Valhalla Rising: Film Review (Minimal Spoilers)
A long, bloody but fascinating journey through a weird prism of existence.
Valhalla Rising is a difficult film to review. I’m not even sure what detail might qualify as a spoiler. Currently streaming on IFC, the film was released in 2009 as an action/adventure starring Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Hannibal TV series) and bombed at the box office. The plotline reads as follows:
A mute warrior with supernatural strength escapes his captors and sails into an unknown land with a ship full of Vikings.
Promoting Valhalla Rising as an action/adventure does it an appalling disservice: director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) has produced a mood piece lifted fresh and bloody from Nordic mythology, a violent, thrashing saga where we’re not sure where reality ends and the supernatural might begin. We feel we’re in a realm bordering the territory of the Gods as they roll dice with the whims of fate. Our fate.
Heady stuff.
Valhalla Rising is an atmospheric stare-down of a movie. Revolving more around Mikkelsen’s character (given the name One-Eye) than its meandering and sometimes frustrating shadow of a plot, it dares us to look away. And many viewers probably do look away. This is not a Hollywood movie with a traditional narrative; the story ricochets wherever pure chance or supernatural powers kick the ball.
I enjoy this kind of film if it’s done well, and Valhalla Rising does exactly what director Refn wants—and what he wants is nothing to be easy for his audience. His is a film you have to sit through as much as you passively spectate. It’s the sharp violence and aching stillness of the journey that matter and not where it ends up. We’re shoved through lengthy silences, 100-yard stares and camera shots drifting through misty, rugged landscapes, occasionally punctuated by scenes of lightning-fast slaughter. This is not every moviegoer’s cup of tea.
If you are a fan of directors like Terence Malik (The Thin Red Line) or Andrei Tarkovsky (Solaris) you might find Valhalla Rising to be right up your alley. Mikkelsen is perfect for his part of One-Eye, a heavily tattooed and scarred warrior of unknown origin with one blinded eye and pure fighting talent. He never utters a word. His looming silence makes the words of other men around him useless and hollow, no matter how lofty their intent. Words and symbols cannot penetrate nor change this tangled universe—only violent action. Lady MacBeth would be proud.
With his missing eye and skill in killing men it’s easy to link One-Eye to Odin, the one-eyed Norse god who did wander the land interacting with mortals (and often referred to as Hoarr, meaning ‘One-Eyed’). Odin gave up his eye as a sacrifice and the theme of sacrifice flows strong through Valhalla Rising.
Odin is a prominent Norse god who oversees controls Valhalla; he’s associated with death, war, battle and frenzy. He’s also associated with wisdom, knowledge, sorcery, poetry and the runic alphabet, among other things, and has been given over 170 names. Odin is a widely worshipped grab-bag of ancient, mythical identities and influences, so if you believe Mikkelsen’s One-Eye is a version of him, be my guest.
Valhalla Rising is a difficult watch on a number of levels. I liked it because it appealed to my open-ended sensibilities and my affection for mysteries that tease the line between reality and otherworldly myth (and Vikings!) Mine is a specific preference and certainly not for everyone, but I try to rank my reviews partly by how much I think the creator and crew achieved their desired vision, and, like it or not, Valhalla Rising hits its mark pretty well.
MOVIE RATING: 8.2 out of 10
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