Instead, The Northman’s goal is to capture the atmosphere of the pre-modern Viking world, as conveyed in the vast corpus of surviving literature from medieval Scandinavia. This level of accuracy doesn’t stem from the film’s straightforward approach to “real” history. Indeed, the highly anticipated revenge story has been billed as one of the most accurate Viking movies ever made-a tall order given the subject’s enduring popularity on the silver screen. Cold landscapes, fantastical visions, riotous colors and violence work in tandem to conjure the Viking world. In the roughly two hours between these scenes, The Northman does everything it can to pull the viewer into a medieval landscape that is both familiar and strange, grounded in the physical world while soaring into supernatural realms that were an inextricable part of medieval Icelandic life.

As fire burns and a battle rages below a volcano, director Robert Eggers’ tightly packed world falls away into nothing but smoke and blood. A boy in a red cloak-seemingly the only color in the stark landscape-stands by the shore, waiting for his father.īy the movie’s end, a different shade of red has overtaken the screen.

Ravens fly above wooden ships that sail toward a distant island. The Northman opens with black wings over gray water.

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