Director Robert Eggers brings the Viking epic back to the big screen in a big, bold and bloody way with “The Northman,” starring Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard in a new retelling of the myth of Amleth, the Scandinavian legend that inspired Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Eggers, who made a splash with his first two films, “The Witch,” an intimate family drama about the horrors of pilgrims and patriarchy, and “The Lighthouse,” a black-and-white absurdist tale about two lighthouse keepers driving each other mad, is known for his historical research and attention to detail, and his meticulous approach to filmmaking has not changed despite the much larger scale, scope and budget of “The Northman.” Eggers assembled a team of Viking researchers, translators and archaeologists to help him craft what might be the most historically accurate Viking epic yet.
And is it ever epic, not only in terms of budget and bloodshed, but in the way that Eggers treats the material. In tackling the ancient saga of Amleth, Eggers collaborated with Icelandic poet Sjon on the screenplay to craft a tale of fate and fury from the oral tradition of Viking lore. “The Northman” is heavy-duty myth straight from the muck and the mud, told in song and ancient pagan ritual and hallucinatory cosmic visions. It is a story of the body, both strong and fragile, bodies as weapons, currency and symbols, and the importance of the bloodline, in death and in regenerating life, offering threads of connection between people and generations.
Young Amleth (Oscar Novak) witnesses the assassination of his father, King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke) at the hands of his brother, Fjolnir (Claes Bang), who kidnaps his mother (Nicole Kidman) for his bride. Amleth makes a desperate escape to the sea, repeating a mantra that seals his fate: “avenge father, save mother, kill Fjolnir.” In the Kingdom of Rus, Amleth grows into a wild berserker warrior (Skarsgard), pillaging villages and slashing throats clad in bear skins and little else. An opportunity presents itself, and he steals away to Fjolnir’s farm in Iceland disguised as an enslaved man in order to enact his revenge. On the boat, he meets a young Slavic maiden, Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy), a witch who will assist in his journey to meet his fate.
