Valhalla Rising

I’m not gonna pretend that I got it.  I don’t know if these Vikings really entered heaven, hell, some other spiritual world or if they landed in North America.  To make myself feel better I’ll go with the last one. 

So if you look at it that way it’s sort of like Refn’s take on a Terrance Malick movie.  And I really mean a specific one, The New World.  Now, The New World blew me away when I first saw it and had to go back a second time to re-experience those gorgeous shots and beautiful score set against eccentric editing.  Hold on a sec, this is the film I was trying to remember that I saw twice in theaters in my Drive piece.  Damn, that was a neat full circle that I accidentally made.

Anyway, what they have in common is that Valhalla Rising is shot totally outdoors with very little dialogue and shows these guys wondering what the hell to do pretty much the whole time.  There’s a sense of discovery, adventure, wonder, bewilderment (they were trying to reach Jerusalem, boy did they get it wrong), anger and on and on.  It’s (at least partly, I think) about going on a journey, finding out something about yourself and the world and (hopefully) being enlightened by it.  This one is also just as pretty to look at.  

What was great is that the Vikings have no idea what’s going on and neither does the audience so all of these emotions transfer readily.  I mean you don’t know much about these characters but I still found myself caring about whether they lived or died.  I was entranced and kept wondering where all of this was going.  It’s like we’re all in it together.

After a quick wiki check Valhalla is a place where people who died in combat go.  That still doesn’t help me understand this movie or even the title.  Maybe this is supposed to be the first trip to Valhalla?  Or after this Valhalla was created or built or idea-ed by somebody?  Not sure.

This one’s an intricate and delicate piece.  All of the components need to work for the whole thing to work.  With something like this if the music is off or there’s not just the right amount of dialogue or the actors don’t look right or there’s too much levity or any other one thing then the entire picture falls apart. 

I liked it but was unexpectedly surprised because I assumed it was going to be like Refn’s other films.  Well I guess not counting Fear X because that was different too but man was it dull.  I recommend this one but be warned that this is a moody fucking movie.  It’s not something you just throw on.  In my case I ready for a totally different film and had to adjust quickly.  Alright Refn, you caught me with my pants down.  Good work.

As a side note, it’s funny to think that this is what got Refn the Drive gig.  According to Ryan Gosling he saw this picture and knew he had found the right guy for the job.  They’re pretty different films if you ask me but maybe Gosling wanted Drive to be more like Valhalla Rising.  It’s hard to say how well that would’ve turned out since I have so much affection for Drive but it certainly would’ve been interesting.  You know what though, I’m glad Refn didn’t go that way because we already have a Terrance Malick and he’s pretty damn good at being that.