The Northman Is an Honorable Failure
I wanted to love Robert Eggers’s follow-up to The Witch and The Lighthouse, but maybe a big-budget Viking saga just isn’t the right fit for a wonderful weirdo like him?
All through The Northman, it seems as if the Viking epic was directed by someone working in the style of Robert Eggers but without his ability to zero in on the specific shots and scenes to make a compelling vision of the past come alive. (Focus Features)
I was so looking forward to The Northman, I’m bewildered to report that it didn’t dazzle me, that I gazed on this Viking epic largely unmoved. A serious disappointment.
And I like Viking movies. If I can get decent longboats, berserker fights, vengeful slaves, axe-throwing, and the chilling moan of those crazy goat horns, I don’t even mind if stuff gets a little cheesy. Bonus points for Ernest Borgnine in The Vikings (1958) yelling “Odin!” as he leaps into a pit of ravenous wolves, sword in hand.
Possibly others don’t share my enthusiasm, since the film’s anemic release is generating reports on its dire failure with the public:
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