valhalla rising movie review

Valhalla Rising Review

30 Apr 2010

100 minutes

Valhalla Rising

Following the Pusher trilogy and Bronson, Nicolas Winding Refn — Denmark’s second-most committed auteur — turns away from contemporary criminality to deliver a dream of a Viking movie. Valhalla Rising is not the exercise in action-oriented ethnography we might expect from Mel Gibson (who has his own Norseploitation movie in the works) or a tricked-up genre film like Pathfinder (which it slightly echoes) or Outlander, but a hallucinatory, fable-like extrapolation from a single historical fact — a pile of stones on the Delaware shore, well away from where the rumoured Norse settlements in North America were supposed to be.

Mads Mikkelsen, with no dialogue, has to play a mystic archetype, and emerges as a monolithic screen presence, following his Casino Royale villain with another wonky-eye turn — a tethered god of violence who has psychic flashes of horrors to come. One-Eye is the film’s lead, and an emotional tie with a boy (Maarten Stevenson) who becomes his sidekick marks him as a hero, but he could as easily be an immortal trickster guiding this band of venal, violent pilgrims to a realm where they can be appropriately punished. Shot in spectacular Scotland, Valhalla Rising has a gorgeous deep-focus look which harks back to the Vincent Ward of The Navigator and the Tarkovsky of Andrei Rublev. Here, the past is alien and hostile terrain, with people reduced to brutal, impulsive behaviour because their environment, while breathtaking, is unbearably savage.

A cast of battered-looking Vikings show frozen faces in close-up, but are mostly here to die in a horrible manner — felled by arrows, disembowelled with axes, smitten by the elements. But it’s a slow, reflective film which builds from small physical details to a transcendent vision: Refn’s crime movies are theatrical and shot through with fantasy, and this isn’t an overly literal slice of horrible history. Many won’t have patience for it, but it will pick up devotees who’ll watch it over and over.

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The Ending Of Valhalla Rising Explained

The 2009 film "Valhalla Rising" was a milestone for its director, Nicholas Winding Refn, and its star, Mads Mikkelsen . Although Refn had already made "Bronson" with Tom Hardy, and Mikkelsen had appeared in the James Bond film " Casino Royale ," "Valhalla Rising" cemented them both as important creators in the minds of English-speaking movie goers outside their native Denmark. The film is a visual spectacle with very little dialogue, and none at all from Mikkelsen's central character. That tends to leave a lot of viewers, including those who've enjoyed the film, a bit confused about what it all means, especially the ending.

Hopefully this article can help with that.

Mikkelsen's character is referred to only as One Eye, and he's a skilled Norse warrior turned slave who kills his masters and escapes his bonds, alongside a young boy (Maarten Stevenson) who had been enslaved alongside him. The pair set sail on a boat with a group of Norse Christian missionaries who are planning to voyage to the Holy Land to join the Crusades. However, they get hopelessly lost in the foggy North Atlantic and end up in North America, where they are attacked by Native warriors.

One Eye is more than just a man

One Eye seems to have supernatural skills as a fighter, and he also has the gift of prophesy, dreaming and having visions of things before they happen throughout the film. His vision of an arrowhead leads to finding the weapon that enables his escape from slavery, another vision leads him and the boy to join a sea voyage, and at the end of the movie he is completely unsurprised by the appearance of the Native Americans, and his death at their hands. After they kill him, however, his placid face is seen in the foggy sky.

Viewers familiar with Norse mythology will guess pretty quickly who One Eye seems to be, although Nicholas Winding Refn has never directly confirmed it. Nevertheless, it's as clear as anything in the film — One Eye is actually Odin, the one-eyed Norse God of war, wisdom, prophecy, and the sky. Odin sacrificed his eye for wisdom, which enables him to see the future, just as One Eye does in the movie. He was also known for walking the Earth in human guise, which appears to be what he's doing in this story.

Only the Boy understands him

As a pagan god in human form, One Eye cares nothing for the Christian missionaries, most of whom he either kills or lets die over the course of the film. The boy, on the other hand, is a pagan (i.e. a worshiper of Odin) and is therefore special to him and under his protection. At the end of the film, he even sacrifices his life (at least in this particular human incarnation) for the boy, who the Native warriors leave alone after One Eye is dead. Over the course of the movie, there are several moments where the boy seems to understand One Eye's thoughts and intentions, even though Mikkelsen never speaks a word out loud or even in sign language. This is, after all, how gods are generally known to speak to humans: silently, inside their minds.

Whether the boy understands One Eye's true identity is sort of beside the point. Either way, he's awed by this powerful figure who protects him. The Christian characters, even if they survived longer, would have a tough time converting the boy, since his own god is far more directly involved in his life than theirs.

One Eye dies but lives on

When One Eye's face appears in the sky, that might represent Odin's return to Valhalla, his heavenly mead hall where he drinks with the honored dead (hence the title of the movie). However, there is also a sense in the film that Odin's time is ending. The three-way tension between European paganism, Christianity, and Native American culture is the conflict of the future, and for good or ill we know that the Christians will largely win the future, no matter how ill-prepared they seem in the time of this story.

These themes are pretty clear in the film even if you just read One Eye as a human pagan who happens to have the same number of eyes as Odin, but if you view him as the god himself, the story becomes even more direct. And after all, "One Eye" is one of Odin's many nicknames, something Refn and Roy Jacobson must have known when they wrote the script.

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Valhalla Rising Reviews

Though gorgeously shot in Scotland to capture hazy and bleak landscapes of green mountains and dense forests, the film’s beauty hardly compensates for its inaccessible tone.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 9, 2023

Refn tries to turn his protagonist into a Christ figure at the climax, which might have worked better if the rest of the film weren’t an endless slog of mud, blood, and graphic disembowelment.

Full Review | Aug 10, 2022

Episode 27: Valhalla Rising / Bronson / Starred Up / True Detective S3

Full Review | Original Score: 78/100 | Sep 9, 2021

A unique sample of that grand cinema that trascends its status a a story told in images to be considered a true experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | May 15, 2021

This is vintage Refn, and fans of epic fantasies and sword and axe battles will be delighted.

Full Review | Aug 10, 2020

It would be easy to dismiss Valhalla Rising as incomprehensible or indulgent... But the film reveals itself to be intense and atmospheric.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 28, 2019

Valhalla Rising serves as to remind us that small filmmaking is not only effective, but vital.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 24, 2019

A thundering visceral experience, a rich and layered work of art that acts as a stylistic punch to the gut.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 5, 2019

A film about belief, faith, the foundations of what we think we know is true in terms of history, as well as the nature of good and of evil.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | May 4, 2019

Brutal, thoughtful, re-envisioning of Vikings. . .A bit ponderous and pompous, powerfully showcases Mikkelsen's non-verbal acting, striking imagery, evocative landscapes.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 2, 2016

Mikkelsen verifies that, even without saying a word, he's an unnervingly unhinged presence.

Full Review | Original Score: B | May 31, 2011

Filled with brutality.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Dec 26, 2010

A mad meditation on the primeval nature of man, faith and survival, this is Apocalypse Then, and then some.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 22, 2010

Directed in moody and portentous strokes by Nicolas Winding Refn, this is the most abstract Viking movie you'll ever see...

Full Review | Dec 3, 2010

Less Braveheart than Aguirre, The Wrath of God, this evocative Viking tone poem contemplates the convergence between violence and religion.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 1, 2010

A Nordic odyssey straight down to Jerusalem

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Sep 20, 2010

I appreciate Refn for pushing against conventions of rhythm, photography, subject, color, and form, and I don't mind that Valhalla Rising lacks a story so much as I question its reliance on enigmatic hints of some grand, over-arching abstraction.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Sep 4, 2010

It's like a gorgeous graphic novel with a protagonist and story that vanish utterly from the mind as soon as the last page is turned.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 19, 2010

Aguirre as conceptualized by Jim Jarmusch and executed by Terrence Malick.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 11, 2010

If only the pieces added up to an experience that sticks and that didn't finally succumb to a shrug of entropy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 29, 2010

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Valhalla rising — film review.

A change of pace for the Danish director of the cult "Pusher" trilogy, "Valhalla Rising" is set in that rich yet cinematically seldom-explored era during which the pagans of Northern Europe were being overrun and replaced by an upstart novelty, Christianity.

By Peter Brunette , The Associated Press September 18, 2009 1:32pm

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TORONTO — A change of pace for the Danish director of the cult “Pusher” trilogy, “Valhalla Rising” is set in that rich yet cinematically seldom-explored era during which the pagans of Northern Europe were being overrun and replaced by an upstart novelty, Christianity.

IFC bought the film here at Toronto, but one is hard-pressed to imagine who the audience might be for this actually quite mesmerizing film. Its violence is way too intense for the art film crowd, and its glacial pacing and fascination with brooding on nothing will surely alienate those who’ve come for the blood and guts.

One-Eye (Mads Mikkelsen, star of the first two “Pusher” films) is a half-man, half-beast figure of amazing ferocity who wins money, like a fighting cock or a pit bull, for his pagan overlords. He is very, very good at wreaking mayhem, and loves to split open the skulls of his opponents until the wet matter runs out. One day he turns on his captors and, after wiping them out in ultra-gory ways, takes off for parts unknown with a young boy who been feeding him each day. They eventually come upon a group of crazed Christians who are seeking to join the Crusade in Palestine, some for the love of God, others for the love of the booty that beckons. They wander endlessly in very picturesque locations until virtually everyone is mysteriously killed, one by one. Then the film ends.

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REVIEW | Ancient Ultra-Violence: Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Valhalla Rising”

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The introductory text at the beginning of “Valhalla Rising” both sets the scene and describes it. “In the beginning, there was only man and nature,” we’re told, and in this era — 1,000 A.D., to be precise — men bearing crosses drove the heathen to “the fringes of the earth.” A blood-soaked chronicle of a mute Scandinavian wanderer (Mads Mikkelsen) and warmongering religious zealots, the movie repeatedly sticks to its nimble outline. In fact, “the fringes” could serve as an alternate title for this spare, unnerving period piece, as it unleashes a series of grimly expressive compositions that often seem like refugees from Goya paintings.

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn solidified a penchant for psychological chaos with his elaborate “Pusher” trilogy of gangster stories and the deranged criminal portrait “Bronson.” With “Valhalla Rising,” he trades the precision of well-crafted plot and character for an elaborate cinematic tone poem. His central figure, an incessantly oppressed introvert prone to ferocious outbreaks of violent self-defense, has a phantom-like quality that positions him as a product of the morose environment. Desolate, foggy and caked with mud, the landscapes melt together to the point where more than one character wonders if they might have wandered into hell.

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Despite the historical backdrop, nothing in “Valhalla Rising” dispels the notion that it may indeed take place in a hell on earth. When we first meet the silent anti-hero, eventually dubbed “One-Eye” due to a grotesque scar filling one of his sockets, he’s a slave of brutish Scotsmen intent on forcing their captives to engage in lethal battles. Within minutes, One-Eye’s uncontainable power gets put on full display as the swift acts of disemboweling and decapitation puts the man back in control of his own destiny.

Heading off through the hazy no-man’s land with a young fellow slave (Maarten Stevenson) as his self-appointed sidekick and vocal ambassador, One-Eye runs into a band of Christian Vikings aiming to invade Jerusalem. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to know much about navigation, and the journey to nowhere continues. One-Eye’s newest companions turn into his latest enemies, providing yet another opportunity to showcase his killer talents. Bodies fall, One-Eye reasserts his authority, and the journey to nowhere continues. Ad infinitum.

To dismiss Refn’s repetitive approach as tedious would miss the poetic undulations of his elegantly minimalist exercise. Despite the rampant gore, “Valhalla Rising” conveys a far more muted ambience than anything else in his rapidly expanding oeuvre. Operating in near-theatrical mode for a majority of the running time, with barren outdoor sets and only the vaguest outlines of a plot, Refn’s filmmaking prowess routinely dominates the experience: The dark imagery flows together, a desolate soundtrack underscoring the dread, weaved together with dialogue that rarely rises above a whisper. The camera lingers on Mikkelsen’s face, foregrounding his performance even though he spends most of the movie acting like a statue.

The starkness of “Valhalla” is hardly an unfamiliar milieu. As One-Eye and his adolescent companion drift through an empty world, echoes of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” and other post-apocalyptic roadtrips come to mind. One-Eye, wearing a scar that’s far more frightening than the campy facial burn sported by Josh Brolin in “Jonah Hex,” suggests a primitive version of Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name. Later, as the Vikings endure an aimless trip through misty waters and gradually lose their minds, it’s impossible not to think of the similarly ill-fated quest in “Aguirre: Wrath of God.”

But while Refn’s method is steeped in pastiche, at least he uses it for his own high concept intentions. Tony Stone’s D.I.Y. epic “Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America” did a better job with turning Viking characters into figures of sympathy, but Refn uses them as effective symbols of religious fever reaching its breaking point. Saying nothing and doing little, One-Eye routinely elicits paranoia from his hesitate guides, allowing their mania to function as a weapon of self-destruction.

Given the extreme nature of the violence and the mood, Refn appears exceptionally adroit at avoiding B-movie turf where the context practically invites it. (The forthcoming medieval Roman thriller “Centurion” applies a silly grindhouse feel that Refn nimbly rejects.) The plot crawls along, sometimes coming to a complete halt as pure atmosphere takes over. Refn conveys the palpable sense of an alien environment, as if the viewer were experiencing a window into harsher times, although he never quite finds a full-bodied story to stabilize the mood.

One-Eye’s lean adventure unfolds in chapters, all of which harbor equal levels of restraint — sometimes too much of it. There’s little difference between the tone of the first part, titled “Wrath,” and the second, titled “Men of God,” save for the specific ideological persuasions of the people he encounters (but even those blur together). Redundancy is the biggest threat to the spell Refn starts building from the very first frame, but the gloominess has a purpose. A final symbolic shot suggests that One-Eye represents the primal nature of humanity as a force more unkillable than the man himself. It’s the final chilly nail in a feature-length coffin.

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Valhalla Rising

Review by brian eggert july 26, 2010.

Stylishly poetic and weighty to exasperating extremes, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s existential, primeval epic Valhalla Rising examines the combative relationship between the honor-bound pagans and the fanatical Christians in the world of Vikings. It’s a slow-moving combination of ridiculously gory violence, heavy metal music, and dreamy imagery set to no more than one or two handfuls of dialogue. Landscapes are beautiful but spare, and the tone is methodical and unforgiving. But the result is difficult to enjoy, as the whole picture resolves to be an obvious allegory for an alternate Christ tale where the holy martyr is replaced by a primordial, one-eyed Viking with an ax.

In a completely mute performance, Mads Mikkelsen ( Casino Royale ) plays the slave warrior called One Eye, because, as you might suspect, he has only one eye. Shackled and kept imprisoned, he’s released to fight in muddy one-on-one bouts to the death. His opponents are taken down with speed and bloody precision, and after making a kill, One Eye holds out his wrists, ready to be shackled again. Hypnotic, red-hued dreams fill his head, but it’s no wonder, with all of the carnage he purveys. This is an incredibly bloody film: Brains are bashed in with a rock, there’s a disembowelment in grisly detail, axes penetrate various victims, and splattery blood sounds echo through it all.

One Eye eventually escapes his captors and spares the life of a young boy, Are (Maarten Stevenson), who becomes his companion and voice. Are speaks for One Eye, who seems to communicate to the child through penetrating glances. When they come about a band of Christians headed to the Kingdom of Heaven, they’re invited along on a crusade, and on the way, the troupe becomes lost in a mist at sea. Believing themselves cursed for having One Eye and the boy on their boat, the nonetheless Christians find land, but discover it’s not where they intended to go. Surrounded by thick forests, they’re plagued by unseen people who attack them with stone arrowheads rather than iron. Slowly, their displacement drives them all to madness. Is this hell? They’re ancient Christians, so of course, they believe as much.

Refn seems ever-inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange , as he’s evidently thrilled by surreal, ultra-violent imagery with the pretense of purpose behind it. As with his Pusher films and last year’s Bronson , the writer-director journeys into the realm of aggression with overt symbolic and savagely masculine imagery. But Refn’s uses of symbolism are apparent here, unlike his earlier films. Delving into common iconographic pagan and Christian representations, Refn’s attempts at grand purpose become transparent and haughty, even slightly insulting. Especially when paired with the film’s pervasive violence and laughable chapter titles. One can’t help but think of the corny and overbearing chapters to Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist when Refn flashes “Chapter I: Wrath” and “Chapter V: Hell” across the screen.

Though gorgeously shot in Scotland to capture hazy and bleak landscapes of green mountains and dense forests, the film’s beauty hardly compensates for its inaccessible tone. Somewhere between a Werner Herzog-esque voyage into madness, a Ridley Scott epic, and a Terrence Malick quest of poetic searching, Refn’s film becomes hard to take seriously when the heavy metal guitars of Peter Kyed and Peter Peter’s soundtrack strike in the finale. Is it possible to have a period epic without rock music anymore? Movies like 300 and this should take a lesson from this year’s Robin Hood , which approached the material in a classic-yet-realist sense. But then again, Valhalla Rising is anything but classical; rather, its obvious post-modern descriptions and omnipresent self-importance leave the film in a limbo of indifference.

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Valhalla Rising (2009)

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Film criticism and other ravings, valhalla rising: a masterclass in cinematic stillness.

Posted on July 14, 2021 by Austin Fitzgerald

With The Green Knight , David Lowery’s adaptation of the old Arthurian tale, set for release on July 30 in the US, I’m revisiting Valhalla Rising , a violent but meditative Viking tale that features a similar infusion of psychedelia, nature and a medieval setting. The following is as much analysis as review, so — as usual — spoilers abound .

Like many of Nicolas Winding Refn’s films, Valhalla Rising has a reputation as a “love it or hate it” kind of film. For some, its vicious yet matter-of-fact violence is a non-starter. For others, the film’s almost eerie stillness, both sonically and visually, makes for a strange and off-putting experience. But for me, these elements and more make for one of the most original and absorbing depictions of Vikings ever put to film.

Released in 2009, Rising stars Mads Mikkelsen fresh off his claim to superstardom as a Bond villain in Casino Royale . Mikkelsen is a mysterious, one-eyed Norse warrior known only as One-Eye, who is kept as a slave in the Scottish Highlands and forced to fight other slaves to the death. He does so with brutal efficiency. His moniker is given to him by a boy (Maarten Stevenson) — who belongs to the clan but often seems more like a fellow slave — because One-Eye is mute.

Despite being the most straightforward part of the film in terms of narrative, the opening is also quite mysterious. Why is One-Eye being forced to fight like some kind of Viking Mandingo ? We learn from the opening title card that this is a time of religious persecution, in which Christians have brought the fire and brimstone of the ongoing First Crusade to Scotland and are violently persecuting the “heathen” Scandinavians. It is also implied that the money earned from betting on these Viking brawls is the only defense the tribes of the Highlands have left against the Christians.

Truth be told, this opening setup is never given a satisfactory explanation, and it doesn’t need one. It exists to show us that One-Eye is an odd kind of savage, ruthlessly effective in combat but curiously unmoved by the violence he creates.

From the outset, we know there is something different about One-Eye. Even those not versed in Norse Mythology might recognize the missing eye as a reference to Odin, the venerated god who often appeared to humans in the guise of a one-eyed wanderer (the eye having been exchanged for the gift of wisdom). One-Eye also experiences red-tinted visions that turn out to be accurate visions of the future.

Soon enough, One-Eye makes his escape with the boy in tow, and the film becomes something that is less concerned with plot than with an allegorical descent into Hell. But rather than show this descent through hellish imagery, Refn chooses to depict consistently beautiful — if unforgiving — landscapes. Much like One-Eye himself, the land plays host to violence but keeps it at a cold distance, remaining stoic and picturesque regardless of the madness and bloodshed that plays out in its domain. Indeed, one gets the sense over the course of the film that One-Eye shares some kind of connection with the natural world.

Hell on Earth

The descent begins when One-Eye and the boy meet a troupe of Christian Crusaders who intend to make the journey to Jerusalem. Interestingly, the Christians do not reject the obviously heathen One-Eye, instead speculating that he might bring them luck on their journey to the Holy Land. Like the omamori charms of Japanese Buddhism to an American Christian, One-Eye is an exotic curiosity to the crusaders. Though they are aware of his brutally effective reputation as a warrior, they underestimate him. But One-Eye, who appears to have no particular destination of his own, agrees to accompany the crusaders on their journey.

Understandably, this is where the film begins to lose some viewers. The groups embarks in a simple canoe, seemingly ill-prepared for a journey of this magnitude, and we are made to feel their lethargy and desperation as the canoe sits on dead water in the middle of a dense fog for days on end. We already have a silent protagonist and a mostly-silent score. The canoe journey, then, is a kind of visual silence, a stillness that settles over us as viewers much like the fog that drapes over the crusaders.

As filmgoers, we are used to seeing visual cues that let us know when something important is happening. A stagnant image, then, reflects stagnation. But while the ever-present fog around the canoe blocks out any evidence of a transition, there is a transformation happening under our noses all the while. The crew begin to regard One-Eye with distrust, suspecting that he has cursed them to be stranded for all eternity or, worse, is leading them to Hell ( Hel in Norse terms), where the boy says One-Eye is from.

Eventually, after a few ill-fated outbreaks of violence against One-Eye, the group arrives in a new land, though the not the one they had set out for. Refn’s direction pays such exquisite attention to the details of the landscape that we need no obvious cues to tell us they have arrived in North America, even as feathered arrows begin to fly from the treeline.

All of a sudden, we recognize the toll the journey has taken on the crusaders. One of them wanders off, only to return covered in reddish brown clay and with the apparent ability to hear One-Eye speaking. Others seem to regress into something like a vegetative state, their heads lolling to the side, their eyes staring into the distance. The leader of the crusaders is convinced that they must conquer this land in the name of the Lord, and he is almost comically persistent in this belief no matter what misfortunes befall the crew. Only One-Eye seems relatively unaffected, though his visions seem to increase in frequency and intensity.

It’s tempting to assume the group has literally arrived in Hell, especially when a chapter title seems to announce as much, but the truth is that the crusaders have found themselves far outside their element. They are in a land they neither know nor are capable of conquering, a land filled with unfamiliar artifacts and funeral pyres that seem satanic to their eyes. To make matters worse, arrows sometimes zip through the air from out of nowhere, striking them down without a moment’s notice. Now more than ever, the film’s carefully considered cinematography emphasizes that the land is so much bigger than these characters, so full of secrets they can never hope to penetrate.

This segment of the film feels heavily inspired by Dead Man , Jim Jarmusch’s so-called “acid western” that also features disembodied arrows appearing from nowhere like divine karmic forces. Even the soundtrack, which begins to rise in intensity as madness overtakes the group, seems to echo Neil Young’s dark, improvised score to that film. Dead Man is a fitting influence, given that both films set their protagonists marching toward an inevitable destiny of sacrifice and death. In this case, One-Eye’s visions tell him he will soon meet his end at the hands of the local natives. Rather than attempt to avoid his fate, he stays the course with all the calm certainty of a man who knows more than he will ever let on.

By now, it’s obvious that One-Eye is more than a man, especially when it’s revealed that he has been speaking to the boy the whole time without actually speaking . One-Eye is clearly some kind of god or higher spirit; as one character says quite early in film, “the Christians have but one god. We have many.”

It seems a bit too on the nose to assume that he is Odin, though his act of sacrifice in the film’s final moments echoes Odin’s sacrificial hanging from the sacred tree Yggdrasil . The boy’s claim that he comes from Hell (which now has some authority, given that we can assume he heard this from One-Eye himself) also complicates his origins.

Regardless, it’s his purpose, not his name, that is important. The film’s finale finds him and the boy surrounded by natives — the same natives that appeared in the vision of his death. He touches the boy’s arm tenderly, perhaps the first genuine display of emotion he has shown in the film, and then he offers himself to the natives unarmed. The message is clear: take me, leave the boy. One-Eye’s purpose, it turns out, is to protect the boy.

Only now, as One-Eye is beaten to death and his spirit walks peacefully into a lake, do we fully understand the arc of the film. The crusaders, who are mostly converted Vikings that drop their faith the moment things begin to get dicey, are bereft of purpose. Promised riches by their devout leader, they had been more than willing to set out for Jerusalem, but North America has nothing to plunder, nothing to ravage. There are only trees, grass, and the hot sun. Robbed of their thin motivations, the minds of the crusaders rot.

The boy, on the other hand, finds purpose in One-Eye, who he comes to regard with the respect and deprecating humor one reserves for a father. Even in death, we sense the boy will be protected; One-Eye’s face appears in the clouds as the film ends, his spirit having been taken back into nature.

Most of this is communicated to the audience through quiet glances and near-silent images, adding up to a film that ultimately feels profoundly peaceful. That’s a novelty, sure, but it’s more than that: to watch Valhalla Rising is to regard humanity — in all its violence, pride, greed, fear, and love — through the serene eye of that ever-present, silent witness: the landscape.

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Review: valhalla rising.

Mads Mikkelsen possesses the same distilled intensity as Nicolas Winding Refn’s style.

Nicolas Winding Refn’s Valhalla Rising is ostensibly about a one-eyed, mute Scandinavian gladiator who, after slaying the master who enslaved him like a battered pit bull, joins a bunch of Viking Christian zealots on their way to take over Jerusalem. But, in fact, this Bruckheimer-grade storyline is merely an excuse to film a Joseph Conrad-worthy existential journey to hell. It’s an intriguing artistic choice from the director best known for the narrative-driven Pusher trilogy and the borderline avant-garde Bronson . With Valhalla Rising , Refn has pared his vision down to its atmospheric essence, creating a universe that’s closer in spirit to 2001: A Space Odyssey than the bible blockbusters of yore.

And the Kubrick comparisons doesn’t end there. With a haunting soundscape redolent of The Shining and divided into parts with names like “Silent Warrior,” “Hell,” and “The Sacrifice” boldly announced through title cards, the film is mostly wordless. When the first line of dialogue is spoken (“He never belonged to anyone for more than five years”), it’s almost jarring. Through painstakingly composed images, rendered in different levels of saturation, that place an emphasis on primary colors (heavy reds for flash-forwards, a mountain scene awash in blue lighting, yellow used for a fog-drenched boat), Refn summons primal energies.

None of which upstages the performance of Refn’s muse, Mads Mikkelsen, who plays the grizzly fighting machine One Eye with all the cold menace befitting a character not averse to squishing skulls or ripping out an adversary’s insides while he’s still alive. “He’s driven by hate,” a warrior explains of One Eye. Ya think? But then what does clunky dialogue matter in a film where the screenplay, by Refn and Roy Jacobsen, is completely irrelevant?

Though the combat scenes are truly gruesome, Mikkelsen is sublime, blessed with the same rugged charisma entwined with inner stillness as that of the star he most closely resembles, Danish-American Viggo Mortensen. Looking like Mad Max, the leather-clad Mikkelsen is easily able to pull off the gruesome to spiritual transition that occurs once the film reaches “The Holy Land” chapter and practically turns into Terence Malick’s The New World . From Pusher to Valhalla Rising , Mikkelsen just gets deeper and sexier with every role, possessing the same distilled intensity as Refn’s style. It’s a match made in heaven, and even in hell.

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Valhalla Rising (Movie Review)

Todd's rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ director: nicholas winding refn | release date: 2009.

Writer/director Nicholas Winding Refn's undeniably brutal 2008 biopic "Bronson" impressed the hell out of me, which immediately prompted a thorough investigation into the gifted director's critically-acclaimed "Pusher" trilogy. And while these four intensely entertaining films are beyond brilliant, nothing could have prepared me for Refn's 2009 Norse mythology flick "Valhalla Rising", a picture that has permanently cemented itself within the confines of my tiny, celluloid-saturated mind. I'm still puzzling over its cryptic images, it's downtrodden finale. I honestly can't get it out of my head.

Using the tried-and-true "mysterious wanderer with no name" formula as a foundation for a perplexing journey into madness of men, an adventure that manages to impress despite the fact that most of the film is drenched in silence. In fact, the first fifteen minutes of the film are actually very quiet, that is, except for the gut-wrenching sound of ripping flesh and shattered bone. And while I wouldn't go as far as to label "Valhalla Rising" as a pulse-pounding, thrill-a-minute action flick, there are several memorable scenes that incorporate a generous splash of blood and heaping helping of good, old-fashioned adrenaline. If your pulse doesn't race during the picture's opening fights, you might want to invest in a coffin.

As far as I can surmise, the mystifying storyline concerns itself with a mysterious warrior called One-Eye (Mads Mikkelsen) a man possessed of an abnormal amount of strength, agility, and determination. After being captured by a rugged group of warriors, our stoic hero is forced to fight for his life while tethered to a wooden pole in the middle of an enormous mud puddle. Much to his captors' collective horror, One-Eye makes quick work of their finest fighters, leaving the perplexed people no choice but to "take him away". Not surprisingly, he soon escapes, leaving a gory trail of mutilated bodies in his wake.

From this point, things tend to get a little bizarre. Although their relationship is never fully explained, One-Eye is soon accompanied by a peculiar blonde-haired boy who seems to understand his violent companion better than anyone else on the entire planet. Whenever someone poses a question to One-Eye, his answers are delivered through his pint-sized mouthpiece, whose responses seem to suggest that the duo communicate on a purely telepathic level. After a tense encounter with a squadron of murderous Christian soldiers, lone wolf and cub soon find themselves on a boat headed directly towards the so-called "Holy land". What they don't know, of course, is that their journey has taken an expected turn for the worse.

"Valhalla Rising" is a very slow film. A very, very slow film. There are many long stretches of absolutely nothing: no dialogue, no character interaction, no Viking-related shenanigans -- just lots and lots of wandering from one place to another. However, as strange as it may sound, Refn has the uncanny ability to make all of this pointlessly meandering seem strangely threatening, though this may have more to do with Peter Kyed and Peter Peter's villainous industrial score than anything else. Several sequences sandwiched in-between these frequent bouts of emptiness seem to make perfect sense, while others leave you scratching your head in total confusion. And just when you think you've finally figured out where the film might be headed, the surviving members of this ill-fated party ingest an extremely potent hallucinogenic beverage, resulting a disorienting collection of scenes that makes you second guess your theories.

Not everyone is going to like "Valhalla Rising", and it's pretty easy to understand why. Unless you truly appreciate fringe cinema or have a wicked hard-on for Gus Van Sant-inspired pacing, there's really not a lot for people to sink their teeth into. The hero never speaks, there's no particular plot to speak of, and the ending is as depressing as they come. However, thanks to a subtly affecting performance by Mads Mikkelsen and some overwhelmingly violent fight sequences, these slower moments don't seem quite as tedious as they may sound. Nicholas Winding Refn is an exciting figure in modern independent cinema, and "Valhalla Rising" is a startling, mind-blowing success. I would be very surprised if you ever see anything like it ever again.

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A Nordic Epic

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By Mike Hale

July 15, 2010

Nicolas Winding Refn’s desire to be taken seriously as a filmmaker would be touching if it weren’t so insistent. The first thing you see in “Valhalla Rising” is his name stretching the full width of the screen, the letters several feet high if you’ve taken the trouble to go to a theater.

Nothing that follows is as grandiose, which in a way is unfortunate, since the film is meant to be an epic. In the tradition of multinational European auteurism, “Valhalla” puts a Sergio Leone hero in a Werner Herzog landscape, filmed in Scotland, with mostly British actors playing bands of Nordic warriors. The Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen , star of Mr. Refn’s “Pusher” trilogy of crime films, does his best Clint Eastwood as One Eye, a scarred, silent pagan killing machine who has blood-red visions of the future.

One Eye and a boy he befriends (Maarten Stevenson) eventually fall in with a band of Vikings on their way to seek plunder in the Holy Land. But after a probably symbolic and definitely interminable stretch during which they are becalmed on misty seas, they find themselves in a new world (still too new to be the New World). Here the Herzog parallels really kick in, with the armored Europeans going off the Christian deep end as unseen archers decimate them. Mr. Refn , who can pull off stylish brutality (in the “Pusher” films and “Bronson” ), shows no knack for the kind of visionary, hallucinatory image making that would render “Valhalla Rising” memorable.

What’s left is the occasional bit of arched-brow humor from Mr. Mikkelsen, some pretty vistas and, in the curiosity department, a band of American Indians played by Tibetan extras.

VALHALLA RISING

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn; written by Mr. Refn and Roy Jacobsen; director of photography, Morten Soborg; edited by Mat Newman; music by Peter-Peter and Peter Kyed; production designer, Laurel Wear; costumes by Gill Horn; produced by Johnny Andersen, Bo Ehrhardt and Henrik Danstrup; released by IFC Films. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Mads Mikkelsen (One Eye), Maarten Stevenson (the Boy), Gordon Brown (Hagen), Andrew Flanagan (Gudmond), Gary Lewis (Kare), Gary McCormack (Hauk), Alexander Morton (Barde), Jamie Sieves (Gorm), Ewan Stewart (Eirik) and Matthew Zajac (Malkolm).

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Medieval Movie Review: Valhalla Rising

Released in 2009 Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

“The Boy says he was from Hell…maybe that’s where we’re going.”

Starring Mads Mikkkelson ( Casino Royale, Clash of the Titans ) as One-Eye, the slave warrior who breaks free of his captors and exacts his revenge. Beautifully filmed in Scotland, this 2009 festival entry tells a spectacular story.

It’s the year 1000 A.D. and One Eye escapes his captors with the boy who cared for him in captivity. Along the way home they meet a group of Crusaders en route to the Holy Land and they ask One Eye to join them.

Their voyage is fraught with difficulties and when they land, their situation goes from bad to worse. Unsure of what to do, the plot of the film revolves around their horrific predicament once they arrive.

The movie is broken down into segments: Part I – Wrath, Part II – Silent Warrior, Part III – Men of God, Part IV – The Holy Land, Part V – Hell, Part VI – The Sacrifice . The segmentation is curious and feels like you’re watching a chapter from a book; it sets the pace nicely. This movie, for the most part, isn’t like typical action movies, I’d call it a dark action-drama if such a category existed. It’s rather slow going except for the violent scenes and even some of those moments are slowed down by creative camera work.

It’s difficult and delightful to watch at the same time. If you’re not really paying attention, you’ll miss something important to the plot. There are moments where you want to hit rewind just to catch what was said or understand what you think is going on. Instead of being annoying, I enjoyed the frustrating moments and they kept me glued to the screen.

“He’s driven by hate, so he survives.”

Valhalla Rising is VIOLENT. It’s got some of that 300 slow-mo-gore-blood-spraying-everywhere imagery. It can be a bit stomach churning for those who are squeamish but I didn’t mind it because the violence had its place in telling the story. It’s not over the top or gratuitous like most Hollywood action movies. There is a lot of onscreen tension and build up to danger and bloodshed in this film. When violence makes an appearance, it fits in place and makes sense.

Mikkelson does an extraordinary job as “One Eye”. He keeps you riveted and engaged in the way he “tells” his story. His movement, his glances, his silence, just mesmerize you. One of the amazing parts of this film is that it holds your attention with very little dialogue. The acting carries the day and is strong enough to pull it off. Too much talking would’ve ruined this movie.

The young man who plays “The Boy”, Maarten Stevenson ( Blessed ), does a fantastic job of delicately building their strange and endearing relationship. He manages to evoke a sense of caring for the harsh, stoic warrior. The Boy and One Eye understand each other perfectly when no one else does. I loved the way their relationship unfolded during the film.

The Crusaders, played by Jamie Sives ( Game of Thrones , Clash of the Titans ), Gary Lewis ( Gangs of New York, Shiner ) and Ewan Stewart ( Ecstasy, Titanic ), are all formidable Scottish actors who did justice to their roles.

Director and writer, Nicolas Winding Refn ( Pusher, Drive ) did an incredible job with this movie. It’s intelligent, interesting and beautiful to watch even at it’s bloodiest. If you’re looking for action beyond the usual hack-n’-slash Hollywood film, this quiet little movie will do the trick. I am not normally an action fan but this movie grabbed me and kept my interest the entire way through. – Sandra

My only drawbacks to the film is that in a couple of sections the movie’s pace becomes very slow – perhaps a couple minutes of people walking around landscapes could have been omitted. Also, the lack of dialogue makes it difficult to understand what is happening in certain scenes – we have characters who leave and then reappear and it left me confused on what happened to them.

Aside from those minor problems, Valhalla Rising is a very good film, worth watching for its 90+ minutes.

Historical Accuracy: The film is set in the year 1000, which is an appropriate period to focus on the struggle between the Old Norse religion and the emergence of Christianity. But the film also a group of Vikings who are going off to retake the Holy Land, a clear reference to the Crusades, which wont be happening for almost another hundred years. One would guess that the filmmakers decided to blend together the two periods.

The ship the Crusaders are on was destined to go to the Holy Land, and even with fog it would have to be very poor seamanship for them to become so lost. They eventually emerge on the northeast coast of North America, and this is entirely plausible. Viking ships did get lost travelling across the Atlantic, and some saga accounts relate them reaching new places that they named Vinland and Helluland.

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Review: Valhalla Rising

When last we encountered director Nicolas Winding Refn, he was busy pulverizing us with Bronson , the story of Britain's greasiest, brawlingest prison inmate. His latest epic, the Norse-centric Valhalla Rising , also gets elegiac with its violence — you'll find brutal maulings aplenty — but this gloomy slog through the European wilderness is a very different film indeed.

Here, we're transported back to AD 1000, where a brooding, clairvoyant mute called One Eye (Mads Mikkelsen) escapes his pagan captors, only to fall in with a band of Christians hoping to strike it rich in the Holy Land. At first, the crusaders claim One Eye as a good-luck charm, but as they find themselves lost in some godforsaken taiga, madness and fear set in. The sparse plot is inscrutable, and the monosyllabic dialogue reads like something penned by some grim and ancient Dr. Seuss ("It's not a curse; it's just a mist. Nothing more").

If you're looking for a ripping historical lad flick like Gladiator or 300 , look elsewhere — this is Aguirre, the Wrath of God , with the despondency jacked to 11.

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Valhalla Rising (2009)

Directed by nicolas winding refn.

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Valhalla Rising is a 2009 English-language Danish adventure drama film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, co-written by Refn and Roy Jacobsen, and starring Mads Mikkelsen. The film takes place around the year 1096 AD and follows a Norse warrior named One-Eye and a boy as they travel with a band of Christian Crusaders by ship in the hopes of finding the Holy Land. Instead, they find themselves in an unknown land (actually North America) where they are assailed by unseen forces and dark visions.

Shot entirely in Scotland, the title is derived from the combination of Kenneth Anger's films Scorpio Rising and Lucifer Rising with a Viking theme. While the film garnered generally positive reviews, it only made back a fraction–about $31,000–of its $5.7 million production cost.

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Movie Review: Valhalla Rising (2009)

A. J. Pennypacker
Movie Reviews
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--> July 20, 2010

When you heard that Mads Mikkelsen was starring in a film about a Norse crusader, you probably got pretty excited just as I did. However, the marketing, specifically the previews, set this movie up for a fall. It is presented as a hard-hitting, gritty period piece about the Christianization of Scandinavia. But that’s misleading. In reality, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Valhalla Rising is a low-budget art-house film with vague historical roots and complex symbolism. It is also grinding, grotesque, bloody and scenic — like a Quentin Tarantino film shot in slow motion with a picturesque Scottish tourism video as the backdrop.

Now, I’m not trying to knock low budget films, but this movie feels low-budget, with very few extras and nothing but green mountains and foggy moors in the background — you get the feeling you’re watching a student film that was shot over the weekend. One pan of a yurt, a twig-thatched stone house or even a hole in the ground would have given the impression that people actually live in this godforsaken place.

A place where men are pitted against one another in hand-to-hand combat for the amusement (nobody watching seems particularly amused) of tribal elders. One chieftain is getting a little light in the purse, but the nameless undefeated champ we come to know as One-Eye (Mads Mikkelsen) makes quick work of his two opponents. His owner is reluctant to give him up, due to his hot streak, despite the fact he needs coin to deal with invading Christians. One-Eye is clairvoyant, and that fact helps him escape his bonds and slaughter everyone in sight, with the exception of a small boy who fed and took care of him while in captivity. The two start roaming the countryside and come across the aforementioned religious zealots spreading the good word. They recruit One-Eye and Are (Maarten Stevenson) to join a crusade to the Holy Land, Jerusalem, but these ‘crusaders’ are a bunch of buffoons who can’t navigate, hunt, forage or build a fire.

Their foolishness is as frustrating as the painfully slow pace of this film, which slows down for sporadic and belabored dialogue and speeds up for bone-cracking, stomach turning action scenes. The odd choice of pace coupled with the Norse mythology, makes Valhalla Rising a challenge. Indeed, you might be a little lost when it comes to the symbolism in this film. One-Eye is a reference to Odin, the god of war, wisdom, death, prophecy, victory, sex and the city, who was himself short an eye, which he traded in for the wisdom of the ages.

!Spoiler Alert! Towards the end of the film One-Eye tries to pile a bunch of rocks. The pile of stones is a pagan altar, and One-Eye, like Odin, sacrifices himself, to himself. !End Spoiler Alert!

Get it? Neither do I. That and other symbolism is equally perplexing. It could simply be that Refn’s imagery and illusions are beyond me, but given the fact that inspiration for the characters and the story range from sources as varied as 2001: A Space Odyssey , Escape from New York and Dumbo , I’m not convinced. Regardless, if your movie is a heady tribute to a pagan god, don’t sell it as you would Gladiator .

So while Valhalla Rising was not my cup of tea, I still believe that Refn is a creative, talented, and brilliant director. Even though this movie was a little bit excruciating, I’d be willing to look at his other work.

A. J. writes on his movie blog movieblaster.cc and will sit through almost any film, except Druids, that was just awful.

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Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, "art is an act of violence." an interview with nicolas winding refn.

Danish-born filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn loves midnight movies. That affection shows in his most recent films. "Valhalla Rising," a 2009 Viking epic featuring " Hannibal " star Mads Mikkelsen as a one-eyed warrior, is evocative of a certain kind of grindhouse-friendly arthouse cinema. Refn has described "Valhalla Rising" as a transitional film in his career. It's been compared to everything from "The Last Movie" to " Aguirre, The Wrath of God ." Film Comment critic Jonathan Romney even wrote that "Valhalla Rising" is like, " Alejandro Jodorowsky pared down to a spartan minimalism, or John Milius stoned on some obscure Arctic fungus."

"Only God Forgives," Refn's newest collaboration with Gosling, is a further extension of that midnight movie frame of mind. It was originally conceived as a "western set in contemporary Thailand," and only got freakier from there. In the film, Gosling plays a drug-dealing Thai boxer whose psychotic gangster mom ( Kristin Scott Thomas ) demands that he face off with a merciless Thai police lieutenant (Vithaya Pansringarm).

This past Sunday , I co-hosted a double feature of "Valhalla Rising" and "The Telephone Book," a recently rediscovered 1971 avant garde porno-comedy, at Williamsburg's Videology theater.

Between films, Refn and I talked about his influences, how he puts his movies together, and what subjects he's developing now: everything from Miami prostitutes to golden-lasso-wielding superheroines.

SA: You once called "Valhalla Rising" a "midnight movie from 1974." What has been your experience watching midnight movies? Where did you see them, in Denmark?

SA: You mentioned that you are a visual thinker. I've read that you block your images with the bottom of the frame in mind. When I was rewatching "Valhalla Rising" today, I noticed that there was a lot of peripheral extreme close-ups of Mads Mikkelsen. You've also said that your screnwriting process is, "organic screenwriting," in that you write down on index cards the images you want to see in the film, just to see if they make up a film. What were the first images you had for this film, and how did you imagine them when you first got the screenwriter?

Refn: I don't know if there are any filmmakers here, but this is how you survive in the film industry. Go to a distributor, and say, "Mads Mikkelsen, Viking, action, violence." And they'll says, "Sure, we'll pay for that." Then you get the money. And then you go to a really remote area where nobody wants to film. Then you say, "OK: what would I like to do today?" All my films are chronologically ordered not because I get very confused. But I like the constant evolution of seeing where the film is moving every day. And I put everything on index cards because I'm not a very good writer. But I'm a fetishist, so I sometimes have to do it myself. Because it's sometimes hard to explain to other people about high heels, or women's legs without being embarrassed. So the idea of putting everything on cue cards is so that you can constantly see everything unfolding.

In terms of framing: most photographers will tell you that framing is about looking at what's in the top-right of the frame, or on your left. But if you look at painters, there hasn't been a painter that doesn't look to the bottom frame as much as they do the top frame. So to completely fulfill cinema, it's very much what's on top, and what's on the bottom.

And when I watch the now-infamous elevator scene in "Drive," I get the sense that there is an alienating, Lynchian sense of humor there. Like you respect the action of the moment, but not the violence. It's really striking because the most realistic part about "Valhalla Rising" is the introductory "Wrath" portion, which is also the most cartoonishly violent. So I wanted to talk about your sense of humor in these films. It is alienating, but it's not Brechtian. It's almost comic book-like. I know you've said that the only part of "Valhalla Rising" that you consider to be intentionally humorous is the scene where a character names Mikkelsen's character "One-Eye," explaining, "Well, you only have one eye!"

Refn: The distributor wanted something funny, so I made it a funny line.

SA: But the use of violence and the excess of it is pointed, no?

Refn: Well, the use of violence is ... I guess art is an act of violence, in a way. It's an emotional outpouring, and I don't really know ... I think that violence in the cinema is necessarily a fetish. Emotionally, our artistic expression consists of sex or violence. It all boils down to those two pure emotions that we have. But where erotica or sexuality is not fantasy, because most of us do it, violence, on the other hand, is fetish, is fantasy. There is a sexuality to violence that I find very intoxicating. But I think that that's what turns me on.

SA: I mentioned the elevator scene because you've said that that scene is the key to that film. It's not even a transition between Driver and what he needs to do, who he needs to become at that point. And he goes from stomping that guy's head in, blood spurting everywhere—on the camera even—to kissing her. And then they get out of the elevator and everything's fine.

Refn: Well...

SA: Ok, not everything's fine.

I asked, "Well, what can we do?"

He said, "Well, remember there's that [ Takeshi Kitano ] movie with the shoot-out in the elevator. What about finding a space for that? Then in a way, he can kiss her before smashing the guy's head in." And I shot that slow motion while the light in the elevator dims. Is the kiss that they had real, or just a fantasy in his head? It was also for him to separate himself from her. So it's ultimate love, in a way. The American producers just didn't understand the light-cue thing."Why would the lights dim?!" "Well, it's poetic, and the camera moves in..."

But anyway. The line producer came down and saw what we were doing. He thought there was something wrong with the electricity. I had to explain what poetry meant in Europe.

SA: I know that for "Valhalla Rising," you had some difficulty setting up certain shots because you're filming [in Scotland] on uneven terrain. But it doesn't feel like a Dennis Hopper /"The Last Movie"-type film, in that the camerawork is rough. In fact, the camerawork is serene. It has a [Terrence] Malick-like feel to it.

Unlike "Drive," where you had Ryan Gosling show you around [Los Angeles], you don't have someone to show you landmarks. It's all pretty much a uniform landscape. So who is giving you the lay of the land here? Were you just figuring it out for yourself?

But these experts' obsession was, at the same time, very interesting. I like people that are obsessed with things. But when we got to Scotland, I had just done "Bronson." I was doing these two films back-to-back, pretty much. And then I went from "Drive" to "Only God Forgives" almost right away. I just think that when you're in nature, it's tricky, because everything is beautiful. So I wanted to shoot everything like it was a wax museum, like they were in Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum.

Somebody gave me the Bible in images, and everyone in it was stoic. And "Valhalla Rising" does take place in a time when there was religious turmoil in Europe. Christianity was basically moving in, and annihilating other religions. And from that, came this belief that became Christianity.

SA: My friend [film critic Steve Carlson] was just reminding that there's a reference to " Aguirre, The Wrath of God" in this film. And it's so obvious that, like me, he didn't see it until we rewatched the film today. It's in that scene where one Viking gets hit with an arrow by someone off-screen. And speaking of fetishism, and respecting people for being obsessives--to me, that's very much like a Herzog film.

But as you said, in this film your protagonist is stoic. So there is no way to know about the internal logic of why he does anything. This is unlike "Drive," which as you said, is like a fractured fairy tale because there's a role Driver has to assume, and then there's the fairy tale life that he'd like to have. To get to that, there are two layers to the character, and a disconnect between them.

But here, all the action is on the film's surface. You find the mystery in that. Because this film is a transitional film for you, how did you go from "Bronson" to this?

And of course, halfway through shooting, you really like it, and then you start to panic. The idea though is that things have to be different. You always have to challenge yourself. "Bronson" was essentially a gay opera. It was! And "Valhalla Rising" had to be something completely different this time.

After "Valhalla Rising," I was supposed to do "Only God Forgives." But then I got offered a Paul Schrader script, "The Dying of the Light." They asked if I'd like to do it, and agreed. First, we were going to cast Robert DeNiro . I came to New York, and met with him for like, 10 seconds. And he said, "I don't wanna do the movie." Well, he could have told me that before I came here!

So ok, who would I like instead? Well, Harrison Ford would be cool. Harrison Ford saw "Bronson"—didn't like it. Forget that one. But he did see some of my Danish films, which I think he did respond to, especially "Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands," especially the father-son relationship. So he said, "I'll do the movie." And I thought great, but the character has to die. So my contribution to cinema was going to be killing Harrison Ford. But he didn't like that, so it didn't happen.

And then "Drive" came, and I thought, "You know what? I'm going to make 'Drive' because I came from Scotland, and I want to go to Los Angeles, and make a movie about a car." Because I don't know how to drive a car. So you have to find an obstacle that forces you to be creative. Because art is about turning your weaknesses into your strengths. Because art is an expression of so many things, perfection is the enemy. So you have to find something you're not good at, and turn that weakness into your strength. That's my creative process.

SA: That concept of art as an act of violence seems like a very [Alejandro] Jodorowsky-esque concept. It seems like something he might have even said at one point. You dedicated your new film to Jodorowsky. And that new documentary about the version of " Dune " that he wanted to make mentions that you saw the holy book of art designs for his "Dune." So I'm curious: what do you take form his films?

Refn: I meant Jodorowsky four years ago in Paris. And that was pretty groovy. I went to his house for a tarot reading, and dinner. And I remember my question was, "Should I make 'Drive?'" And he gave me a tarot reading, and said, "You will travel with this movie."

And after that we became quite close friends.

I've always admired his work in many different ways. If you're ever in creative doubt, or feel you're getting too secure, just watch a Jodorowsky movie, and you'll think, "This is what I have to do." What's interesting about him is he goes against all kinds of conventions about what filmmaking is supposed to be. Then he christened me his spiritual god-son. Which I thought was kind of bizarre. But then it became my routine to go to Paris, and visit him.

So one night, he said, "You want to see'Dune?'"

Ah, but I did!

And then he showed me this very famous storybook. The book is about this big [ pantomimes a book the size of a phonebook ], and this wide. And it was every single frame from his version. And I had Jodorowsky narrating the film for me. So it was like a midnight screening of "Dune."

By the way, the new documentary [about Jorodorwsky's never-filmed version of "Dune"] is fantastic. It's a very interesting film because it also shows his influence on science fiction from then on. Just like his " El Topo ." There would be no pop cinema without Jodorowsky. No me, no Robert Rodriguez , no Quentin Tarantino , no Gaspar Noe without "El Topo."

SA: It's also credited with being the first real midnight movie, too, which brings us back full circle.

I want to also talk about your new film, though. When I interviewed you last time, "Valhalla Rising" was just come out here. You described "Only God Forgives" as a western set in Thailand. Having seen the film, I can say that it's markedly different than a western. If it were like a western, it'd have to be like "Duel in the Sun," something very oneiric, or dreamlike. I'm curious how you get from the concept of a western to the film we'll see on Friday.

Refn: Well, it all started...I asked a friend of mine what the average French film cost. She said six million Euros. That's an average French-budgeted movie. I went to Paris and I met with Wild Bunch, and I said, "I'll give you two movies for 6 million, and I'll make them genre movies."

"Ok, we'll put up half the money. If you can get the other half, we've got a deal. But what's your synopsis of your first film?"

"Well, I'll make a western!"

"A fight movie!"

"Ok, great, deal."

So that's how the movie was set up. And when I had the money, I thought, "Well, what do I really want to do now?"

SA: I've read that your next project with Wild Bunch is something called "I Walk with the Dead," based in Miami, in the world of prostitution?

Refn: Well, I had to sell something really quick, so I just said that. France, catchy title..."Deal!" It's not going to be that. I don't know when I'll make it. I'm concentrating on my TV show right now, called, "Barbarella." But then I'll probably go back to L.A. to make another film. I really like to work in L.A.

SA: You were also talking about remaking " Logan's Run ," but you also said that you had ideas for doing a "Wonder Woman" movie. Is there a possibility for a Nic Refn "Wonder Woman" movie?

Refn: No. But that was because I love "Logan's Run." I said to Ryan, "Let's go and make 'Logan's Run.'" So we said that we'd started the process, and were working on the script. Ryan said OK, and if Ryan wants to do "Logan's Run," we'll do "Logan's Run!"

But then I realized—and he also had his own opinions about this—maybe this wasn't the best solution. So we both pulled out of it. It was a similar decision when we were talking about "Wonder Woman." They said, "You do 'Logan's Run,' then we'll talk about 'Wonder Woman.'" But then I decided to do "Barbarella" instead.

SA: Where are you with that?

Refn: I'm writing it right now with some other writers. We'll see where it goes from there.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in The New York Times , Vanity Fair , The Village Voice, and elsewhere.

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VALHALLA RISING

"twilight zone, viking style".

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

What You Need To Know:

(C, B, Pa, FR, L, VVV, N, MM) Ultimately light redemptive, moral ending and worldview, but with a mix of Norse mythology and early Christian belief where some characters are Norsemen, believers in many gods, while others claim Christ as their savior; brief foul language; brief but extremely violent scenes where characters are hacked, strangled, stabbed, and disemboweled; no sex; one group shot where naked male and females are briefly shown huddled together as freed captives; no alcohol; no smoking; and, slavery and men forced to fight in combat for sport.

More Detail:

By its sheer title, VALHALLA RISING promises to be a movie about an epic Viking story set in some northern land, where honor, glory, and majestic Viking ships sailed the seas to conquer the known world. Contrary to that expectation, this odd rendition is a rather peculiar vehicle for a dark, brooding, psychological study in the human condition, and reminiscent of an Ingmar Bergman film with shades of a Twilight Zone episode.

Shot entirely in Scotland, the washed out, stark photography from Morten Soborg is akin to that of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN’s opening sequence. It mercilessly exposes the audience to barren, desolate landscapes where even though the sun is at full force and the skies are powder blue, but there is absolutely no warmth or comfort in sight.

Mads Mikkelsen, who also played a mean hand of poker while bleeding from one eye in CASINO ROYALE, plays a one-eyed, almost superhuman, slave who is kept in a cage by a ruthless Norse chieftain. The one-eyed warrior is only taken out of his tiny cell to fight to the death with vicious contenders. The one-eyed warrior is also mute, and Are (Maarten Stevenson), a slave boy designated to look after him between fights, fittingly names him “One Eye.”

En route to their next location, One Eye manages to break free and kill his captors. Are follows him, and the two liberated souls start a journey that takes them smack into a motley band of self-proclaimed crusaders who are intent on sailing to the Holy Land to fight for the cause of Christ. Interestingly enough, when Are is asked by their leader where One Eye came from, the boy simply says that he came from Hell, but in yet another seeming paradox, of which there are many in this movie, it is decided One Eye is still invited to join them.

Regrettably, it all goes downhill from there. Their ship soon enters a thick, ominous fog that begins to figuratively suffocate them as they slowly descend into the verge of madness in a sea of despair and suspicion. When they finally come out from the fog, the group finds itself in a totally unfamiliar new realm, and their nightmare continues unabated in one bad chapter after another. That is, until the final scene which breaks through the unending agony of all involved with a powerfully symbolic act of redemption.

Valhalla, in Norse mythology, is the hall of the slain, where the brave Viking warriors assembled after their passage from life to glory. For the hapless, bewildered, characters in this movie neither Valhalla, nor Heaven seemed to be an easy destination to reach, and with hardly any dialogue, a snail’s pace, and an eerie, unsettling, sound track by composer Peter Kyed, this movie may never reaches any semblance of critical acclaim either. Nevertheless, it is a significant production because it avoids the standard formulas used to turn movies into box office hits, and as Ingmar Bergman did, replaces them with a deeper probe into the psyche and inner motivations of man.

Although the message is muddled and ambiguous at times, while containing some scenes almost too violent to sit through, this notable effort by director Nicolas Winding Refn is well balanced by often breathtaking, expressionist photography and a thought provoking script. Moreover, the excruciatingly slow, gut wrenching pace of the movie, no doubt presented a giant dilemma for Refn to take in pursuit of his vision over commercial considerations, and for that, he deserves great credit. For escapist, unencumbered fun, an old crowd pleaser like THE VIKINGS with Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis would be a much better choice, but, as a uniquely designed creative work “Valhalla Rising” has certainly earned a place of its own in cinematic history.

With the ending, the worldview ultimately becomes redemptive, but the movie also includes some Norse pagan mythology. The violence warrants extreme caution.

The 10 Most Popular Shows on Netflix Right Now

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Looking for the Top 10 TV Shows on Netflix now? Well, you're in the right place! Despite the streaming service launching the trending list earlier this year, which reveals what the Top 10 most popular TV shows are daily, it's not easy to find that list on Netflix itself without digging into it a little bit. We're here to help streamline that process. Below, we've listed the most watched shows streamed on Netflix worldwide this past week.

Top 10 TV Shows on Netflix Worldwide


10	Cobra Kai: Season 6	7,800,0000
9	Vikings: Valhalla: Season 3	8,200,000
8	Love is Blind: Mexico	8,800,000
7	Unsolved Mysteries: Volume 4	10,600,000
6	Too Hot to Handle: Season 6	14,100,000
5	Love is Blind: UK	14,400,000
4	Desperate Lies	16,200,000
3	Miss Night and Day	22,300,000
2	A Good Girl's Guide to Murder	38,900,000
1	The Umbrella Academy: Season 4	47,500,000

Check out the list of the top 10 most popular TV shows in the United States below , along with a brief synopsis of just what the heck it is that everyone's watching. For a longer and more curated list, check out our list of the best TV shows on Netflix . And for the Top 10 Movies currently available, click on that link.

10 'Cobra Kai'

Episodes: 50 | Genre: Action, Dramedy

With Cobra Kai eliminated from the Valley, our senseis and students must decide if and how they will compete in the Sekai Taikai — the world championships of karate.

Watch on Netflix

9 'Simone Biles Rising'

Episodes : 2 | Genre : Documentary

Follow gymnast Simone Biles as she balances her personal life, mental health journey and training ahead of a highly anticipated return to the Olympics.

8 'Gabby's Dollhouse'

Episodes : 70 | Genre : Animated, Kids

Cast : Laila Lockhart Kraner, Tucker Chandler, Juliet Donenfeld

Gabby and Pandy are excited to get tiny and give a cat-tastic Dollhouse welcome to their newest kitty friend, Marty the Party Cat! Marty and his a-meow-zing new home in the Dollhouse, the Party Room, are filled with endless surprises and with a wave of his magical “party tail” the Party Room can transform into any celebration you could imagine! A visit from wise Grandma CatRat, a magical wishing well and Gabby’s birthday party lead to sprinkle-riffic adventures and whoopsies along the way in Gabby’s Dollhouse - where there’s always a reason to celebrate!

7 'Prison Break'

prison-break-dominic-purcell-wentworth-miller

Episodes : 90 | Genre : Drama

Cast : Wentworth Miller, Dominic Purcell, Amaury Nolasco

Prison Break tells the story of two brothers who must unravel a political conspiracy while escaping from one of the most secure places on Earth. When petty criminal Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) is falsely convicted of murdering the Vice President's brother, his own brother, Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller), has himself incarcerated in order to stage a daring prison break using the blueprints of the facility he has tattooed on his body.

6 'Fire Country'

Custom image from Jefferson Chacon of Max Thieriot looking to the right for the Fire Country Season 2 finale

Episodes: 32 | Genre: Drama

Cast : Max Thieriot, Kevin Alejandro, Jordan Calloway

Seeking redemption and a reduced sentence, Bode Donovan joins a firefighting program that forces him to grapple with wildfires — and his troubled past.

Fire Country

A young convict joins a firefighting program looking for redemption and a shortened prison sentence. He and other inmates work alongside elite firefighters to extinguish massive blazes across the region.

5 'Love is Blind UK'

Episodes : 11 | Genre : Reality

Cast : Emma Willis, Matt Willis

UK singles who want to be loved for who they are have signed up for a less-conventional approach to modern dating, and will choose someone to marry without ever meeting them. Over several weeks, the newly engaged couples will move in together, plan their wedding and find out if their physical connection matches their strong emotional bond developed in the Pods. When their wedding day arrives, will real-world realities and external factors push them apart, or will they marry the person they fell blindly in love with? Hosted by Emma and Matt Willis, this series will uncover whether looks, race or age do matter, or if love really is blind.

4 'Unsolved Mysteries'

Episodes : 26 | Genre : Documentary

The iconic and gripping series returns featuring more unexplained deaths, baffling disappearances, and bizarre paranormal activity. Unsolved Mysteries is from the creators of the original docuseries, Cosgrove/Meurer Productions, and 21 Laps Entertainment, the producers of Stranger Things.

3 Watch on Netflix 'Joe Rogan: Burn The Boats'

Runtime : 67 minutes | Genre : Stand-Up

Cast : Joe Rogan

Renowned comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan delivers a live stand-up set at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, Texas, for his third Netflix special.

2 'A Good Girl's Guide to Murder'

Episodes : 6 | Genre : Drama

Cast : Emma Myers, Zain Iqbal, Asha Banks

Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend Sal Singh. Case closed. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it. But smart and single minded Pip Fitz-Amobi isn't so sure and she’s determined to prove it. And if Sal Singh isn’t a murderer and the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth? Commissioned by the BBC, it will first premiere in the UK and Ireland on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer. The series is produced by Moonage Pictures, one of BBC Studios invested production labels, in co-production with ZDFneo and Netflix. The six-episode season, which is currently in post production, is adapted by Poppy Cogan and directed by Dolly Wells. A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder is based on the hugely successful, New York Times bestselling mystery YA novel by Holly Jackson.

1 'The Umbrella Academy'

Episodes : 36 | Genre : Action, Comedy

Cast : Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda

The Hargreeves siblings have scattered after the climactic showdown at the Hotel Oblivion led to a complete reset of their timeline. Stripped of their powers, each is left to fend for themselves and find a new normal — with wildly varying degrees of success. Yet the trappings of their uncanny new world prove too hard to ignore for very long. Their father Reginald, alive and well, has stepped out of the shadows and into the public eye, overseeing a powerful and nefarious business empire. A mysterious association known as The Keepers holds clandestine meetings believing the reality they’re living in is a lie and a great reckoning is coming. As these strange new forces conspire around them, the Umbrella Academy must come together one last time — and risk upsetting the shaky peace they’ve all endured so much to secure — to finally set things right.

IMAGES

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Valhalla Rising (film review)
Valhalla Rising

COMMENTS

Valhalla Rising
Rated: 2.5/4 Aug 9, 2023 Full Review Taylor Baker Drink in the Movies Episode 27: Valhalla Rising / Bronson / Starred Up / True Detective S3 Rated: 78/100 Sep 9, 2021 Full Review Víctor López G ...
Valhalla Rising (2009)
Valhalla Rising: Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. With Mads Mikkelsen, Alexander Morton, Stewart Porter, Maarten Stevenson. Forced for some time to be a fighting slave, a pagan warrior escapes his captors with a boy and joins a group of Crusaders on their quest to the Holy Land.
Valhalla Rising Review
Valhalla Rising Review. A thousand years ago. One-Eye (Mads Mikkelsen), an enigmatic, mute warrior-slave, is freed from captivity and falls in with a party of Christian Vikings who set out for the ...
The Ending Of Valhalla Rising Explained
The 2009 film "Valhalla Rising" was a milestone for its director, Nicholas Winding Refn, and its star, Mads Mikkelsen.Although Refn had already made "Bronson" with Tom Hardy, and Mikkelsen had ...
Valhalla Rising (film)
Valhalla Rising is a 2009 English-language Danish period adventure film [3] directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, co-written by Refn and Roy Jacobsen, and starring Mads Mikkelsen.The film takes place "most certainly during the twelfth century of our era" [4] and follows a Norse warrior named One-Eye and a boy as they travel with a band of Christian Crusaders by ship in the hopes of finding the ...
Valhalla Rising
A mad meditation on the primeval nature of man, faith and survival, this is Apocalypse Then, and then some. Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 22, 2010. Sean Axmaker Seanax.com. Directed in ...
Valhalla Rising
Valhalla Rising — Film Review. A change of pace for the Danish director of the cult "Pusher" trilogy, "Valhalla Rising" is set in that rich yet cinematically seldom-explored era during which the ...
Valhalla Rising
Valhalla Rising is a revelation of a movie. That said, it is far from an easy-watch. The slow pace, the visual blank space, the lunar ebb and flow of Refn's imagining, require the viewer to slow down and devote 1h and 30 mins to becoming a passive observer. This is not an action movie, or a who dunnit, or a character study.
REVIEW
July 12, 2010 10:25 am. The introductory text at the beginning of "Valhalla Rising" both sets the scene and describes it. "In the beginning, there was only man and nature," we're told ...
Valhalla Rising
Stylishly poetic and weighty to exasperating extremes, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn's existential, primeval epic Valhalla Rising examines the combative relationship between the honor-bound pagans and the fanatical Christians in the world of Vikings. It's a slow-moving combination of ridiculously gory violence, heavy metal music, and dreamy imagery set to no more than one or two ...
Valhalla Rising (2009)
The film merits an audience of introspective thinkers and open minds to let the sumptuous nature of all on screen—whether beautiful or disgusting or both—wash over them and grab hold. It isn't so much a movie to be seen, but one to be experienced. 8/10. Creepy, atmospheric, and totally chilling Viking saga.
Valhalla Rising: A masterclass in cinematic stillness
July 14, 2021by Austin Fitzgerald. With The Green Knight, David Lowery's adaptation of the old Arthurian tale, set for release on July 30 in the US, I'm revisiting Valhalla Rising, a violent but meditative Viking tale that features a similar infusion of psychedelia, nature and a medieval setting. The following is as much analysis as review ...
Review: Valhalla Rising
July 11, 2010. Nicolas Winding Refn's Valhalla Rising is ostensibly about a one-eyed, mute Scandinavian gladiator who, after slaying the master who enslaved him like a battered pit bull, joins a bunch of Viking Christian zealots on their way to take over Jerusalem. But, in fact, this Bruckheimer-grade storyline is merely an excuse to film a ...
Valhalla Rising (Movie Review)
And while I wouldn't go as far as to label "Valhalla Rising" as a pulse-pounding, thrill-a-minute action flick, there are several memorable scenes that incorporate a generous splash of blood and heaping helping of good, old-fashioned adrenaline. If your pulse doesn't race during the picture's opening fights, you might want to invest in a coffin.
A Nordic Epic
"Valhalla Rising," directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, is an epic tale of Viking warriors who find themselves in the new world before it's the New World. ... Movie Review | 'Valhalla Rising'
Medieval Movie Review: Valhalla Rising
Valhalla Rising. Released in 2009 Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn "The Boy says he was from Hell…maybe that's where we're going." Starring Mads Mikkkelson (Casino Royale, Clash of the Titans) as One-Eye, the slave warrior who breaks free of his captors and exacts his revenge.Beautifully filmed in Scotland, this 2009 festival entry tells a spectacular story.
Review: Valhalla Rising
When last we encountered director Nicolas Winding Refn, he was busy pulverizing us with Bronson, the story of Britain's greasiest, brawlingest prison inmate.His latest epic, the Norse-centric Valhalla Rising, also gets elegiac with its violence — you'll find brutal maulings aplenty — but this gloomy slog through the European wilderness is a very different film indeed.
Valhalla Rising (2009)
Valhalla Rising is a 2009 English-language Danish adventure drama film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, co-written by Refn and Roy Jacobsen, and starring Mads Mikkelsen. The film takes place around the year 1096 AD and follows a Norse warrior named One-Eye and a boy as they travel with a band of Christian Crusaders by ship in the hopes of ...
Movie Review: Valhalla Rising (2009)
In reality, Nicolas Winding Refn's Valhalla Rising is a low-budget art-house film with vague historical roots and complex symbolism. It is also grinding, grotesque, bloody and scenic — like a Quentin Tarantino film shot in slow motion with a picturesque Scottish tourism video as the backdrop.
"Art is an act of violence." An interview with Nicolas Winding Refn
Danish-born filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn loves midnight movies. That affection shows in his most recent films. "Valhalla Rising," a 2009 Viking epic featuring "Hannibal" star Mads Mikkelsen as a one-eyed warrior, is evocative of a certain kind of grindhouse-friendly arthouse cinema.Refn has described "Valhalla Rising" as a transitional film in his career.
Valhalla Rising
Lave watched "Valhalla Rising" and now he's telling you what he thought about it. Part of the Cinebrew facebook group review, this months topic is under the ...
Thoughts on Valhalla Rising? : r/movies
Two of those movies, the first two, aliens and alien actions were tied to the plot. I've never seen the third film, but in the first two you know something is amiss from earlier on in the movie. Also, the first two movies have more exposition than Valhalla Rising. It's Valhalla Rising's realism that would make it so weird.
VALHALLA RISING
The Family and Christian Guide to Movie Reviews and Entertainment News. Watch VALHALLA RISING ... In VALHALLA RISING, a one-eyed, mute and almost superhuman, slave warrior breaks free from a Norse chieftain. Followed by a young boy, he escapes his chains, only to embark on an ill fated journey with a small band of self-proclaimed crusaders to ...
10 Most Popular Shows on Netflix Right Now
Number. Title. Hours Watched. 10 Cobra Kai: Season 6 7,800,0000 9 Vikings: Valhalla: Season 3 8,200,000 8 Love is Blind: Mexico

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Movie Reviews

Simon Abrams

Latest blog posts

A Woman Without Peers: Gena Rowlands (1930-2024)

The Needle Drop Sessions: Pump Up the Volume & Untamed Heart

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Matt Zoller Seitz

Close to You

Tomris Laffly

Rule of Two Walls

Peyton Robinson

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut

VALHALLA RISING

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The 10 Most Popular Shows on Netflix Right Now