Valhalla Rising [Blu-ray]

This is one crazy movie, and I imagine many viewers will find it too slow, or too graphic, or too obtuse or any combination of the three. Yet, it is also mesmerizing, gorgeous and somehow hypnotic.The ever gripping (and in this film, completely silent) Mads Mikkelsen plays a Nordic/Viking warrior-type in the early middle ages who is being held as a slave by a group of pagan Vikings. He is used to fight battles to the death, perhaps for money, and his brutally effective and creative in staying alive. His only “friend” is a young boy who is also a slave and seems to be incredibly devoted to Mikkelsen, whom the boy dubs One-Eye, and that’s the only name he has.Eventually, the two escape and end up on the crew of a Viking boat, manned by converted Christians who are determined to go to the Holy Lands and fight in the crusade. These guys are fanatics: their credo appears to be “convert or die” as they are first encountered at the scene of a slaughter of their own doing.Things don’t go well, and their journey becomes hopelessly lost and ever more cryptic. The men are consumed by greed or religious fervor, yet tormented by personal demons and driven to the brink of madness by what I can only call the “alien-ess” of the land they’ve encountered. We may have an inkling of where they are, but eventually, they believe they are literally in hell. Imagine thinking you’ve just sailed to hell. You’re maddened by fear, or by desire to leave or for some, the opportunity to claim even this land for God.Meanwhile, One-Eye soldiers on to his own drum. Sometimes helpful, sometimes a team player and sometimes brutally cutting down his compatriots, he is a deeply inscrutable character.The movie looks terrific. No doubt director/co-writer Nicholas Winding Refn had a low budget for this singular film. And he takes advantage of it. Landscapes are sometimes sweeping, but for the most part, he stays tight on his people. Lots of closeups and many early moments in particular are filmed on hillsides (so that the mise en scene can be contained more easily). Many scenes at night or dusk or in the fog. It all feels contained, and yet very specific. The idea of being in 11th century Europe is convincingly conveyed.The music in the film is extremely effective and forward. It’s a fairly modern score, but works well with the portentous goings-on. It’ll give your sub-woofer a spin if you have a good sound system.And the costumes and makeup are great; everyone looks suitably muddy and unaccustomed to bathing. And in the midst of it all is the wonderful Mikkelsen, who (aided, I’ll admit by some great makeup) is always riveting. His is a performance of complete physicality, and it’s amazing to watch.But I’ll conclude by circling back to what I said at the beginning. The film is very slow. Despite the fight scenes, there are MANY moments of men walking, sitting or staring. It’s tough. And the fight scenes are quite graphic. I found them very in keeping with the tone of the film, but many will certainly cringe. And the film clearly grapples with many themes: religion, fervor, imperialism, faith and man’s inhumanity to man (to name a few). And it’s tough to say it all ties together. Yes, it seems really full of meaning, but good luck feeling like you’ve understood the film. I think everyone CAN come up with a meaning and underlying theme. But it’s doubtful there is one “right” answer, and you’ll never feel you’ve fully grasped it. If you can live with that, and if you’re up for a challenge, I think VALHALLA RISING is a fantastically creative and original film, unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Ok, don't read this review unless you have already seen `Valhalla Rising'. Because a lot of people still don't seem to get it, here's a capsule explanation of exactly what happens in the film, from someone who examines evidence of crimes and from that puts together suspects' MOs, serial killer methodologies, etc:A mute slave, One Eye, is forced by his captors to fight. One day, he finds an old arrowhead by submerging himself in a waterpool located on some mountain upland, after having a dream about the event. Later, One Eye uses the arrowhead to free himself and kill his captors. From this, his mind forms an abstract construct about submersion in water giving him the key that unlocks his freedom. An unnamed slave boy accompanies the newly freed One Eye, and they encounter a group of Christian Scots-Gaelic warriors who are on their way to the Crusades. One Eye and the boy board the Christians' ship, and with them sail away into a dense sea fog that does not lift until they find their ship has somehow left the sea and floated inland along the course of an unnamed river. Their location is uncertain and soon becomes a point of contention among the travelers.In this unfamiliar land, One Eye and his companions encounter some signs of human habitation: raised wooden biers holding decayed corpses and tribal religious paraphernalia stand in a lightly wooded area. Pay attention here, and you can see near this location a waterpool or small pond with the trunk of a dead, sun-bleached tree rising out of the water, or from the shore. There is a scene where the group is approaching the biers, and the waterpool/tree is there between them and the biers; another waterpool/dead tree tableau can be seen briefly for a moment behind and to the right of the leader of the Christian warriors. One Eye somehow makes the connection that these waterpool/dead tree tableaus have spiritual significance to the land's native inhabitants, else they wouldn't have chosen to honor their dead in that place.Later, the leader of the Christian warriors, who was allowed to travel through the unnamed land unmolested up until that point, is shot dead with arrows while standing waist-deep in a small pond. Note: to his left stands a dead, sun-bleached tree rising out of the water. Was the warrior-leader shot for violating the native inhabitants' "holy ground" by standing in the pond?Recall the earlier scene in which all of the characters drink some unnamed psychoactive liquor from a carved wooden bottle, and then all proceed to succumb to various kinds of drug-induced mania and/or religious ecstasy on the shores of a still lagoon. After drinking, One Eye glances over his shoulder toward a distant rocky promontory, where the native inhabitants are presumed to be hiding and watching; One Eye does this to let them know he's aware they are there.Then, standing apart from the maddened, drug-dazed crowd, One Eye constructs a column-like structure of stones on a small islet near the shores of the lagoon. Note that when he begins this task, One Eye sets the first stone atop the stump of a dead tree. He is sending the watching tribesmen the message that he understands their religion: he knows what their holy places are, where spirits are presumed to dwell. And so One Eye himself constructs a new "holy place."At the end of the film, before One Eye is beaten to death, he envisions himself (his spirit?) walking into the waters of that lagoon where he built the stone column; then he (or his spirit) is submerged, the head disappearing under the water's surface, like he did near the beginning of the film when he found the arrowhead that eventually aided him in freeing himself. Only this time, the audience is supposed to surmise that the freedom One Eye seeks (and gets, through the death of his physical body) is spiritual freedom, as opposed to his physical freedom earlier. One Eye's physical body dies, and his spirit enters the waters of the lagoon where he built the "holy place" marker, to become one of the native inhabitants' gods.

The film was great, but the DVD cover could be misleading, it has little bearing on the film content

Si eres admirador del director William Winding Refn, esta película no debe faltar en tu colección.Además, para quienes compramos productos originales cada vez es más difícil de conseguirlos en cualquier formato, y además esta cinta no he visto que figure en plataformas digitales. Hay que aprovechar.

A small masterpiece of cinema. Beautifully framed and shot. Slow paced, thoughtful, then explosive. Raw and gorgeous. It captures the cruelty, kindness, madness of the transition from paganism to Christianity in the Viking world. Brooding, metaphorical, mythological - a view into a fighting slave's drive to rise up from meaningless survival toward spiritual redemption and purpose. Very much more than a standard action movie. Watch the movie extra on the making of the film to better understand the director's intent. This is an art house film.

Alors là, je vous préviens : si vous souhaitez l'action pure, la furie des dialogues et un rythme haché, passez votre chemin. Ce film est incompris : j'ai visualisé quelques milliers de metrages, toutes nationalités confondues, je suis un fanatique de cinéma. Et pourtant... j'ai catégorié Valhalla dans ma liste des 10 plus grands films de l'histoire du cinéma ! Hommage ultime à 2001 de Kubrick, à Kurosawa, à Sergio Corbucci (Le grand Silence, personnage muet). Le charme du film est justement son atmosphère lente, le silence, l'ambiance de mystère et le contemplatif. Les personnages ignorent vers quelle contrée ils vont, et nous avec, c'est voulu. Le sens philosophique est intact. CE N'EST PAS UN FILM D'ACTION. Et ça aussi c'est voulu. J'ai eu l'impression de découvrir 2001 L'Odyssée de l'Espace pour la première fois, quelle sensation, j'étais cloué sur mon fauteuil, hypnotisé. Un chef d'oeuvre est toujours mal compris, rejeté, ignoré, critiqué dans son intellectualisme même. Kubrick reçut les pires affronts pour la majorité de ses films... Et Van Gogh ne vendait aucune de ses toiles... Merci Mr Mikkelsen, enfin un vrai film, loin d'Hollywood, loin de tout, si proche du Valhalla....

Blu-ray 3D-Version:Vorweg. Der Film ist nicht in 3D gedreht, sondern im nachhinein dilettantisch in ein Pseudo-3D kompromitiert ... äh, konvertiert wollte ich schreiben, aber "kompromitiert" habe ich trotzdem gemeint.Da haben die Darsteller Augen wie Brunnenlöcher, Haare im Gesicht wachsen in den Zuschauerraum, Nasen sind irgendwo im Raum verteilt, Gewänder und Stickmuster sind lebendig und bedrohen mich mit Plopups. Ich mußte 3D abschalten um nicht durchzudrehen. Welcher Pfuscher hat sich daran verbrochen? Inzwischen muß doch jedem bekannt sein, dass ein Film, der nicht in 3D gedreht wurde, auch nicht in 3D sein kann. Dass dieses wunderbare 3D-System kaputtkommerzialisiert wurde ist zum Großteil die Schuld der Pseudo-3D-Releases im nachhinein.Zur Handlung:Es gibt keine.Zum Hauptdarsteller:Er spricht nicht, schaut nur sinnlos rum. So leicht möcht ich auch mein Geld verdienen.Zur Musik:Nur Gedüdel, sinnlos, unkünstlerisch, tut im Kopf weh nach 5 Minuten.Sounddesign:War da was?Maske:Dem Hauptdarsteller wurde ein Auge zugepickt. Es sollte ein ausgestochenes Auge sein. Wie eine Faschingsmaske. In jedem Gschnas-Fest gibt's bessere Wikingerkostüme und Masken.Zusammenfassend:Der Film war eine Qual, endlose langweilige Einstellungen von nichtssagenden Landschaften.Ohne Flair, ohne Atmosphäre, ohne gar nix.Von vorne bis hinten voll in die Hose.Schade um die Zeit, das Ende war dann wirklich ein Highlight, ein Aufatmen.