Indie Angle: Valhalla Rising

Valhalla Rising is a movie we in my household have been praying would come to our local independent spot since the first trailer appeared online a few months back.  It has yet to do so, but it is currently available on demand from our local cable company (Cox; I would imagine it’s available on other carriers, too, and if not I think Netflix might have it for download).  So we ordered that, turned off all the lights, and prepared for a good bloodthirsty head-rolling beserker rollick through Viking-conquered Scotland. 

My one complaint coming out of it:  as big and high-def as our TV is, that it wasn’t on a big screen.  Because this movie blew me away, and it would only get better as a theatrical experience.

First, let me say this:  Valhalla Rising is not for everyone–even everyone who loves a good historical bloodbath.  There is a definite moodiness to it, a sort of silent what-are-you-looking-at-ery to it that dares you to get bored.  I think the film was a solid ten minutes in before a single word was spoken; the soundtrack, such as it was, did not kick in until the third or fourth section (of 6 titled divisions).  The film script had to have read like a short story, because so much of this movie is told simply through showing what happens.  And what happens does not, most of the time, involve words.  So if you get bored in movies that aren’t constant action, or uncomfortable in movies without a lot of dialogue or soundtrack–be warned.  This is a quiet movie, except for the sounds of the wind and the sucking pull of mud when they trample someone into it.

For me, that silence was an awesome added element.  It made everything hyper-real, as the sounds we heard were the sounds of life as it likely might have been at that time:  a relentless wind, scant wildlife or birdsong, limited conversation–perhaps because we did not converse as much in those days or that culture, or perhaps because the main character (played by Mads Mikkelsen) was either mute or unwilling to speak because he never says a word throughout the movie.  The lack of constant music and/or sound effects also made them more effective when they were finally brought back in; it strung the tension to a level ten times what it would have been, to suddenly have a pulsing and insistent phrase in the background, than if there had been some sort of soundscape the entire film.

The settings are muddy and desolate and untouched–there are almost no signs of human habitation in any of the on-scene locations, and what can be seen look so primitive as to be rendered almost unnoticeable in that landscape, almost animalistic they seem so native to that place. 

The story does not go where you might expect it to from the previews, and it made me love the way they put the previews together.  The movie’s makers wanted you to essentially watch this movie blind, without knowing what’s coming, so that you can feel the terror and the confusion of the men as they experience it for themselves.  And that was goddamned brilliant.  I can’t say this movie scared me, because it’s not that kind of terror, but it certainly made me look a little differently at parts of history, and how they might actually have been played, than I ever had before.

If you’ve been patiently reading, waiting for me to tell you how awesome the violence is in this movie before you decide–well, it’s got some of the ole ultra-violence in it.  And it’s just as harshly realistic as the rest of it.  Hell, the movie opens with a prize fighter being let out of a cage to kill a challenger while he himself remains tethered to a pole.  And within the first 20 minutes he has cut a man’s entrails out and spilled them on the ground.

It’s fucking awesome.  If you like that sort of thing, I mean.

The special effects used were subtle, there to enhance the realism or to create a surrealism that slowly builds as the journey these men take stretches their views of reality further and further.  The filming was absolutely breathtaking, and the locations change enough to keep you from become visually numb the way a monotonous and static landscape can.  The acting was blunt and visceral, and the editing effects (in conjunction with added-in effects) created moments of almost supernatural transcendence.

I loved this movie.  It was dark, fascinating, frightening, and obscure in its direction, and if you like this era in history or truly medieval fantasy and can handle a slow-paced movie and a fair amount of blood, then you need to see this film.  Like yesterday.