Cinema of Sorcery #5 - Valhalla Rising (2009)
"Slave. Warrior."
As teased in last week’s post, I’ll discuss Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2009 gritty Viking tale, Valhalla Rising. TLDR: It’s not going to be for everyone.
Nicolas Winding Refn first caught my attention with his excellent 2011 movie Drive starring my future best buddy, Ryan Gosling. It’s a moody, neon-dripping, gritty, dramatic action movie. I enjoyed his 2013 film Only God Forgives, another moody, neon-dripping, gritty dramatic crime movie starring my guy Ryan. After that, he made The Neon Demon, a dark, neon-dripping horror film with not Ryan Gosling but Elle Fanning. I then went back to see his highly recommended film Bronson, a moody, dramatically lit crime drama. By then, I could call myself a fan. I was very curious then to see what kind of moody, dark, visually unique film Refn could do set around a one-eyed Viking played by Mads Mikkelsen.
It was quite an interesting experience.
Mads plays a brutal and mute warrior given the moniker One-Eye by The Boy, played by Maarten Stevenson. These two unlikely friends meet some Christian Norsemen wanting to travel to the Holy Lands to reclaim them for God. In their travels, they are lost and arrive on land no one knows. I won’t spoil the rest, but they must deal with being on this unknown land, and things get bloody.
I’ll start with what I loved.
The cinematography from Director of Photography (DP) Morten Søborg is absolutely stunning here. The film is a slow-burn narrative, and the cinematography serves it perfectly. It’s slow and meandering, allowing us to take in the harsh beauty of the world. There’s not much quick editing done, allowing the wide shots to speak for themselves. But when there are some fast edits, it’s bizarre—in a good way—with surreal imagery and funky coloring. It serves to enforce the almost meditative quality of the narrative pace.
Mads gives a powerful and intense performance here. It speaks volumes about his talent that he says not a single word in the entire film, yet he has an emotional depth in his facial expressions and body movement. It’s a challenging type of performance that he deftly handles. As for everyone else…they aren’t the worst I’ve seen. But really, you’re here for Mads, and he’s terrific.
As briefly mentioned above, some surrealist imagery and ideas are sprinkled throughout the film. I loved these sequences! One-Eye has premonitions of events that eventually come to pass, and the color grading is bold and vivid compared to the devastatingly bleak world the characters move in. We only get this coloring during metaphysical moments, and it gives these moments a real magical quality to them.
I also dug the violence exhibited in the film. It’s realistically intense and uncomfortable to watch. It’s also used very meticulously, which helps make it stand out. The one downside to this was the CGI blood spurting. I feel like it’s a stylistic choice that I didn’t vibe with. It almost looks hand drawn. The spurts only last a few moments as the weapons enter and exit the bodies, but it’s enough that I want to acknowledge it. Either the VFX team was not given enough time to render it correctly, or Refn wanted a particular style I couldn’t plug into.
On to what didn’t quite work for me.
The biggest problem I have with this movie is the narrative. While I really enjoyed the visuals and how they worked with the narrative, the actual plot felt too wrapped up in itself to have fun with the premise. It’s trying too hard to be an “Important Movie” to give us a gripping revenge story that’s begging to be told. I don’t mind a slow-burner, but it needs more to say than Valhalla Rising did. I’m reminded of Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life in the pacing, but there’s a spiritual depth to that film that’s frustratingly shallow here.
Some characters are shown at the very end that seem to depict Indigenous Natives of Canada, and the actors appear to be covered in red clay. It seems to be a rampant problem within this genre. When I saw them, I had an exasperated gasp. 2009 was not that long ago, so it’s regrettable this happened. I could find very little on the performers other than many had names commonly found in Tibet. It’s marginally better than white people, but it still has a gross feeling.
The story is why most people might dip out after ten to twenty minutes. And I wouldn’t blame them. If you can put up with the narrative shortcomings, the visuals and Mads’ performance are worth the watch. There’s a mesmerizing quality that made it a captivating cinematic experience for me.
Thanks for reading! I know this was a bit different than other Cinema of Sorcery posts in that it’s much more of a review, but trying to do in-depth research for two films a week is proving to be more than my schedule will allow right now. I’d rather spend more time researching for The OeuvReport.
Next week I’ll watch 1983’s Fire & Ice, directed by animation legend Ralph Bakshi. I’ve never watched any of his films, but I know he’s beloved by his fans.
It’s streaming on Amazon Prime, Kanopy, and Pluto TV if you want to join me in watching.
Thanks for your time and inbox space. I appreciate it. Til next time!
- Colton