Valhalla Rising

My last post detailed two films that I was interested in watching solely based on the actor in the lead role. These also happened to be actors with great names. Valhalla Rising is no different. Continuing the trend of utterly cool names, Mads Mikkelson is an actor I had been interested in since I had seen him in Antoine Fuqua's re-imagining of King Arthur, where he played the Asian-influenced Tristam. The content of the Valhalla Rising was also something that immediately caught my attention: Vikings. Norse mythology, and by association, the Nordic cultures in general are topics of great interest for me. I love me a film with some god damned Vikings!

Just from viewing the trailers for this film, I could tell it was completely mis-represented. Because of this, I was almost ready for what I experienced. More on this after the main portion of the review...

I will try to sum up the film with an in-cohesive babbling of words and phrases:
Slow, deliberate, contemplative, bursts of violence, 30 lines of dialogue, beautifully shot, almost supernatural/fantastical.

If the above description confused you, do not worry: so will this film. It is at once the most beautiful and absolutely frustrating kind of movie I could watch.

Valhalla Rising is not for viewers looking for a concrete explanation of... well... anything. I would compare this in terms of pacing and plot, to Asif Kapadia's The Warrior. They are both metaphysical films about violence and faith. The difference between the films is that The Warrior is infinitely more accessible than Valhalla Rising. The Warrior tells an incredibly simplistic story about a man's turn from violence, and his road to revenge. It tells the story with landscape and movement, weaving a story using only a small amount of dialog. If The Warrior was a book that was light on the details, then Valhalla Rising is a book that gives you the introduction and the ending, and asks you to figure out what the hell happened in the middle, using fragments of scrambled phrases taken from the Bible and Beowulf.

Rising starts with an introduction of our "hero", One-Eye. I will let you guess why they call him that. One Eye is a warrior. He is being whored out to brawls that more often than not end in brutal death, which others bet money on. Oh yeah, and One Eye? He doesn't talk, and has no past that I could extract from the films dialog. And this is the first problem this film has: A main character with no dialog and no past to speak of (see what I did there?) makes for an incredibly hard character to connect too. You could argue that One Eye is not the focus here, and that the characters around him are the ones who the audience should be connecting too. If that is true, the film doesn't make it obvious, since a large percentage of the screen time is dedicated to One Eye.

That is not to say that is a terrible thing, given how striking Mads looks in the role. His One Eye is incredibly imposing, and embodies all of the physical attributes of someone with whom no one should ever fuck with. His (lack of an) eye, body scars and tatoos only further push to establish that One Eye has seen a lot (tehee!) of violence, and has somewhere along the line found that it is something he is good at.

Mads, as you may have figured, decides he doesn't like being jerked around and stages an escape, after which he and some other Christian Crusaders proceed to go on what seems to be the ultimate acid trip. That is the best way to explain it. The plot spirals into a series of incredibly mystical events, which lands the group in North America, nearly starving them all in the process. From here, things only get more psychedelic, with Native Americans showing up and and the band of merry travelers slowly losing their minds.

The film never really throws the audience a bone. As soon as you are coming to grips with an event that seemed almost fantastical, you are hit with another nearly inexplicable event that almost taunts you by saying "Try and explain THAT one!".

The near fantastical plot is completely counterbalanced by the down and dirty realistic look of the film. It is beautiful to behold. The film was shot primarily in Scotland, and is framed with an incredible eye for natural beauty. The film looks majestic. I saw this film in high definition, and truly feel that is the only way it should be experienced.

I originally thought it impossible that they ended up in the Americas, and was quite turned off by the thought. They start off by trying to sail to Jerusalem, in a small boat. The supposedly short commute turns into a harrowing never-ending descent into hell as they are thrown way the fuck off-course by what seems to be malicious mist. But as the movie trucked along, I grew to accept the fact that many of the events that occur are a mixture of real gritty, muddy violence and surreal moments, which include One Eye's prophetic dreams. The dreams are quite visceral, using this incredibly shocking red filter, which coupled with the fantastic cinematography, ingrained them into my memory. 

Let's talk about some of the violence in the film. First and foremost, the violence is quick and brutal. If you blink, you might miss it. I truly enjoyed the framing and filming of the action. My feelings toward the action scenes are similar to 13 Assassins in that the people in this film are truly trying to hurt each other. One Eye seems to have an unconventional "diving-chop" move that is so unpredictable and practical that I honestly believed that he could take on a group of 3 or more using this element of surprise. I got a full sense of geography and distance between the fighters, and the incredible landscape provided a dramatic stage for some of the violence that plays out.

The film does not hold back on the depictions of violence. Blood, gore, and innards are thrown about in a nonchalant fashion, but are not lingered upon. The violence is lean and mean; serving a purpose rather than being used as a dressing for gore-hounds. 

Oddly enough, the violence is about as sparse as the dialog. There are only a few scenes of action, and those scenes last only a short time. I did not mind this, since from the trailers, I was ready for this movie to NOT be an action film.

That was not the feeling that may others shared going into the movie. Take a look at the trailer for the film:

The trailer shows clips from every one of the brief action sequences. Although the trailer doesn't outright claim this to be a balls to the wall action film, it seems tailored to attract the crowd that would be interested in such a movie. The overuse of action shots in the trailer gives the false pretense that the film is focused on action, when nothing could be farther from the truth. Armed with only the add campaign, this movie likely played out to an audience that was not ready for the film they were about to experience. I can imagine as the the film progressed, the audience would grow increasingly mystified and even agitated by the films lofty plot and mystical nature.

I have already made the comparison of Valhalla Rising to The Warrior. Here is the trailer for that film for comparison:

The poster of the film (seen at the top of the post) however, was incredibly effective. It displays two of the films strongest attributes: the landscape, and the physical presence of the lead. I think I might actually purchase this bad-boy.

Valhalla Rising is a film that either captivates or aggravates the hell out of you. The lofty nature of the film makes it hard to make an audience truly care about any of the characters. But, as long as you are willing to take the plunge into rabbit hole, the experience can be rewarding. At once both a nightmare and a dream, this films descent into hell can be an incredibly engrossing experience, as long as you let go of the trappings of the average plot driven film and allow One Eye to take you on the journey.