visual storytelling, in addition to writing, “The Northman” is no exception and in some ways I would even consider it Robert Eggers’ best film. For starters, “The Northman” is a gorgeous movie to die for in every scene, no matter what is portrayed.
Whether it’s the arrival of a king in his kingdom, a brutal raid on a village or a great battle on the slopes of a volcano; it seems undermining for the movie to say it’s nothing less than a spectacle.
Right next to the visuals, with aspects worth acknowledging, are the performances as well as the soundtrack. There doesn’t seem to be a bad performance from the cast, whether you’re talking about the lead roles of Alexander Skarsgard, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, and Claes Bang or the more minor roles like Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe.
In fact, some of my favorite showcases of acting in the story come from the more minor character roles of Hawke and Dafoe, but also even extras in the sequences, like the raid I mentioned, where the one can feel the terror and distress that the locals feel.
The soundtrack, composed by Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough, is filled with sounds synonymous with Nordic culture that manage to evoke emotions that can calm you down or tense you up one minute and the next make you want to run through a brick wall. and go to battle.
One area that I would say the film may be slightly lacking in is the writing department. While I’d still say the writing and the plot work well for what Eggers is trying to achieve and by general standards it’s good writing, I don’t feel like the writing was necessarily at the height of his previous film, “The Lighthouse”. . At a time when Hollywood seems to be making an abundance of remakes, franchises, and comic book movies, 2022 seems to be giving us a much-needed breath of fresh air for original movies.
“The Northman” is easily a personal favorite movie and one of the best I’ve seen in recent years. I highly recommend going to see “The Northman” as soon as possible before it leaves theaters. It feels like a cinematic experience that won’t be done justice if you don’t see it in theaters.
