Can you elaborate on what you mean by that?
As with every aspect of his films, he goes for deep, historical accuracy in the dialogue. This often results in language that is difficult to process for our modern ears.
This still from The Witch covers it nicely…
Can’t say I found The Northman difficult to process compared to The Lighthouse, nor The Witch though it has been a while so I may have forgotten. Then again, I’m a subtitles person so the switches from English to Norse and back didn’t make much difference to my perception. The actual content of the language wasn’t noticeably obscure. The occasional kennings, for instance, were more straightforward than most of the ones you’d find in Old English literature (can’t speak to Old Norse but I imagine it was similar in that respect)
Yeah, subtitles are a must. I thought this article was surprising… they worked hard in post-production to make the dialogue more audience-friendly.
Overall i really enjoyed it. Gorgeous visuals, solid acting. Yes, it doesn’t always make a ton of sense, but when viewed through the lens of myth i didn’t have any issues with their choices. I thought at the end it would be a bit more complex, but i don’t mind a simple and well told story.
It’s an uneven mess, but I still enjoyed it.
With the story he is trying to tell, he just doesn’t have room to establish any of the things he want to show us. The movie has religion, magic, warfare, history, culture, family, trauma, revenge, romance and language, and there’s not nearly enough time for all of that. I think he would have needed at least another movie to do it properly.
I also thought the dialogue started to sputter as it went along. We start off with this very extravagant poetic language, which is very authentic, but then it just kinda dries up and badly misfires in places. There were some lines I don’t think even a Shakespearean actor could’ve pulled off, let alone Alex Skarsgård.
But I love the amount of knowledge that went into this. As a young man I devoured all the old songs, and dived in as deep as I could, and this movie is like a laundry list of the things I used to dream about. Wolf-heathens donning their skins and communing with the animal before a battle, or people venturing into mounds to recover priceless runed weapons from the dead.
One of my favourite sagas, Hervors Saga has that as one of its main beats. The more authentic way to go would’ve been a battle of wits with the dead warrior for the sword - instead The Northman went all Skyrim - but either way, seeing those scenes played out, and recognizing the scholarship that went into it was really satisfying.
I think we have to stop pretending that Alexander Skarsgård can carry a movie. He’s been terrible in this, Hold the Dark and Mute. I don’t believe a thing he’s doing, and I think he looks hopelessly lost in scenes with other actors. I don’t know why he gets to keep doing it.
Movie of year forever until something else comes along in my shitty book. Sorry, I loved it.
This is as easy as everything in Hollywood. He’s a nepo baby like everyone else. Like, duh!
Thanks for saying what I’ve been thinking for some time. Can we start a club?
It’s especially galling given that I bet his brother Bill could carry the fuck out of a movie. And I don’t just mean by wearing scary clown make-up. Even bare-faced, I would watch the heck out of an arthouse movie built around Bill Skarsgard!
He is a fun character in The Hummingbird Project!
I remember really liking Hidden. I also had a memory of really liking him in Generation Kill, but I went back and rewatched it, and nope, he’s not good in that either.
It gives me no pleasure to say it, because the guy is obviously having some success, and I don’t begrudge anyone that, but I’ve come to dread watching him.
In this movie there are a few scenes that really focus on his face, and his eyes are just completely dead. There’s absolutely nothing going on. Those are the scenes where he’s supposed to really burn, but it just looks like he’s off somewhere else, like he’s posing for a magazine picture or something.
I don’t think I’ve seen enough of him, do you have any tips?
I remember him being the only good thing in that “It” remake.
Ha ha, I also just remembered I saw Castle Rock. I have absolutely zero recollection of anything in that show, so it must’ve been amazing. I think he was a dangerous dude who lived in a prison…?
Oh yeah, I remember now. He would walk past a house and it would really piss people off. Kind of a cool superpower.
@MelesMeles, are you watching the current season of Succession? A lot of our issues with Alexander Sarsgard are arguably being used to great effect in the Succession storyline!
Everyone knows him from the It movies, but I think he’s plenty creepy in Barbarian. Also plenty charming in Barbarian, which is the point! In fact, I’d say Barbarian is premised entirely on Bill Sarsgard’s weirdly serpentine appeal. Without it, Barbarian wouldn’t work.
He also really stood out for me with Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde and in a sprawling period piece called Devil All the Time. I’d recommend all three of those movies – Barbarian, Atomic Blonde, and Devil All the Time – for a “Bill Sarsgard Appreciation Party”.
He’s also the lead opposite Maika Monroe in a home invasion comedy called Villains that I would only recommend as an example of how he can commit to a not-very-good script in which he’s horribly miscast. That, to me, is the hallmark of a good actor.
Also, I’m enough of a fanboi that I’m super disappointed he wasn’t cast as Feyd in the rest of the Dune movie. : (
I thought Bill Skarsgard was pretty good in John Wick 4!
Oh I forgot he was in that! I loved that movie.
Alexander S. has an amazing cameo in the season three finale of Atlanta.
“I might lose the Baby Shark movie now.”
Also, Alexander Skarsgard is excellent in the new season of Documentary Now, where he plays essentially a sitcom-obsessed Werner Herzog. And as a bonus for Succession fans, Nicholas Braun shows up as well.
Right? What a weird movie with an utterly amaze-balls cast. I don’t think it quite works, but I admire the hell out of it for trying, and it’s got pockets of strange brilliance scattered here and there. I mean, who uses Robert Pattinson for that?
No, not yet! I’m not good with the weekly releases. I have to be able to binge and I can’t stand a cliffhanger, so I’m gonna wait till it’s all there.
Thanks for the recommendations, I love a good appreciation party!
I think that’s a brilliant standard. If I was gonna do a polemic a la “The Rock is a better actor than Harrison Ford” it would be “Kurt Russell is the greatest actor of the 20th century” because there is no movie so stupid that he won’t seem believable in it.
I don’t know about miscast, and I haven’t seen all of his bad movies, but I did see Escape from New York, Tango and Cash and Stargate within the last year or so, and I just marvelled at the nonsense he was able to pull off without flinching, especially as everyone around him died with the same material.
If you ever make a movie that’s so dumb that you think “Jesus, no one can pull this off” it’s simple, you just have to call Kurt Russell.
I am gonna watch that, just to be a completist, but I heard they weren’t getting any better, and I know I’ll be sad to see Lance Reddick again. I loved that dude.
Ooo, I love Atlanta. I still haven’t seen 3 and 4, I should really do something about that.
I love what you’re saying, but I just cannot imagine Alexander Skarsgård pulling off a sitcom-obsessed Werner Herzog. There’s too much water under that bridge. (I’ll probably still check it out)
Thanks for all the recommendations, you guys rock!
The episodes are a parody of Fitzcarraldo/Burden of Dreams, with the Herzog-like German director (with Klaus Kinski analog) trying to film a sitcom pilot in a Eurasian mountain range.
Haha, oh my god. Just reading the setup already has me laughing.
I’m huge on Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski. I’ll watch anything. So yeah, well sold good sir!
You’ll love it. They nail the look with the lenses and film grain, and have a wonderful Popol Vuh soundalike score.