Robert Eggers’ The Northman: A Review If you’ve seen The Northman’s trailer then I have bad news, you’ve seen 95 percent of Alexander Skarsgard’s script. Like a didgeridoo desperately trying to break away from a single note, he repeats:
“I will avenge you, father. I will save you, mother. I will kill you Fjolnir.”
If this sounds awfully like Hamlet that’s because it’s based on the same legend of Amleth – set mostly in Britain – that inspired Shakespeare’s tale, as well as the bleak nineties flop, The Prince of Jutland (1994). Yet whereas Hamlet was full of introspection, and Christian Bale’s script was so bad it verged on parody, Amleth is more a skull-crusher in the Andre the Giant (Princess Bride, 1987) tradition.
In short, Amleth (Alexander...