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(More customer reviews)A peculiar though fascinating art house excursion, the 2009 film "Valhalla Rising" is a symbolic viking adventure about the discovery of the new world. To understand this film's aura, it should be noted it makes Terrence Malick's similarly-themed The New World feel like a summer blockbuster romp. Danish writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn has carved a bold name for himself with such challenging works as Pusher Trilogy and Bronson (Widescreen Edition), and this expedition into the muddy and bloody age of 1000 AD continues his refusal of convention.
There is nothing pleasant about Refn's nightmarish world (filmed on location in Scotland) where men wear sodden rags, tromp through mud and wage wet battles to the death. An oppressive fog covers all, and scarred men stare quietly into space desperately searching for definition. Small campfires provide little warmth, and what few women are seen are naked and chained together as slaves. Harsh does not begin to scratch the surface of Refn's haunting imagery (aided by Morten Søborg's brilliant cinematography and a fascinating musical score of Peter Kyed and Peter Peter). Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen displays unique presence as a one-eyed viking, appropriately named One Eye. He's evidently a captive, residing in a wooden cage and carefully fed like a lion by the orphaned blond boy Are (Maarten Stevenson). On a regular basis, he's dragged from his prison, chained to a post and forced to fight to the death versus combatants while weary warlords sit nearby and wager the outcome. There are no cheers for his victories, punctuated by the sounds of crushed skulls and broken bones.
One Eye eventually kills his captors and, with the boy gingerly trailing, silently travels cross country where they encounter a meager band of warriors who have converted to Christianity. They are preparing for a Crusade to Jerusalem, and reluctantly recruit One Eye, whose warrior legend precedes him. Soon, trapped on a meager long ship within a mysterious mist, they become hopelessly lost and depressed. The mists finally part, and before them is the ominous but sunny, tree-covered land of the new world. Quietly hiking through tall grasses, they encounter signs of Native Americans, including burial scaffolds and ghost-like arrows thumping into the bodies of unlucky comrades. These desperate vikings plant a tall, wooden cross in the virgin soil, utterly convinced they've arrived in Hell. Through it all, One Eye, with his boy sidekick in tow, silently leads the way through this mysterious world, disturbing even to him.
"Valhalla Rising" includes multiple dream sequences drenched in red, long continuous shots of wind-blown landscapes and ultimately, scenes of men sitting on rocks for minutes at a time staring into the void of quiet space. These are not spirited warriors by any stretch of the imagination, but terrified souls lost within the tides of worlds far more powerful than their swords. "Valhalla Rising" is a vision quest gone mad, completely lacking in the romantic conventions one expects from this period. Think The Vikings, or to a far lessor extent Pathfinder and the all-but-forgotten Lee Majors' B-flick The Norseman, where lusty vikings fight slow-motion battle sequences against tribes of fierce Native Americans. You'll get none of that here.
There are multiple inspirations Refn appears to be channeling, including Roman Polanski's Macbeth, the already-mentioned Malick, Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God and, perhaps most apparent of all, the experimental works of Kenneth Anger (The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol. 2) including his famous film Lucifer Rising [VHS].
I have always respected Anger's purposefully obscure films, where story is sacrificed for experimental, dream-like imagery. This is the true promised land of Refin's brutal journey. With a larger budget, he's taken Anger a step further, though fueled by equally potent doses of LSD. The minimum amount of dialog, usually raising more questions than answering, further carves a moody land of mystery and death. Insisting upon multiple interpretations, "Valhalla Rising" is an example of an incredibly gifted filmmaker reworking the tired conventions of period adventure, cutting through the surface, and pulling out the bloody results beneath.
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Acclaimed Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn follows his worldwide smash Pusher trilogy and the widely praised Bronson with his most daring film yet. Valhalla Rising is a brutally beautiful Viking film with international star Mads Mikkelsen ( Casino Royale, Clash Of The Titans ) as One Eye, a chained prisoner forced to fight to the death for the entertainment of his captors. When One Eye escapes, he stumbles upon a group of warriors headed to the Crusades. But fate has something else in store, as the men drift into the New World, where savages stalk them one by one in increasingly violent ways. Is One Eye an avenging angel or just the guiltiest of them all? The answers can be found in this ruthless, hallucinatory, one of a kind journey.
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