Rave reviews for Norse epic partly filmed at Gleniff Horseshoe
A FILM based on Norse mythology has earned reviews from critics ahead of release in Irish cinemas tomorrow, Friday.
The Northman is directed by Robert Eggers with an all-star cast including Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, Claes Bang, Bjork, Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke.
The revenge thriller is set in 10th century Iceland and is based on the legend of Amleth, which served as the inspiration for William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet.
It was reported in August 2020 that the Gleniff Horseshoe was to used as a filming location, which was soon confirmed as it abruptly became a closed set.
It was rumoured at the time that Nicole Kidman was on site in north Sligo, but it was confirmed soon after that it was in fact Bjork who was was filming a number of her scenes as The Slav Witch there.
In his review in The Irish Times, film critic Donald Clarke praised the film for its intelligence and invention. He said: “Those entering with no prior knowledge will find a familiar story rapidly folding around them.
“We begin with young Prince Amleth welcoming home his warrior king father (an uncharacteristically burly Ethan Hawke) from the usual Viking slaughters. All seems comfortable enough, but intrigue is brewing. Amleth watches horrified as his father’s brother (Claes Bang) murders the boy’s dad and shacks up with his apparently unwilling mother (Nicole Kidman). He flees for foreign climes, grows to be a man, and, now in the mountainous form of Alexander Skarsgård, plots his dreadful revenge. He continued that the violence on show will not be to everybody’s taste and that the basic ingredients of the story are well known through centuries of storytelling, but its care in telling an accurate and well researched tale resulted in an epic worth seeing on the big screen.
“A few centuries of exposure to the formal theatrical tragedies have prepared us for the story’s inevitable narrative arcs. But the richness of Eggers’s historical ventriloquism ensures there is never a dull moment. No previous film has, we are reliably informed, been so accurate in its recreation of Norse life. Even those unconcerned with such things will be won over by the richness and weirdness of the cluttered fabric.”
In his review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw praised Robert Eggers for detaching the source material of the Norse myth from the melancholic Shakespearian tragedy and retelling the original story to a brand new audience. He also highlighted that viewers beware the violence on show, but should they be able to get around wiil enjoy a film they cannot look away from.
“The Northman is a horribly violent, nihilistic and chaotic story about the endless cycle of violence, the choice between loving your friends and hating your enemies – which turns out to be no choice at all, and the thread of fate down which masculinity’s delicious toxin drips. It’s entirely outrageous, with some epic visions of the flaring cosmos. I couldn’t look away.”
In her review for Empire, Hanna Flint praised Robert Eggers for fulfilling Alexander Skarsgard’s dream of playing a Viking on the big screen, with the True Blood star delivering an excellent performance in return.
“The Swedish actor has long wanted to play a Viking, and Eggers has created the perfect environment to truly bring out the berserker within. Whether it’s in the natural light against backdrops of forests, mountains, seas and rivers or behind the veil, on the rich, black-andwhite plane of gods, dead kings and valkyries, Skarsgård seems possessed with Old Nordic fire, showing both melancholy and a taste for blood. It’s quite unlike anything he’s done before. “This is intimate, culturally rich storytelling on a brutally epic scale. Skarsgård is in his element, bolstered by a sensational cast throwing themselves headfirst into Eggers and Sjón’s awe-inspiring vision. A cinematic saga worthy of the ancestors.”
In his review for the BBC, Nicholas Barber had a more lukewarm response, contradicting his fellow critics by stating that it would have beneffited from more violence and is tame by Robert Eggers’ standards.
“Stranded somewhere between an experimental art project and a mainstream Nordic answer to Gladiator, it’s certainly tamer than The Lighthouse.”
The Northman is at the Sligo Omniplex cinema from tomorrow, Friday, with showings at 5.20pm and 8pm.