The Northman | Review

[SPOILERS] I was so excited for this film, and am sad to say it did not live up to my expectations. While I think The Northman was, for the most part, visually striking, impeccably choreographed, well acted, and beautifully composed (the score was heart-stopping), I found the thematic elements to be quite rudimentary and underdeveloped. At this stage in filmmaking, I need more melodrama from my hero’s journey stories (in the likeness of Gladiator). And if a film chooses not to lean into melodrama, then it needs to follow the route of moral ambiguity. For a movie to be as somber as the Northman is, with its sullen characters and muted palettes (so dark the imagery was almost indecipherable at times in the theatre), it was decidedly uncritical of the complex themes it presented.

Amleth, played by Alexander Skarsgård, is on a fate-determined quest for vengeance after his king father is murdered. And in the end, he does just that. But as we’ve seen in many other fantasy narratives, revenge brings nothing but temporary catharsis. There were opportunities in the story for a deeper exploration of this theme. At the beginning of the third act, Amleth’s mother, played by a riveting Nicole Kidman, reveals that she never loved his father. That she had begged her brother-in-law to murder her husband and her own son. That she was not a high-born princess, but a slave stolen into marital captivity. This was a perfect moment to shake the foundation of Amleth’s core beliefs. However the film quickly adopts Amleth’s resolution to cast his mother off as an evil harlot, and does away with her for good. Near the end, as Amleth and his lover Olga, played by Anya Taylor Joy (who is captivating here), are about to escape Iceland, he makes a pivotal decision. Instead of choosing between “kindness for his kin” and “hate for his enemies”, he opts for both.

The Northman is based on the Danish folklore which inspired Hamlet. If this story was structured as a classic tragedy in the vein of its predecessors, Amleth would soon learn that no one can have it both ways. This could have been his fatal flaw. I think the greatest problem with the Northman is the movie itself is trying to have it both ways. It wants to be a classic hero’s journey and a revenge story, two story structures which I personally believe to be incompatible. What makes Hamlet so legendary, and I’ve said this in my video about Daenerys Targaryan, is the catharsis it brings in that moment where Hamlet realizes his fatal mistake. The Northman does not give us this, instead rewarding Amleth for his blind vengeance. And ultimately this is why its thematic elements, at least for me, felt unfulfilling. Sure, Amleth dies at the end. But he dies in a state of euphoria, pleased that in spite of the brutal killings of his mother, half-brother, king, and many other innocents, his future children will prevail. This does not a good story make.