The Northman: Blood, guts and abs

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > The Northman: Blood, guts and abs

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

checkplease posted:

I think the supernatural is reality for this movie. You could interpret the birds really just being Olga returning and freeing Amleth. But I see no reason to assume mean viking gods are not just messing with the lives of humans like Greek tales or the devil in the witch. There�s also that scene of Amleth and the fox (?) howling and making all the other dogs insane.

I was having trouble searching for a takeaway from this movie until I read your post

Immediately after Amleth witnesses his kingdom getting raped and pillaged we cut to Amleth and a bunch of Vikings�. Raping and pillaging a village

The gods are real and they are helping Amleth along on his quest for revenge

Amleth is at a crossroads where he could go gently caress off and be happy, build a family, etc. All the good and moral things by our modern sensibilities. But he wants to kill

So my main takeaway is that the gods are assholes.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2022 00:28

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 06:39

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Gatts posted:

Odin literally shows up in this movie. Isn�t there a bearded figure with 2 crows by him?

I think when Amleth escapes, there�s a cloaked figure with a spear and big hat left behind in the barn I assume was Odin

# ¿ Apr 27, 2022 01:30

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Oh yeah I got a question

Why did the sword unlock at the end even though it was day? Did Odin enjoy violence too much to be a rules lawyer

# ¿ Apr 27, 2022 02:55

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Me on my way to avenge my father�s death

# ¿ Apr 27, 2022 08:02

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

I can�t make sense of Eggers making this movie except to say that everyone is hosed up (except maybe the girl)

# ¿ Apr 28, 2022 01:58

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

BRJurgis posted:

Just saw this with gf at her request, had no expectations. I'm not mad at it, but I was definitely waiting for it to end by a certain point.

I felt a bit like it was treating me as a 15 year old playing Halo on Xbox live, or watching WWF. Reminded me of 300 (which I watched under similar circumstances and loving hated). Maybe I'm just not enough of a student of cinema to pick up on what it was trying to say. Mostly I just didn't care about any of the characters or their motivations, and was not expecting/wanting long life or happiness for any of them (except maybe Olga). Every moment after she departed I just really wanted it to be over so I could leave.

It was just really bleak and violent, and often visually too dark to recognize characters (theater issue?) I've never read or seen hamlet but I still knew nearly exactly what would happen.

Things I liked or appreciated:
I got a sense that this was probably an accurate appraisal of the chaos and violence of life in this time and place, it was effectively immersive in that sense.
Olga loving rocks and I loved her fearless contempt towards Fjulnir, and furious wind prayer.
The scenes with mysticism and supernatural events actually captured my interest, but ultimately were under represented and felt intended to string me along. If they were simply there to demonstrate the main characters motivations or worldview, that fell flat because I didn't care about him whatsoever. His introduction juxtaposing the savage and violent parallels between him and his uncle was obvious but not compelling as it fell into its predictable pattern.

More magic and more Olga, less gore and oily men screaming (they can crawl around growling and howling though that was interesting). And I giggled at the volcano fight finale, but then I was fully checked out by then.

Guess it wasn't for me.

Makes more sense if you think of it like Aranofsky�s The Wrestler, where Marisa Tomei is like Mickey Rourke let�s just make a normal life together and please stop wrestling because you�re destroying your mind and body and Rourke�s like sure okay

But then Rourke hears his name being chanted by his fans and he�s like aww poo poo here come the horns and he goes diving back into the ring

Eggers first two films were so good I can�t imagine this being just a macho slaughterfest. He has to have an angle.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2022 23:55

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

checkplease posted:

One thing I go back to that I really like is how during the Viking bar-mitzvah, Amleth�s father stresses to Amleth that should he, the king die, then it�s Amleths duty to hunt down the killer and avenge him. He doesn�t stress that he should be a good king and take care of his people. Or go marry some princess of Norway for an alliance. Just avenge him.

It really shows the culture of violence. And his mother acknowledges this later by saying she insisted Amleth be killed to avoid the revenge cycle. And then we see Amleths nephew start stabbing Amleth after killing his mother. .

Thanks for reminding me of this, I was thinking maybe the king and Olga were the only decent people

# ¿ May 2, 2022 01:38

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 06:39

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Good posts.

# ¿ May 4, 2022 10:32

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > The Northman: Blood, guts and abs