Valhalla Rising: a bloody intelligent Viking epic?
- 23 February 2010
- Gerard Wood
Valhalla Rising, the latest project by Danish filmmaker Nicholas Winding Refn (Bronson), first showed up on our radar back in 2008. Since then it's raised its bloody and battered head from time to time with a new trailer, snippet of news or film festival appearance, and quickly faded back into the mist without ever seeming to get any closer to a general release. Blood and mist as you'll appreciate if you've experienced any of the trailers, would appear to be two of the film's most distinctive features.
With a UK release finally approaching (26 March), Valhalla Rising has raised its head once again with a two minute long medley of scenes “showcasing” the film’s gore, set to the most bizarre choice of music: Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers, from The Nutcracker. It’s not a trailer so much as a mishmash of brutal scenes, and believe me when I say it’s not for the faint of heart. Frankly, I don’t see the point of it (beyond the obvious, though cheaply scored, marketing goal). The depiction of violence, brutality and gore is justified in the appropriate context, but this medley of scenes has no context and is basically gratuitous.
If you’re interested in seeing it nonetheless, ComingSoon.nethas an age-restricted copy available on their site.
Notwithstanding this latest clip I’m still keen to see Valhalla Rising: Refn is an exciting director and I have no doubt that within the context of the story the gore is justified. The story takes place at a time of transition as the old Norse beliefs give way to the new religion, Christianity. One-Eye, a mute warrior endowed with formidable strength and the ability to kill with ruthless efficiency, has been held prisoner by the chieftain Barde for many years and forced to fight in gladiatorial combats for entertainment and money. Aided by a boy, Are, he kills his captor and together they escape, joining up with a band of Viking converts to Christianity who are setting sail for the Holy Land. Their ship is engulfed by an endless fog that fades away only as they sight an unknown land, and as the new land reveals its secrets and the Vikings meet a ghastly fate, One-Eye discovers his true self.
Sarah Lutton who saw Valhalla Rising at the London Film Festival last year was suitably impressed. Far from mindless violence she found considerable depth: “On one level One-Eye's mission to find his destiny is rendered with explicit and violent physicality, but director Winding Refn also employs the beauty and strangeness of the natural world to create an impression of the quietness and stillness of his inner self. This journey itself is highly metaphorical: whether travelling toward a new Jerusalem, the New World or into the arms of Valhalla itself, Winding Refn creates an outstanding sense of time, place and emotion. With beautiful atmospheric visuals and a hauntingly evocative electronic score, Valhalla Rising has echoes of the doomed voyages of Aguirre, Wrath of God or Apocalypse Now but, as we have come to expect with Winding Refn's work, this is a true original.”
The movie has been showcased at several film festivals and Lutton is not alone in her high opinion of it or of Refn, the film's co-writer and director. Aside from the Norse and Viking subject matter which always appeal to me, reviews such as Lutton's have had me intrigued for months. Refn really is an exciting director and Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, King Arthur), playing the warrior One–Eye (who surely has some relationship with Odin, the one-eyed All-Father of Norse mythology) is an intelligent and a visceral actor, always a pleasure to watch.
Release dates for North America and Australia are yet to be announced. Denmark has a 5 March release, and Finland 30 April. We’ll keep you posted.
We’ve included an older, and far more appealing trailer than the latest offering:
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