*WARNING: This blog contains spoilers from The Northman*
In a world where aliens and superheroes control cinema, this tale rises above mainstream movie-standards to give the audiences an experience unlike any other. The Northman tells the story of Amleth, a young viking warrior who witnessed his uncle muder his father to assume control of their clan, as he makes it his life’s mission to seek vengeance and restore honor to his fallen family. This film does follow some of the same motifs as other revenge stories, but the cinematography and it’s obscureness helped The Northman stand on its own as a welldone period piece. To make things even more interesting, this movie was inspired by Shakespere’s Hamlet.
Plot Summary
The movie opens with meeting Amleth as a child, and we are introduced to the kingdom that his father rules. After watching a weird “royal initiation” for Amleth, he watches his dad get murdered by his uncle to claim the title of king, which forced him to leave his home and vows to get revenge for his family. Years pass, a much older Amleth has grown into a powerful warrior, which was gloriously displayed with a gortastic fight scene!
After the grueling battle, Amleth encounters a witch who tells him he’s part of some kind of prophecy about venturing back to his home to restore his family’s honor. He then learns of a slave boat heading back to his home in Iceland, and the slave mongols aim to strike a deal with Fjolnir, Amleth’s uncle/father’s killer. He takes this as his last chance at revenge, so he disguises himself as a slave and sneaks onto the boat. On the boat he mets Olga, a slave who immediatley sees through Amelth’s disguise and takes interest in him. He tells her that he plans to kill the viking king of the settlement they are being dragged to, and she decides to help him.
Once arriving at the settlement, neither his uncle Fjolnir nor Amelth’s mother, who is now Fjolnir’s wife, recognized him. This allowed him to plan in the shadows, and this involved searching for a mythical sword that only unsheathed at night, Amelth gaining favor/trust from Fjolnir, mutilating the bodies of Fjolnir’s warriors to instill fear, and then spiking their food supply with a manic drug with help of Olga to cause a distraction so he can save his mom. During the manic food night, Amelth revealed himself to his mom in hopes of helping her escape, but his mom reveals that she’s inlove with Fjolnir and shee orchaestrated his father’s murder! It turns out Amelth’s mom was originally his father’s slave who only married her because she gave birth to a son. She torments Amelth with the truth that his dad wasn’t the hero he saw him to be, and she admits to being happy that Amelth was believed to have been dead.
Amelth ran from his mom, and he searched for Fjolnir’s eldest son to kill him. Amelth’s kills him in his sleep, and leaves the settlement just to return in the morning when he saw Fjolnir killing slaves since he suspected that one of them was helping Amelth. Fjolnir was about to kill Olga, but Amelth makes his presence known and tells him he cut out his son’s heart, and he’ll only return upon Olga’s release. Fjolnir obliges, Olga is released, and he takes Amelth prisoner since he admitted that the heart he had was from an animal, and Fjolnir is forced to let him live in hopes of beating the heart’s location out of Amelth. Fjolnir leaves Amelth hanging by his hands inside a barn, then a rave of ravens fly in, which symbolizes Odin’s presence, and they peck away at Amelth’s binds. He escapes in a dazed state and has a vision of a Valkyrie flying him to Valhalla.
He wakes up in a hot spring with Olga, she was the one who brought him to safety. He tells her that he returned to Iceland fueled by hatred, and he didn’t think he was capable of feeling any other emotions aside from anger, let alone being able to fall in love with her. Olga tells him a supply ship is departing from Iceland, and this can be their chance to leave and start a new life together. Amelth agrees since there’s no use in exacting vengeance anymore, but when they arrive on to the ship he somehow figures out that Olga is pregnant with his kids (twins). This revelation makes him realize that he has to go back to finish what he started, or his family will never be safe. Olga begs him not to go, but he assures her that it’ll all be okay. He has to go, but he’s happy to know that his legacy will continue on through his kids. He jumps off the boat and swims back to Iceland.
Amelth slaughters all of Fjolnir’s warriors at the settlement, he tells the remaining slaves to leave, and he then he kills his mother and his half-brother, Fjolnir’s younger son that he had with Amelth’s mom. Fjolnir does nothing but watch his “kingdom” burn, and he challenges Amelth to a duel at the gates of Hel, which is the Mt. Hekla volcano. Amelth meets Fjolnir at Mt. Hekla, and they have a duel which echoes Anakin’s and Obi-Wan’s duel on Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith. Amelth sliced off Fjolnir’s head and then he died from blood loss. In Amelth’s final moments, he had a vision of Olga cradling their kids while telling Amelth he can finally rest. He dies with a smile on his face, and the movie ends with the Valkyrie from his last vision bringing him through the gates of Vahalla.
Public Reception
The Northman was praised for it’s stunning cinematography, it’s graphic fight scenes, and excellent performances from a star studded cast. Then I came across this headline:
I found articles and people on Twitter hailing The Northman as a racist film with its all-white cast, and other people claiming it’s promoting toxic masculinity because you have strong men fighting intense battles! Then you have a few white supremacists calling this movie a “masterpiece” because it “restores honor” to their race, and I’m like “What the hell are you smoking?!”
This movie is far from being a masterpiece, okay! It was a good movie, that’s all. Also cut that bullshit about the movie being racist! It’s an Icelandic period piece, and the majority of Iceland’s population back then was white! That’s like calling a history movie about Feudal Japan racist because of an all asian class! There are a bunch of other monstrous actions that occur in the movie, but racism is not one of them! Now to the white supremacists claiming this movie for their “white pride”, just fuck off! This movie wasn’t made for you and your moronic ideals, this is for people who like viking movies! Take your neo-nazi shit out of here! If there’s one thing this movie did successfully was expose the idiots on BOTH sides of the political spectrum.
My Thoughts
This movie was fucking good and I was never bored during the whole experience. The basic plot was easy to comprehend, and the dream sequences that Amleth experiences had me thinking about the kind of person Amleth was. There was also no real villain in this film since the grueling world the film created made the people willing to do anything to survive, making most of the characters morally grey. The movie was a little confusing at times, but I say the confusion is what helped this movie standout in a crowd of superhero movies. Filmmakers should start taking risks again to create some of the most obscure and thought-provoking movies to get people’s imagination flowing again. Isn’t that what movies are all about at the end of the day? Anyway I give this movie a 7.5/10 just because there were some scenes that could have benefited with more “telling” than “showing”.
That’s all I have for you today, hope you all enjoyed my review of The Northman. Be sure to click that like button and comment your thoughts down below. This is your friendly neighborhood cosplayer saying goodbye, and see you next time.
Hall of Mercs 