To preface, I would like to say that I am no expert in the historic and cultural field I'm about to discuss below, but because I am from a nordic country and love history, I have personal & cultural familiarity and attachment to it.
As such, I very much disagree with most of the lukewarm reviews of this movie. Not because they simply have a different opinion than me- I'm perfectly fine with that- but rather because I believe most of them missed the entire artistic point this movie was making. The most common criticisms I have seen are that the story and characters are very simple and that the dialogue is corny and pretentious. I would argue those are unfair criticisms.
Sjón is an Icelandic poet and author and is not just well versed in the old norse mythos, but is also an award-winning author on the merit of his high literary and artistic standards (see the Nordic Council Literature Prize, of which he was a winner in 2005). He collaborated with Robert Eggers in writing the story and dialogue and making it as authentic to the source mythos as possible. If you read any classic norse tale, for example The Long Ships, you will find this is exactly what the language is like. Calling it "corny" without at least acknowledging the correct context is unfair in my opinion.
As for the structure: old norse, english and other germanic tales were simple in structure because they were an oral tradition passed on from generation to generation through the ages. A story as complex and nuanced as The Godfather would never be able to survive like this, but something simpler, yet thematically more powerful such as Beowulf (old English poem) certainly would. The story of Beowulf has undergone many transformations over the ages and the version we are accustomed to is surely very different from what it was at its inception. But I would bet my money on that the thematic core has remained intact. This core is what makes Beowulf such a fantastic, timeless story, and it is on *this* basis it should be judged by modern critics, as should The Northman.
If you hold everything to our modern western standards of storytelling then just about every myth or story from any culture in human history is "bad". Just as our modern stories would be considered "bad" when held to any other culture's standards of storytelling. You can't judge an apple by the standard of what makes a good orange.
If you think these stories are too simple or corny, then perhaps they just aren't for you. There's nothing wrong with that. All I'm asking is for you to respect the culture and not judge it with wholly inappropriate standards. Keep in mind that old norse, finnish, and celtic stories were primary inspirations for J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth mythos. The Lord of the Rings is one of the most legendary stories ever told, and it is so precicely because Tolkien fundamentally understood what made these old myths and legends so captivating.
The Northman is much less of a modern adaption of this norse mythos as The Lord of the Rings was, but instead more of an authentic tribute to- or continuation of- it.
Yet judging The Northman on this basis is tough as, again, I am no expert in this field, but as far as I can stretch my knowledge it is, by quite a margin, the most authentic take on the norse mythos I have seen in cinema. The history buff community on YouTube seems to unanimously agree on this too.
Eggers is also a fantastic overall filmmaker and I can give nothing but praise to all other aspects of this movie- the cinematography, production, costume design and overall acting performances.
This is why I feel The Northman deserves a perfect 10/10. Had I judged it entirely with our modern western standards it would have at most cracked a 7. And had I judged it on the basis of being an old chinese proverb it would have been a 1.
As such, I very much disagree with most of the lukewarm reviews of this movie. Not because they simply have a different opinion than me- I'm perfectly fine with that- but rather because I believe most of them missed the entire artistic point this movie was making. The most common criticisms I have seen are that the story and characters are very simple and that the dialogue is corny and pretentious. I would argue those are unfair criticisms.
Sjón is an Icelandic poet and author and is not just well versed in the old norse mythos, but is also an award-winning author on the merit of his high literary and artistic standards (see the Nordic Council Literature Prize, of which he was a winner in 2005). He collaborated with Robert Eggers in writing the story and dialogue and making it as authentic to the source mythos as possible. If you read any classic norse tale, for example The Long Ships, you will find this is exactly what the language is like. Calling it "corny" without at least acknowledging the correct context is unfair in my opinion.
As for the structure: old norse, english and other germanic tales were simple in structure because they were an oral tradition passed on from generation to generation through the ages. A story as complex and nuanced as The Godfather would never be able to survive like this, but something simpler, yet thematically more powerful such as Beowulf (old English poem) certainly would. The story of Beowulf has undergone many transformations over the ages and the version we are accustomed to is surely very different from what it was at its inception. But I would bet my money on that the thematic core has remained intact. This core is what makes Beowulf such a fantastic, timeless story, and it is on *this* basis it should be judged by modern critics, as should The Northman.
If you hold everything to our modern western standards of storytelling then just about every myth or story from any culture in human history is "bad". Just as our modern stories would be considered "bad" when held to any other culture's standards of storytelling. You can't judge an apple by the standard of what makes a good orange.
If you think these stories are too simple or corny, then perhaps they just aren't for you. There's nothing wrong with that. All I'm asking is for you to respect the culture and not judge it with wholly inappropriate standards. Keep in mind that old norse, finnish, and celtic stories were primary inspirations for J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth mythos. The Lord of the Rings is one of the most legendary stories ever told, and it is so precicely because Tolkien fundamentally understood what made these old myths and legends so captivating.
The Northman is much less of a modern adaption of this norse mythos as The Lord of the Rings was, but instead more of an authentic tribute to- or continuation of- it.
Yet judging The Northman on this basis is tough as, again, I am no expert in this field, but as far as I can stretch my knowledge it is, by quite a margin, the most authentic take on the norse mythos I have seen in cinema. The history buff community on YouTube seems to unanimously agree on this too.
Eggers is also a fantastic overall filmmaker and I can give nothing but praise to all other aspects of this movie- the cinematography, production, costume design and overall acting performances.
This is why I feel The Northman deserves a perfect 10/10. Had I judged it entirely with our modern western standards it would have at most cracked a 7. And had I judged it on the basis of being an old chinese proverb it would have been a 1.
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