On 8/15/2022 1:18 PM, Julian wrote:
> ...
> Some companies are finally realizing this fact and are taking action to
> reduce their exposure to woke content, or otherwise perish from loss of
> viewership. Here's the thing – Leftists could take over every platform
> for media distribution (they almost have), but they still can't force
> the public to consume woke content. Eventually, the loss of viewers and
> profits is going to hurt their bottom line.
> ...
The Northman got a lot of attention when it was released, mostly because
the usual suspects were scandalized by the lack of diversity. There are
no black people in the film and the protagonist is a man. Worse yet, the
female characters are feminine and the male characters are masculine.
There are no homosexuals, transgenders or people speaking truth to
power. In other words, a crime against the faith.
Of course, this became the story rather than the fact it is one of the
best made moves in the last ten years. It is a film made by adults for
adults, which has become such a rarity that reviewers struggled to
describe it. Compounding it, the film requires some cultural literacy,
which is rare among the movie reviewing community. Most of the reviewers
think comic books are adult literature.
The Northman is a classic tale. A wronged man commits his life to
getting revenge on those who wronged him. He sets out on a journey to
exact his revenge, but the journey turns into something else. The black
and white world of his imagination gives way to the moral ambiguity in
which all of us exist. The story of revenge becomes an exploration of
the deeper themes that define the human condition.
In this film, the story is based on the legend of Amleth, which comes
from Scandinavian sources that have been lost. What we have comes from
the Saxo Grammaticus, a 13th century Danish theologian. Amleth is the
young son of a king. He sees his father killed by his jealous uncle, who
takes both the crown and his brother's wife. The son escapes only to
return as a man who then gets his revenge on his uncle.
That is pretty much it for the plot of The Northman, but that short trip
is one fantastic ride that reminds you that movies do not have to be
lectures. They can be incredibly well done stories that leave the viewer
thinking about the larger issues raised in the movie, but never
explicitly mentioned. That is art. It holds a mirror up to you and your
world so you can see things from a different perspective.
It is fair to say The Northman is art. We see Amleth as a young boy,
full of curiosity and wonder until he witnesses the murder of his
father. Next, we see him as a fully grown man, but more beast than man
as his rage makes him a killing machine. We are left to guess what
happened to make him into a berserker, but in a few minutes, we have two
important plot points of his character arc.
Amleth takes part in a raid in the Kievan Rus and after the fight, he
meets a Seeress who tells him that he will take his revenge on his uncle
and that his path is intertwined with a Maiden-King. Now we have an
important element. Amleth is not just a man on a revenge quest, but a
man following his destiny. He no longer has a choice and must wrestle
with this as he sets off on his journey.
This is not something you expect to see in a modern movie. Instead, it
would have been filled with emotive exposition. Half the film would have
been taken up explaining the back story and his emotional state. This
film assumes you are mature enough to fill in the blanks and understand
the bigger meaning of the story. This is not just a story about a man,
but a story about man and his relationship to the world.
One of the clever things about the film is that it blends the dreams and
visions with the live action in such a way that you are not always sure
if what you are seeing is real or the imaginings of the hero. Toward the
end, Amleth faces his mother and comes to realize her role in his
father's death. The way it is shot suggests it could be all happening in
his head rather than in the real world. You cannot be entirely sure.
What really makes this movie stand out is the bigger themes. Amleth
starts as a man with a lust for revenge. Then he learns that he will get
his revenge, but that it is part of a bigger story of which he is only
one part. His struggle is in accepting his fate and fulfilling his
destiny, even when he seems to have other options and it comes at some
cost to those he loves.
This is a theme that comes up often in our literature. If man can have a
destiny, does he have free will? If you cannot escape your destiny, then
why think at all about the choices that are presented to you? On the
other hand, if your revealed destiny is one of many possibilities, are
you obligated to fulfill it? Is the revelation part of the calculus or
is it a challenge?
This gets to the biggest question of all. What is the point of life? Is
it better to live a long and unimportant life or live a short and
consequential life? Would you rather die a broken down old or die a
young hero? Our nature is to live, but to live for what? This is the
choice presented to Amleth. He could have remained a berserker. He could
have abandoned his quest for revenge for a simple life. He could accept
his destiny.
The Northman is about the oldest questions of human existence. What is
the point of our lives and how should we use the time we have? For men,
the choice is always between the long quiet life and the short exciting
one. If it were only up to men, the latter would be the easy choice, but
men cannot be men, or even exist, without women and women naturally want
a man to choose the former.
That is what makes The Northman a great film. It presents a classic tale
in a way that allows the intended audience to think about the big
questions. It is not a lecture or an escape from reality, but a well
told story. It is up to the adults in the audience to make of it what
they will. That is probably what upset the critics. They no longer have
the adult capacity to appreciate this film, so they flung their poo at it.
https://thedissident.substack.com/p/the-northman