The Northman has certainly been one of my most highly most anticipated films of all of 2022. After what he did with both The Lighthouse & The Witch, director Robert Eggers has certainly established himself as one of our most unique visionary artists working today. And so of course the news of Eggers being given a $70 million budget to make an epic medieval revenge tale about Vikings sounded like a bold, but exciting preposition with rich potential. The marketing team behind this film has been absolutely killing it and in a marketplace that feels very severely lacking modern big screen epics, the nerd in me always has a great hunger for a brand new one.
And this staggering film is exactly what you anticipate a $70 million epic from the mind of Robert Eggers to be. Epic, visceral and so visually gorgeous from the very first frame. While these trailers may have presented something a little more action oriented in the vein of a Braveheart or Gladiator, Eggers's DNA is still imprinted in every single aspect of this film. This is a revenge tale that is every bit as tragic and emotionally poignant as it is brutal. Every single action beat is visceral and intense, demanding to be seen on the biggest screen possible. But like any great storyteller Eggers doesn't use this at the expense of great storytelling. The level of brutality with the violence in this is shocking, but also purposeful and very impactful. It is a relatively straightforward revenge story, but one that still delivers upon plenty of emotional gut punches and strong character beats.
The technical achievements are nothing short of remarkable. It contains some of the very best use of sound design from any film in recent memory and that's yet another reason I implore anyone seeking this film out to make sure it's in a theater. The cinematography work from Jarin Blaschke is also breathtaking and immersive. If I could frame every single shot in this film on my bedroom wall, I most certainly would. The score composed from Robin Carolan & Sebastian Gainsborough is haunting and addictive as it's continued to be humming inside my head since leaving that theater last night. Yes, it's still a bit early in the year to be making a declaration like this, but there's no just world where this film isn't a major front runner in at least all of the technical categories at next year's Oscars.
This all-star cast Eggers has assembled is unsurprisingly aces across the board. Alexander Skarsgaard is an absolute beast as he conveys every bit of the physicality, but also the emotional passion that drives this character and his performance. I'm still puzzled as to why Skarsgaard hasn't quite become a bigger movie star over the years, but this surely feels like the sort of performance that easily can put him more back on the map again. Anya Taylor-Joy is by no surprise dynamite as always alongside Skarsgaard and I even really bought into the emotional chemistry between these two. Ethan Hawke & Willem Dafoe have smaller roles than I anticipated, but these guys always bring incredible gravitas even in the most minimalist roles. And Claes Bang also does engaging work as our villain Fjolnir. As fantastic as everyone in this all-star lineup is, it's the great Nicole Kidman's fierce and menacing work as Queen Gudrun who steals the entire show with every single moment, she's on screen. There is one monologue she has that will be continuing to linger in my head for a long time. From a script perspective, the character work maybe could have been fleshed out a little more, but every role feels so perfectly cast and each actor is so committed here that I still felt so emotionally invested in the journey of our main characters.
As the story is at least loosely based on the original tale that inspired William Shakespeare's Hamlet story, the Shakespearean influences are certainly all over this film. It has all the expected elements and themes of a classical Greek tragedy. The dialogue is very Shakespeare and even I'm looking forward to the day I can rewatch this at home with those subtitles on the screen. It can perhaps be a distracting technique during some very crucial moments of the film and one that I imagine could be hard to chew on for some general audiences, however I feel it ultimately works not only because of the film's time period, but because this has very much also become a trademark of Eggers as a filmmaker. Eggers is swinging for the fences with every choice he makes here, and I think he mostly pulls everything off in spectacular fashion.
There have already been some outstanding films in 2022 and we're not even close to being halfway through the year yet. But out of all the excellent films I've seen this year already, I'm not sure there's one that demands to be seen on the biggest screen you can possibly find than this masterful revenge epic Eggers has crafted with his latest. It's a great sign when the biggest criticisms I can find for a film feel like the smallest of nit-picks and are ones that I see fading away with my many future rewatches. This is a beautifully made work of art that also proves Eggers is batting a perfect 3 for 3 already in his career and this might even be his greatest feature yet. It's an old fashioned epic told through the intimate and distinctive lenses of Robert Eggers. It's another incredible film to add to what has already been quite an impressive year for cinema and hopefully that will only continue from here on out. I'm not sure how general audiences are generally going to take this film, but I do implore people to seek it out because we especially need many more original films like this one that allows for amazing storytellers to take some big chances with a less restrained budget. I cannot wait to see this one again and you can bet it will be in an actual Dolby cinema that next time.
Final Grade: A-