Eggars is such a brilliant filmmaker, he was able to convince Bjork to break her vow that she'd never act again after working with Lars von Trier 2 decades ago.
Historical epics ? Yes, but without the woke . Fantasy epics ? If its modern-fantasy then HELL NO ! If its oldschool sword and sorcery-fantasy without the woke then HELL YES !!!!!
@@Snyperwolf91 I'd like to see a faithful adaptation of Conan The Cimmerian and The Wiedźmin (Witcher). I know the latter has a Netflix adaptation but... Yeah.
You talk about the mythology nods, but when the movie opens from the perspective of two ravens flying over the returning longships, I was thinking, Oh, good, Odin's ravens are keeping tabs on things.
The pagan practices were posthumous celebrity worshippin, introduced by members of the yellow race, who drugged the nobles of the blond Children of Frya in order to beguile and seduce them -- read The Oera Linda Book. Originally Swedes and Finns were of yellow race, but through interbreedin became Nordic-ish. You can still see the lineaments of Finda in many of the Swedes, particularly in their jaws, cheekbones, sallow skin, and concave noses.
I took my oldest son who is half Norwegian to see it and we were not disappointed. It was like stepping into an Icelandic Saga!! Highly recommend it but definitely not for weak hearted small minded adults and small children.
MexicanIronMan said it best on friday's livestream, 'after seeing this movie I understand Andre so much better' I went into the movie as a fan of Eggers' Witch and Lighthouse, knew it would be intense and have lots of effort for authenticity. i loved the movie and will preorder asap. Also loved seeing similarities to Hamlet and Conan the Barbarian (1982)
For people interested in Norse related mythology, Njal’s Saga is worth a read and is set in Iceland. The version I read was the Penguin edition with the translation by Magnus Magnusson.
Some aspects of the story may seem overly familiar (Hamlet, Conan the Barbarian film) but this story of Amleth came first and inspired so many others down through the years. The Northman is packed with incredible period detail and bone crunching violence, plus, the mythological elements contribute to a bizarre, mystical atmosphere and raise The Northman to the next level.
"Most accurate [historical period] movie ever made" is enough to get me into the theater for any film. But "most historically accurate VIKING movie? I'm all over that shit. I've heard of this movie, but just recently and only a little. I was actually kind of apprehensive about it, because historical accuracy is usually lacking in films about this time, place, and culture. I'm glad to have been wrong though. Did this movie not get the marketing because it's not from a major studio, or because it doesn't promote The Message? Or both, perhaps?
It's not historically accurate at all. It's just a propaganda piece to demonize White/Scandinavian people. The Vikings were shown to be filthy and gross, but in real life they were clean and well groomed. They were not immoral monsters either.
Certainly both. It gets slandered by woketards already, called alt-right, white supremacy, toxic masculinity movie... and review bombed like crazy on Front Row Center. :(
Thank you for the breakdown, Andre. We saw the film on Thursday and, frankly, many of the finer details, like the shaman holding Willem DaFoe's head, escaped me. I understood most of the elements depicted in the film, but some of the more mystical scenes lost me. I appreciate the film much more now having watched the video.
Great video! Only a little problem there: "the Germans of that time..." There were no Germans as such. Germanic tribes, yes. We can thank Tacitus for this, who put all tribes north of the alps in one big Sauerkraut barrel and didn't differentiate much. But actually there was a whole smorgasbord (sorry) of ethnicities in what would later become Germany: Frisians, Saxons, Bavarians... it's a long, long list. Also, there were Slavic tribes and Sorbs and so on.
It's really nice to hear a movie review where everyone is pleased with results. If more energy were given to the good films out there, rather than the other stuff, not only would it help audiences support good films, but we'd probably get more good films, since apathy is the one thing Hollywood cannot abide.
This film is not good at all. It's just as antiwhite and misandristic as anything else. There's literally a scene where a woman smears period blood on a man's face.
@Bobby Hog They're portraying the Vikings as these filthy subhumans, covered in dirt and committing all sorts of heinous deeds. Would they ever present ancient Chinese or Arabic people that way? No, they're always shown as clean, wearing bright, beautiful colours.
I agree, which is why I wasn't a fan of how this channel made a video accusing The Batman of wokeness that wasn't really there, and comments like the one above. These sort of complaints make people on our "side" sound like just like the SJWs. This kind of attitude and seeing things when they're not there doesn't help the culture war, doesn't help make entertainment better (as you said, good movies should be supported to send a message), and it's needlessly demoralizing.
@@OrthoLou There are people out there now, that are simply going to find a problem with anything. I mean Andre is saying this film is pretty damned accurate, and you've got someone that isn't happy because it's not given the Hollywood romantization of history treatment. I mean if you don't want an historically accurate drama, then why are you mad about woke historical dramas?
What a movie! Brutal, messed up, entertaining & unlike anything I can recall seeing at the movies before. Wow! Do we need a ton more movies like this? Better believe it! Thank you for clarifying & providing context for this non-Northman. Bravo!
tale of heroism, revenge and bloodlust. sounds like an excellent movie to me. Place where men are manly and heroic as opposed to being mocked and vilainised for some sort of questionable ideological reason.
As a history and mythology nerd, this movie just hit the perfect spot for me. Interestingly I've seen people with only a casual previous knowledge of the source material divided on the film: some, understandably, where put off by the uncompromisingly saga-like aspects of the story and characters; but more than I would have thought seem to have been captivated by it.
I saw some SJWtards complaining how brutal and toxic it was and it was "certainly inaccurate" because they "know about Viking mythology from MARVEL". :D :D :D
This is a film that tells history not revises history…. Eggers doesn’t promote slavery rape and murder he shows you what it was like… the witch was amazing and puritans were not nice people
Has a lack of diversity, full of masculine toxicity and is a completely white cast, otherwise known as historically accurate…. Can’t wait to see it and own it. Love history.
Lo, There do I see my Father Lo, There do I see my Mother and My Brothers and my Sisters Lo, There do I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they do call to me They bid me to take my place among them in the halls of Valhalla Where the brave may live forever!
I recommend everyone go and see this movie, so refreshing to see a movie that is historically accurate and not pandering to the current temporary ‘trend’ of woke bullshit.
Fantastic video, makes me want to see this even more than I already did. My Norse mythology is rather rudimentary but everything I've learnt about this film since I saw the first trailer only heightened my anticipation. I've loved Eggar's previous films.
Not only is this not woke, but wokeists are extremely upset that it exists. The establishment has already put out all manner of propaganda against The Northman, claiming that it contains "disinformation" such as a lack of african vikings, no women behaving like men, etc.
I have a copy of the '93 Nicholas Echevarra film "Cabeza de Vaca" presented by Roger Corman. Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez is taken captive and made a slave then eventually apprentice of an Indian shaman. The mysticism in the film is pretty out there. I don't get wierded out by cultural mystics very easily. I'll look for the film on dvd. Tbh, all I know of Norse legends is what was mentioned in the X-Files episode "Død Kalm" which guest starred John Savage. 😀
This movie actually made me depressed on how boring, dull and pretentious it was. It was like Eggers made an art house movie on big budget steroids. The plus there is plenty of style with production design and photography but the story is just a slog of yet another run of the mill revenge story like every other straight to video fantasy movie just as dumb. I was expecting something like Gladiator, The Vikings with Kirk Douglas or heck even The 13Th Warrior which was an actual fun bad movie. The Northman was just a grinding and exhausting experience.
This was my first Robert Eggars movie and say this with a friend who is a huge fan. I don't know much about Norse Mythology as my knowledge is more based on Greek and Egyptian but I loved this movie. It's been a while since I've seen a movie where I was able to let it just immerse me in this world. Something I haven't felt since Lord of the Rings honestly. This world felt real. And there was nothing here that took me out of the movie. Very similar to Joker this was actual cinema and not just corporate assembly line product. This felt like a passion project Eggars wanted to make for a very long time and the effort shows. When the credits rolled I looked to my friend and said "That was awesome!" Looking forward to getting the blu-ray of this and seeing Eggars other works. EDIT: I definitely got a massive Conan vibe from this which was very welcomed.
I was really impressed with this movie, i was waiting a contained story like the lighthouse and the movie really went all mythological and still had some epic scenes (the sword king was so badass and felt like a Conan scene),, but most of my friends hated it, i don´t know what they really had in mind, probably the iceland part of the movie and no armies third act killed it for them.
In iceland the Irish slaves outnumbered the Norse overlords, hence the storytellin bent in Iceland, and the only-small percentage of actual Norse blood there.
This may be something I enjoy more when I watch it in DVD and have captioning on but as it is, the trippiness of it just often had me asking what the hell was going on and took me out of the movie. I enjoyed the Witch but didn't like the Lighthouse. This seemed like a mix of both. Asthetically like the Witch with weirdness of the Lighthouse. I liked it but also didn't.
That's fair. I'm glad you mentioned that because I very much felt elements of both. A lot of the things that took people out of it are what kept me engaged, and to me they're what kept this from being just another episode of Vikings.
Wish there were more written accounts of the "viking" period. Nice to finally see a good "mainstream" movie made about the era, not a Hollywood cringefest. Good deepdive, looking forward to more and to watching it myself.
Vikings were of the rulin class and were opulent. This can be seen in the archaeology as well as in the sagas, and summarized and depicted in the book The Viking Age by Paul B. DuChaillu available for free online.
This was a pretty wild movie. I enjoyed it, and it was pretty mystic. The portrayal of yggdrasil was pretty interesting. They considered the world tree to also be a "terrible scaffold" on which men were hung, or their fates were hung. The sword was drawn at night because it only existed in the shadows, where ergi and magic could take place. There is a direct interpretation that sedir was involved in his revenge plot. The skald shaman men doing the rituals were dressed in women's clothes, which they would want to use, to try and gain sedir access from, as men were seen as separated by a larger factor from yggdrasil and any impact on others, than women were. At one point during the yarn spinning, which is a practice related to fixing sedir, a wand is seen in the hand of a skald, but because its function is unknown in modern times, it is just held up and almost rattled at one point. A great deal of old Scandinavian magic practices were retained in Iceland, as they actively copied books all the time during the winters, and many of our sources come from these manuscripts that survive.
Thank you for unpacking this astonishing film. Anyone whose heart is unstirred by its intense vision - especially, imo, the Valkyrie sequences-should have their pulse checked.
If they were wearing wolf skin, they wouldn't be berserkers. As I recall, there were bear, wolf, boar "serkers", same general idea, different totem animals; berserkers, werewolves (warriors who would "transform" into wolves).. and whatever the boar warriors were called. A berserker wearing wolf skin would be like a football player wearing the uniform of another team on the field.
Thank you, Andre, for spurring me to go see this. I love Norse mythology, and feared yet another wokeness lecture. No more, thanks to you. See ya at the movie.
The irony of this movie's title, "the Northmen". The same title cuold be given to any people living North from where one lives. To a Spaniard of Arab/Moorish descent living in the South of Spain the Northmen were the Gallicians and Asturians living in the Northern parts of the Iberian peninsula whom themselves had no Viking heritage (although a great mayority were of fair skin and had beight red hair). However, it all depends as to whom is telling the story so it is a fitting title if you are speaking from the Continent or an English point of view. It is also worth mentioning about the term "German" since all the Germanic tribes North of the Alps were made up of many diverse and very different people, traditions, languages and cultural markers...
I'm Black . I have to sate that to give the following comment context. I dont care that its an all white cast! Why is that? A woke person may ask. BECASUE IT TAKES PLACE WITH VIKINGS!!!!! HOW MANY BLACK OR WHATEVER PEOPLE WHERE IN THAT PART OF THE WORLD AT THAT TIME!?!? Not many to none! And that is ok!!! When a movie/series takes place 700 years in the past in the middle of Africa. I FULLY EXPECT TO SEE AN ALL BLACK CAST!! And guess what THAT TOO IS OK!!!
I actually think the rituals were not weirded up, probably the opposite. Because noone can travel in time and see the real rituals, so what we know from archeological findings is surely very incomplete. And because our perception of the world is very different from the perception of medieval people, we probably project too much of our perception on it.
I saw a detailed video on a history buff channel on the story of Amleth that this, and Hamlet are both based on. What surprised me was that the whole first half of the story is more akin to Hamlet than The North man. The second half is more game-of-thrones-ish: armies, subterfuge, etc... and actually reminds me a little of Tolkien's "Return of The King"... and it then has a final battle that's a bit like the end of The Northman. What disappointed me a little about the film once once knee this was that Amleth is actually a story about the triumph of wisdom and patience over strength a d passion... Amleth fakes mental illness, messes with the mail, sets himself up to marry the king of England's daughter... AND rhe queen of Scottland, and defeats an army by putting corpses on horses to bolster his numbers... weekend at Bernys style. Dude is a totally different kind of hero than Skarsgaards Amleth, who is a brutal berserker. Not saying it's not a cultural achievement on film. It is. I just think it's telling that our modern society felt the need to increase the barbarism, and reduce the heroes admirable traits, because we think magnified brutality presented in an almost hersexual way, is somehow more authentic to the culture and story. Is it perhaps that we've become the barbarians? Inside? They lived in barbarism but ever longed for the high ground. We live in the peaceful moral certitude of modernity, but lust for barbarism. I think its an indictment, not of Vikings, but of us.
#1) Berserker was not a job title. It was a personality trait. #2) There has been near uniform acceptance that the berserkers did not take mushrooms before battle.
Now that I know that The Northman isn't WOKE, I can let my inner Norway fan-boy out to play and breathe a sigh of relief that I can anticipate watching this movie with excitement, watch is essential for my enjoyment. It would be no surprise that Norway is my favorite Scandinavian country. I'll never forget my trip to Norway, especially going to Nordkapp.
Took my wife to see it and we loved it. No one needed to look like me for me to enjoy that story. It was simply pure classical story telling at its best put in a spectacular visual medium.
This is a movie I want to watch, I'm sick of the diverse "message" being rammed down our throats recently by the Karen brigade. I've had an interest in ancient history since I saw the Sutton Hoo treasure at the British Museum growing up. Ok, there may be some slight artistic tweaks here and there but this does sound to mostly be historically accurate, and that's no bad thing in my book.
The Odinn stand-in called the Ulfhednar "sons of Fenrir", but that warrior cult were Odinn worshippers. Why name the beast destined to eat him during Ragnarok, rather than Odinn's two wolves?
yeah, no. I'd interpret that as, head that's been decapitated. "Amputated limb" is the same kind of thing, it doesn't mean, limb with the limb cut off it.
Great vid. Seems all Norse purists I sub to love it. I loved it, best viking movie yet and I coincider it my generations Conan the barbarian. Loved the broad canvas the crew painted even stepping into horror elements at some points.
To call them Vikings is not accurate. There were no such people as The Vikings. What you had was the Nordics who went "a Viking". Viking is what they referred to their adventures as. They went " a Viking" for plunder and slaves (Thralls, one of Heimdall's three sons, in their tongue). They would have referred to themselves as either Aesir, blondhaired Swedes or Vanir, red headed Norwegians. All myths have a basic root in ancient history.
There's no movie theaters where I live so, I'll have to wait awhile to see this seemingly awesome movie! Thanks for the great video explanation of the story Andre! This only makes me want see it even more now!
i saw only trailer yet and it looked really accurate for that time period (costumes, drakkars... ).... in this times we need more things like this... (not black woman jarl Hakon..... XD)
Wonderful, uncompromising and, above all, very bold and brave movie. This is THE CINEMA at its best, thought-provoking and intelligent, but also badass as hell! Beautifully shot, masterfully directed and wonderfully acted by uniformly excellent cast, The Northman is simply a must-see for both action-movie lovers and arthouse cinema buffs. Highly recommended!
I liked it. I think it was accurate and authentic. Legend and folklore is grounded in some truth. Truth is suffering, death,and danger was real. Slavery existed and constant warfare for territory and power was common among Vikings and Anglo-Saxons. Particularly between Vikings and Christian settlements.
I thought I pretty much had everything well understood in the movie, but you enlightened me on some aspects I wasn't aware or didn't catch.. Thanks! .. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some things I took away from the flick.. Never give a viking cause for revenge.. If you are out for revenge, it's good to have Odin backing you.. and Vikings knew how to fucking PARTY.. LOL
back in history, the weaks die! so call "protect the weaks" actually didn't appeared before 1900s. there were small Vikings sure, but they all die from harsh environment and living conditions, only the strongest survived. of course Vikings were tall and strong! that was why they survived. that was why we saw in history Vikings were tall and big.
I shouted at the top of my lungs and scared my son to death! THAT IS WHAT A VALKYRIE IS! Marvel got it so wrong. Love this movie and Alexander Skarsgard proved himself again.
Hmm, I'm back after watching the film. It was an okay film for me. I was expecting more action as opposed to the heavy realiance on Nordic mythology and the psychedelic sequences. I did enjoy the cinematography and design of the film though. This analysis made me appreciate the film slightly more, even if I did not enjoy the movie overall. That Islamic coin you mentioned at 6:36 was pretty interesting - If I remember my history correctly, there was a potential of the Vikings introducing Islam into Scandanivia back then, but it did not happen because the religion is against alcoholic consumption, which is a big part of the Vikings culture. Thanks for this video! I do enjoy analysing these sorts of historical inputs.
Really appreciate the effort you put into this. It far exceeded what I was looking for. Anything Eggers makes going forward is auto-watch. He had me at The Witch....
It's not "Shuhn" in english or "Sjøn" in norwegian, it's "Shown" or "Kjohn" (kj som i Kjartan). Icelandic uses Ö not Ø. Sjón has an o sound that is not like the o sound in Oslo (in norwegian) but like the o sound in as you would say it when saying "Oh!" in English.
I Think the story is messy. If fjolnir is pushed out by Harald, that would mean the have moved Amled from Denmark to Norway - ok fine artistic license. But young Amled sails away from Norway in a dingy and ends up going to Kiev. With berserkers. Something that was predominantly done by people from what is now Sweden. On the way back from Kiev he joins the ship that has slaves bound for island. This doesn’t seem right, I don’t think they would have divided the slaves like that. More likely they would have taken them to a market like the one I Hedeby and sold them there. Like I say messy. Makes sense people banished from Norway ends up on Iceland, that is certainly not unheard of. But the whole thing with the rus and slaves is messy, unlikely and not very well thought through. There were specific markets for were you got your slaves and such. And honestly I would think it more likely that people in Iceland got their slaves from the slave market in Dublin. So this is a huge dent in the whole accuracy for me…
The film is historically quite accurate and the plot compelling, but the script and the execution blow. I want to se a movie, not a Meshuggah music clip. I was under the impression that I was watching an extended version of Bleed. Too long, too trippy, too "artistic", too dreamy, too epic in a bad way. And too little substance. I prefer watching The Vikings, with Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis. It might not be as accurate as this, but it has a story that flows and good acting. Or Conan the Barbarian with Arnie. If you watched the TV series Vikings, you don't need to watch this film. It has so many elements that borrows from that series. The acting is not very good, the battle scenes just suck. Each time I saw the tree of kings, or Yggdrasil, with the kings and their blood lineage hanging, I was under the impression that I was in a videogame, Mortal Kombat comes to mind, defeating the next opponent and reaching the next level. And Nicole Kidman's face is VERY distracting through all the movie, in the vecinity of the uncanny valley. Very, very distracting and disturbing, she looks like an alien or something strange. It is not enough that it hasn't got forced diversity and The Message. The script is not at the same level of the cinematography. It's weak. The plot is very interesting, but the execution of the script is weak, weak, weak.
I remember when watching the movie at the cinema,me and my mother were talking about 2 things: -How some parts were similar to Shakespeare's Hamleth -Half of the actors there were really famous.I had to point out the witch or female shaman,as my mother didn't recognise icelandic singer Björk
Sounds good. I want a good bit of cinema, they can make something else next. All the peoples have their stories and I'll watch them. We don't want to watch Vikings all the time. Mel Gibson's Amazonian one is a good example. That was well done. Stand alone unique.
I love this movie so much watch it twice at the theater and I bought it on my Xbox movie library. Now if anybody dares to make a live adaptation of BERSERK Kentaro Miura's masterpiece we found the director and main character here.
Eggars is such a brilliant filmmaker, he was able to convince Bjork to break her vow that she'd never act again after working with Lars von Trier 2 decades ago.
You mean Dancer in The Dark?
It made my ex nauseous due to the incessant shakeycam... but I thought it was a powerful, solid movie otherwise.
This movie and the lighthouse were fantastic, but unfortunately, both are box office bombs. I hope he gets another chance.
@@cbrreezzyy69 people only watch trash. Marketing matters the most unfortunately
didnt know she was in a movie before this one. thanks.
We need more historical/fantasy epic films like this.
The Box Office seems to say No.
Historical epics ?
Yes, but without the woke .
Fantasy epics ?
If its modern-fantasy then HELL NO !
If its oldschool sword and sorcery-fantasy without the woke then HELL YES !!!!!
@@raymondsmith6870 After all the lies from the media in the past few years, on what basis do you think those numbers are to be believed?
@@Snyperwolf91
I'd like to see a faithful adaptation of Conan The Cimmerian and The Wiedźmin (Witcher). I know the latter has a Netflix adaptation but... Yeah.
@@KamenRider1 The Netflix Witcher was butchered as much as nordic mythology was butchered by Marvel. :(
Man, as a passive lover of Norse lor. And always being enamored by my ancestry, it was so nice too see such a loving effort made reality.
I was so surprised by the amount of mysticism in the movie. But it helps elevate the lore and solidify the idea of destiny.
You talk about the mythology nods, but when the movie opens from the perspective of two ravens flying over the returning longships, I was thinking, Oh, good, Odin's ravens are keeping tabs on things.
The pagan practices were posthumous celebrity worshippin, introduced by members of the yellow race, who drugged the nobles of the blond Children of Frya in order to beguile and seduce them -- read The Oera Linda Book.
Originally Swedes and Finns were of yellow race, but through interbreedin became Nordic-ish. You can still see the lineaments of Finda in many of the Swedes, particularly in their jaws, cheekbones, sallow skin, and concave noses.
Hugin and Mugin 😉
@@theobserver6579 Huginn and Muninn actually. No disrespect.
@@orarinnsnorrason4614 Did anyone ever spell anyone's names the same way?
To be fair, the really were.
I took my oldest son who is half Norwegian to see it and we were not disappointed. It was like stepping into an Icelandic Saga!! Highly recommend it but definitely not for weak hearted small minded adults and small children.
Cool ! Thats up my alley !
@@Snyperwolf91 you'll like it. It's definitely an experience.
MexicanIronMan said it best on friday's livestream, 'after seeing this movie I understand Andre so much better'
I went into the movie as a fan of Eggers' Witch and Lighthouse, knew it would be intense and have lots of effort for authenticity. i loved the movie and will preorder asap. Also loved seeing similarities to Hamlet and Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Eggers is amazing
And lest we forget, next up for Eggers is ‘Nosferatu’.
I’m a black woman and I enjoyed this movie it’s a true Viking saga to me. Love everything even the ending scene was very epic well done!!😊
Oh ooohhh..... does that mean there's a lot of _romance_ in that movie???!!!
@@MrClassicmetal no
@@MrClassicmetal :D It means women can like other stuff than rom-coms too. There is some romance in it but it definitely isn´t a romantic movie.
@@MrClassicmetal Cringe my guy.
@@MrClassicmetal No it means that this lady would prolly chug a beer and then break it over your head....you know....a real woman
With _The VVitch,_ and _The Lighthouse,_ Eggers has proven his quality as a filmmaker.
Can't wait to see _The Northman._
Save your money. It's awful.
@@Siegfried5846 awfully amazing!
I hated the Witch but loved the Lighthouse.
This, though, is his best movie yet, so he's gotten better and better with each film for me.
@@OrthoLou If you like to get pegged
@@Siegfried5846 False
For people interested in Norse related mythology, Njal’s Saga is worth a read and is set in Iceland. The version I read was the Penguin edition with the translation by Magnus Magnusson.
I think TH-camr Jackson Crawford has published an English translation of it in the last few years so you can read it in more modern language too.
For those who don't care about bloodthirsty pagans murdering and raping people for shits and giggles, what else do you have?
What’s the elevator pitch for this myth? I could look it up myself I suppose
@@donkeysaurusrex7881 thanks … this I’d useful
Egil's saga is also pretty fine, also available through Penguin.
Some aspects of the story may seem overly familiar (Hamlet, Conan the Barbarian film) but this story of Amleth came first and inspired so many others down through the years. The Northman is packed with incredible period detail and bone crunching violence, plus, the mythological elements contribute to a bizarre, mystical atmosphere and raise The Northman to the next level.
"Most accurate [historical period] movie ever made" is enough to get me into the theater for any film. But "most historically accurate VIKING movie? I'm all over that shit. I've heard of this movie, but just recently and only a little. I was actually kind of apprehensive about it, because historical accuracy is usually lacking in films about this time, place, and culture. I'm glad to have been wrong though. Did this movie not get the marketing because it's not from a major studio, or because it doesn't promote The Message? Or both, perhaps?
It's not historically accurate at all. It's just a propaganda piece to demonize White/Scandinavian people. The Vikings were shown to be filthy and gross, but in real life they were clean and well groomed. They were not immoral monsters either.
So, did you see it yet? What did you think?
Certainly both. It gets slandered by woketards already, called alt-right, white supremacy, toxic masculinity movie... and review bombed like crazy on Front Row Center. :(
Thank you for the breakdown, Andre. We saw the film on Thursday and, frankly, many of the finer details, like the shaman holding Willem DaFoe's head, escaped me. I understood most of the elements depicted in the film, but some of the more mystical scenes lost me. I appreciate the film much more now having watched the video.
Great video! Only a little problem there: "the Germans of that time..."
There were no Germans as such. Germanic tribes, yes. We can thank Tacitus for this, who put all tribes north of the alps in one big Sauerkraut barrel and didn't differentiate much.
But actually there was a whole smorgasbord (sorry) of ethnicities in what would later become Germany: Frisians, Saxons, Bavarians... it's a long, long list. Also, there were Slavic tribes and Sorbs and so on.
I thought he was trying to deliver that line with sass, but oh well.
"one big sauerkraut barrel" 🤣
I think it was just linguistic shorthand for the various poeple of what we now call Germany.
Fuck, i love saurkraut
@@srottfaen Exactly - if you want people to understand you, you have to use terms that they are familiar with. I would have thought that was obvious.
It's really nice to hear a movie review where everyone is pleased with results. If more energy were given to the good films out there, rather than the other stuff, not only would it help audiences support good films, but we'd probably get more good films, since apathy is the one thing Hollywood cannot abide.
This film is not good at all. It's just as antiwhite and misandristic as anything else. There's literally a scene where a woman smears period blood on a man's face.
@Bobby Hog They're portraying the Vikings as these filthy subhumans, covered in dirt and committing all sorts of heinous deeds. Would they ever present ancient Chinese or Arabic people that way? No, they're always shown as clean, wearing bright, beautiful colours.
I agree, which is why I wasn't a fan of how this channel made a video accusing The Batman of wokeness that wasn't really there, and comments like the one above.
These sort of complaints make people on our "side" sound like just like the SJWs. This kind of attitude and seeing things when they're not there doesn't help the culture war, doesn't help make entertainment better (as you said, good movies should be supported to send a message), and it's needlessly demoralizing.
@@OrthoLou There are people out there now, that are simply going to find a problem with anything.
I mean Andre is saying this film is pretty damned accurate, and you've got someone that isn't happy because it's not given the Hollywood romantization of history treatment. I mean if you don't want an historically accurate drama, then why are you mad about woke historical dramas?
@@Siegfried5846 It is not. You are a pathetic snowflake OMG. :D
What a movie! Brutal, messed up, entertaining & unlike anything I can recall seeing at the movies before. Wow! Do we need a ton more movies like this? Better believe it! Thank you for clarifying & providing context for this non-Northman. Bravo!
tale of heroism, revenge and bloodlust.
sounds like an excellent movie to me.
Place where men are manly and heroic as opposed to being mocked and vilainised for some sort of questionable ideological reason.
As a history and mythology nerd, this movie just hit the perfect spot for me. Interestingly I've seen people with only a casual previous knowledge of the source material divided on the film: some, understandably, where put off by the uncompromisingly saga-like aspects of the story and characters; but more than I would have thought seem to have been captivated by it.
I saw some SJWtards complaining how brutal and toxic it was and it was "certainly inaccurate" because they "know about Viking mythology from MARVEL". :D :D :D
This is a film that tells history not revises history…. Eggers doesn’t promote slavery rape and murder he shows you what it was like… the witch was amazing and puritans were not nice people
Has a lack of diversity, full of masculine toxicity and is a completely white cast, otherwise known as historically accurate…. Can’t wait to see it and own it. Love history.
Don't forget... there were white slaves.... Gasp!!!
Good man
It won't win a single award it deserves for that exact reason.
I like you already
Not a Northsman but I find it refreshing to be able to watch a decent movie w/o THE MESSAGE
This movie was exactly what it needed to be, and I pray we get many more of its kind before too much longer!
People gotta go out and support the good stuff
I pray we don't. It's a piece of shit antiwhite, misandristic movie.
Lo, There do I see my Father
Lo, There do I see my Mother and My Brothers and my Sisters
Lo, There do I see the line of my people back to the beginning
Lo, they do call to me
They bid me to take my place among them
in the halls of Valhalla
Where the brave may live forever!
Imagine having to sing that right before you're sacrificed.
I recommend everyone go and see this movie, so refreshing to see a movie that is historically accurate and not pandering to the current temporary ‘trend’ of woke bullshit.
is that why it bombed? next time: add a black guy bahaha
or you could just say it's a good movie
I have seen this movie twice already. I absolutely love this movie.
Fantastic video, makes me want to see this even more than I already did. My Norse mythology is rather rudimentary but everything I've learnt about this film since I saw the first trailer only heightened my anticipation. I've loved Eggar's previous films.
After all the good news I’m hearing about this film I’ll go see it. Lack of woke is a big plus in it’s favor.
Not only is this not woke, but wokeists are extremely upset that it exists.
The establishment has already put out all manner of propaganda against The Northman, claiming that it contains "disinformation" such as a lack of african vikings, no women behaving like men, etc.
This movie was great, it will blow you away
I have a copy of the '93 Nicholas Echevarra film "Cabeza de Vaca" presented by Roger Corman. Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez is taken captive and made a slave then eventually apprentice of an Indian shaman. The mysticism in the film is pretty out there. I don't get wierded out by cultural mystics very easily.
I'll look for the film on dvd. Tbh, all I know of Norse legends is what was mentioned in the X-Files episode "Død Kalm" which guest starred John Savage. 😀
Will look into
10/10 will watch and then buy a copy when released!
Fridthjof's grandfather was Sumblus, king of the Finns, of the yellow race. He gave to Fridthjof the first dragon ship in history.
This movie actually made me depressed on how boring, dull and pretentious it was. It was like Eggers made an art house movie on big budget steroids. The plus there is plenty of style with production design and photography but the story is just a slog of yet another run of the mill revenge story like every other straight to video fantasy movie just as dumb. I was expecting something like Gladiator, The Vikings with Kirk Douglas or heck even The 13Th Warrior which was an actual fun bad movie. The Northman was just a grinding and exhausting experience.
This was my first Robert Eggars movie and say this with a friend who is a huge fan. I don't know much about Norse Mythology as my knowledge is more based on Greek and Egyptian but I loved this movie. It's been a while since I've seen a movie where I was able to let it just immerse me in this world. Something I haven't felt since Lord of the Rings honestly. This world felt real. And there was nothing here that took me out of the movie. Very similar to Joker this was actual cinema and not just corporate assembly line product. This felt like a passion project Eggars wanted to make for a very long time and the effort shows. When the credits rolled I looked to my friend and said "That was awesome!" Looking forward to getting the blu-ray of this and seeing Eggars other works.
EDIT: I definitely got a massive Conan vibe from this which was very welcomed.
I was really impressed with this movie, i was waiting a contained story like the lighthouse and the movie really went all mythological and still had some epic scenes (the sword king was so badass and felt like a Conan scene),, but most of my friends hated it, i don´t know what they really had in mind, probably the iceland part of the movie and no armies third act killed it for them.
I saw the trailer if that! It’s basically a scene from the movie, but the skeleton comes alive. Totally could see it in a Howard pulp.
Haven't seen The Northman yet, but your analysis piqued my interest.
In iceland the Irish slaves outnumbered the Norse overlords, hence the storytellin bent in Iceland, and the only-small percentage of actual Norse blood there.
Saw it last night and loved it. For all its grand visuals it's quite an intimate story.
This may be something I enjoy more when I watch it in DVD and have captioning on but as it is, the trippiness of it just often had me asking what the hell was going on and took me out of the movie. I enjoyed the Witch but didn't like the Lighthouse. This seemed like a mix of both. Asthetically like the Witch with weirdness of the Lighthouse. I liked it but also didn't.
That's fair. I'm glad you mentioned that because I very much felt elements of both. A lot of the things that took people out of it are what kept me engaged, and to me they're what kept this from being just another episode of Vikings.
Wish there were more written accounts of the "viking" period. Nice to finally see a good "mainstream" movie made about the era, not a Hollywood cringefest. Good deepdive, looking forward to more and to watching it myself.
This movie absolutely ROCKED!!
Eggars' The Northman pays homage to Conan the barbarian.
Vikings were of the rulin class and were opulent. This can be seen in the archaeology as well as in the sagas, and summarized and depicted in the book The Viking Age by Paul B. DuChaillu available for free online.
Thanks for the rec.
Thank you for this. Will be seeing the film in theaters for sure.
Wait! So Marvel's Thor movies aren't an accurate depiction of Norse Mythology???
no one ever claimed as such
EPIC DAMN MOVIE!!!! I love the brutal honestly of Viking culture and religion. The dialog was poetry.
This was a pretty wild movie. I enjoyed it, and it was pretty mystic. The portrayal of yggdrasil was pretty interesting. They considered the world tree to also be a "terrible scaffold" on which men were hung, or their fates were hung.
The sword was drawn at night because it only existed in the shadows, where ergi and magic could take place. There is a direct interpretation that sedir was involved in his revenge plot.
The skald shaman men doing the rituals were dressed in women's clothes, which they would want to use, to try and gain sedir access from, as men were seen as separated by a larger factor from yggdrasil and any impact on others, than women were.
At one point during the yarn spinning, which is a practice related to fixing sedir, a wand is seen in the hand of a skald, but because its function is unknown in modern times, it is just held up and almost rattled at one point.
A great deal of old Scandinavian magic practices were retained in Iceland, as they actively copied books all the time during the winters, and many of our sources come from these manuscripts that survive.
I wonder how many people are replaying Skyrim after seeing the Northman. I know I'm going to be playing tonight.
Was thinking that while I was watching the movie last night. Lol Dammit. Time to do another 1000 hour playthrough of Skyrim.
Thank you for unpacking this astonishing film. Anyone whose heart is unstirred by its intense vision - especially, imo, the Valkyrie sequences-should have their pulse checked.
If they were wearing wolf skin, they wouldn't be berserkers. As I recall, there were bear, wolf, boar "serkers", same general idea, different totem animals; berserkers, werewolves (warriors who would "transform" into wolves).. and whatever the boar warriors were called. A berserker wearing wolf skin would be like a football player wearing the uniform of another team on the field.
Exactly they were called ulwhednar and they are called that in the movie too.
Thank you, André. This epic and beautiful film needs more attention on it.
I'm in! Can't wait to see it.
Thank you, Andre, for spurring me to go see this. I love Norse mythology, and feared yet another wokeness lecture. No more, thanks to you.
See ya at the movie.
This movie was dope, like all of Egger's films I've seen
This movie is a masterpiece. True art which is rare these days. Hope it does better at the box office.
The beginning was Conan the Barbarian (1981) and the final scene was Revenge of the Sith
Are any of his movies NOT about tripping balls?
The irony of this movie's title, "the Northmen". The same title cuold be given to any people living North from where one lives. To a Spaniard of Arab/Moorish descent living in the South of Spain the Northmen were the Gallicians and Asturians living in the Northern parts of the Iberian peninsula whom themselves had no Viking heritage (although a great mayority were of fair skin and had beight red hair). However, it all depends as to whom is telling the story so it is a fitting title if you are speaking from the Continent or an English point of view. It is also worth mentioning about the term "German" since all the Germanic tribes North of the Alps were made up of many diverse and very different people, traditions, languages and cultural markers...
I'm Black . I have to sate that to give the following comment context.
I dont care that its an all white cast! Why is that? A woke person may ask. BECASUE IT TAKES PLACE WITH VIKINGS!!!!! HOW MANY BLACK OR WHATEVER PEOPLE WHERE IN THAT PART OF THE WORLD AT THAT TIME!?!?
Not many to none! And that is ok!!!
When a movie/series takes place 700 years in the past in the middle of Africa. I FULLY EXPECT TO SEE AN ALL BLACK CAST!! And guess what THAT TOO IS OK!!!
The tale was 3,000 years old in Saxo's time, and is totally garbled and out of period, conflated with other tales and periods.
Watched this film yesterday an Absolutely loved it. Cinema masterpiece is what this film was.
I actually think the rituals were not weirded up, probably the opposite. Because noone can travel in time and see the real rituals, so what we know from archeological findings is surely very incomplete. And because our perception of the world is very different from the perception of medieval people, we probably project too much of our perception on it.
I saw a detailed video on a history buff channel on the story of Amleth that this, and Hamlet are both based on.
What surprised me was that the whole first half of the story is more akin to Hamlet than The North man. The second half is more game-of-thrones-ish: armies, subterfuge, etc... and actually reminds me a little of Tolkien's "Return of The King"... and it then has a final battle that's a bit like the end of The Northman.
What disappointed me a little about the film once once knee this was that Amleth is actually a story about the triumph of wisdom and patience over strength a d passion... Amleth fakes mental illness, messes with the mail, sets himself up to marry the king of England's daughter... AND rhe queen of Scottland, and defeats an army by putting corpses on horses to bolster his numbers... weekend at Bernys style. Dude is a totally different kind of hero than Skarsgaards Amleth, who is a brutal berserker.
Not saying it's not a cultural achievement on film. It is. I just think it's telling that our modern society felt the need to increase the barbarism, and reduce the heroes admirable traits, because we think magnified brutality presented in an almost hersexual way, is somehow more authentic to the culture and story.
Is it perhaps that we've become the barbarians? Inside? They lived in barbarism but ever longed for the high ground. We live in the peaceful moral certitude of modernity, but lust for barbarism.
I think its an indictment, not of Vikings, but of us.
#1) Berserker was not a job title. It was a personality trait. #2) There has been near uniform acceptance that the berserkers did not take mushrooms before battle.
Andre is Viking-Splaining :) I am looking forward to this movie
The Northman is a awesome movie like historical and fantasy elements in the movie but I like it
Now that I know that The Northman isn't WOKE, I can let my inner Norway fan-boy out to play and breathe a sigh of relief that I can anticipate watching this movie with excitement, watch is essential for my enjoyment. It would be no surprise that Norway is my favorite Scandinavian country. I'll never forget my trip to Norway, especially going to Nordkapp.
Sounds like an interesting film. Especially fore a more accurate look into Viking ways.
Thanks Andre another amazing video nobody could’ve said it like you I actually cannot wait for this movie super excited😃
Took my wife to see it and we loved it.
No one needed to look like me for me to enjoy that story. It was simply pure classical story telling at its best put in a spectacular visual medium.
I saw the movie last week, I loved it, I was blasting some Amon Amarth after leaving the movie theater
This is a movie I want to watch, I'm sick of the diverse "message" being rammed down our throats recently by the Karen brigade. I've had an interest in ancient history since I saw the Sutton Hoo treasure at the British Museum growing up. Ok, there may be some slight artistic tweaks here and there but this does sound to mostly be historically accurate, and that's no bad thing in my book.
Go see it before it leaves cinemas, this movie must be seen on the big screen.
wow - this is FANTASTIC, A+!!!!
Andre makes this sound almost like a sword and sorcery movie, given the mysticism and magic in it. I'm glad he's so pleased with it.
It's amazing that Game of Thrones ushered in an age of viking historical fiction.
The Odinn stand-in called the Ulfhednar "sons of Fenrir", but that warrior cult were Odinn worshippers. Why name the beast destined to eat him during Ragnarok, rather than Odinn's two wolves?
"Decapitated head" -- literally a head with the head taken away from it. In other words -- zero. Try thinkin once in a while. Minus 2 points.
yeah, no. I'd interpret that as, head that's been decapitated. "Amputated limb" is the same kind of thing, it doesn't mean, limb with the limb cut off it.
OMGOSH GRANDPA!! Fairhair!!!! Yttri lands were his legacy to our family!!
Just saw it. Great movie
This movie looks amazing! Can't wait to see it.
Great vid. Seems all Norse purists I sub to love it. I loved it, best viking movie yet and I coincider it my generations Conan the barbarian. Loved the broad canvas the crew painted even stepping into horror elements at some points.
To call them Vikings is not accurate. There were no such people as The Vikings. What you had was the Nordics who went "a Viking". Viking is what they referred to their adventures as. They went " a Viking" for plunder and slaves (Thralls, one of Heimdall's three sons, in their tongue). They would have referred to themselves as either Aesir, blondhaired Swedes or Vanir, red headed Norwegians. All myths have a basic root in ancient history.
I saw some references from the movie Beowulf..........the animated one.
There's no movie theaters where I live so, I'll have to wait awhile to see this seemingly awesome movie! Thanks for the great video explanation of the story Andre! This only makes me want see it even more now!
Love this!
after seeing the movie, my first thought was "i can't wait to hear what Andre thinks of it" and here we are 🍿
And still, no justice for 'The 13th Warrior' and Zemeckis' 'Beowulf', my fave northern movies of all time.
i saw only trailer yet and it looked really accurate for that time period (costumes, drakkars... ).... in this times we need more things like this... (not black woman jarl Hakon..... XD)
Wonderful, uncompromising and, above all, very bold and brave movie. This is THE CINEMA at its best, thought-provoking and intelligent, but also badass as hell! Beautifully shot, masterfully directed and wonderfully acted by uniformly excellent cast, The Northman is simply a must-see for both action-movie lovers and arthouse cinema buffs. Highly recommended!
I liked it. I think it was accurate and authentic. Legend and folklore is grounded in some truth. Truth is suffering, death,and danger was real. Slavery existed and constant warfare for territory and power was common among Vikings and Anglo-Saxons. Particularly between Vikings and Christian settlements.
I thought I pretty much had everything well understood in the movie, but you enlightened me on some aspects I wasn't aware or didn't catch.. Thanks! .. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some things I took away from the flick.. Never give a viking cause for revenge.. If you are out for revenge, it's good to have Odin backing you.. and Vikings knew how to fucking PARTY.. LOL
back in history, the weaks die! so call "protect the weaks" actually didn't appeared before 1900s.
there were small Vikings sure, but they all die from harsh environment and living conditions, only the strongest survived.
of course Vikings were tall and strong! that was why they survived. that was why we saw in history Vikings were tall and big.
I shouted at the top of my lungs and scared my son to death! THAT IS WHAT A VALKYRIE IS! Marvel got it so wrong. Love this movie and Alexander Skarsgard proved himself again.
Hmm, I'm back after watching the film. It was an okay film for me. I was expecting more action as opposed to the heavy realiance on Nordic mythology and the psychedelic sequences. I did enjoy the cinematography and design of the film though. This analysis made me appreciate the film slightly more, even if I did not enjoy the movie overall. That Islamic coin you mentioned at 6:36 was pretty interesting - If I remember my history correctly, there was a potential of the Vikings introducing Islam into Scandanivia back then, but it did not happen because the religion is against alcoholic consumption, which is a big part of the Vikings culture. Thanks for this video! I do enjoy analysing these sorts of historical inputs.
Really appreciate the effort you put into this. It far exceeded what I was looking for. Anything Eggers makes going forward is auto-watch. He had me at The Witch....
It's not "Shuhn" in english or "Sjøn" in norwegian, it's "Shown" or "Kjohn" (kj som i Kjartan). Icelandic uses Ö not Ø. Sjón has an o sound that is not like the o sound in Oslo (in norwegian) but like the o sound in as you would say it when saying "Oh!" in English.
Thanks Andre! Great informative vid about a truly wonderful film
I Think the story is messy. If fjolnir is pushed out by Harald, that would mean the have moved Amled from Denmark to Norway - ok fine artistic license. But young Amled sails away from Norway in a dingy and ends up going to Kiev. With berserkers. Something that was predominantly done by people from what is now Sweden. On the way back from Kiev he joins the ship that has slaves bound for island. This doesn’t seem right, I don’t think they would have divided the slaves like that. More likely they would have taken them to a market like the one I Hedeby and sold them there. Like I say messy. Makes sense people banished from Norway ends up on Iceland, that is certainly not unheard of. But the whole thing with the rus and slaves is messy, unlikely and not very well thought through. There were specific markets for were you got your slaves and such. And honestly I would think it more likely that people in Iceland got their slaves from the slave market in Dublin. So this is a huge dent in the whole accuracy for me…
The film is historically quite accurate and the plot compelling, but the script and the execution blow. I want to se a movie, not a Meshuggah music clip. I was under the impression that I was watching an extended version of Bleed.
Too long, too trippy, too "artistic", too dreamy, too epic in a bad way. And too little substance. I prefer watching The Vikings, with Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis. It might not be as accurate as this, but it has a story that flows and good acting. Or Conan the Barbarian with Arnie. If you watched the TV series Vikings, you don't need to watch this film. It has so many elements that borrows from that series.
The acting is not very good, the battle scenes just suck. Each time I saw the tree of kings, or Yggdrasil, with the kings and their blood lineage hanging, I was under the impression that I was in a videogame, Mortal Kombat comes to mind, defeating the next opponent and reaching the next level.
And Nicole Kidman's face is VERY distracting through all the movie, in the vecinity of the uncanny valley. Very, very distracting and disturbing, she looks like an alien or something strange.
It is not enough that it hasn't got forced diversity and The Message. The script is not at the same level of the cinematography. It's weak. The plot is very interesting, but the execution of the script is weak, weak, weak.
Dude, Alexander Skarsgård was always huge, but in this movie, he’s gigantic. His shoulders are huge and he has like 27 abs lol.
I really enjoyed this film and will be looking up some of the directors other works. Very enjoyable and artistically unique.
I remember when watching the movie at the cinema,me and my mother were talking about 2 things:
-How some parts were similar to Shakespeare's Hamleth
-Half of the actors there were really famous.I had to point out the witch or female shaman,as my mother didn't recognise icelandic singer Björk
Sounds good. I want a good bit of cinema, they can make something else next. All the peoples have their stories and I'll watch them. We don't want to watch Vikings all the time. Mel Gibson's Amazonian one is a good example. That was well done. Stand alone unique.
I love this movie so much watch it twice at the theater and I bought it on my Xbox movie library.
Now if anybody dares to make a live adaptation of BERSERK Kentaro Miura's masterpiece we found the director and main character here.