Beards and Axes and Hell, Oh My!

Last night, my wife and I watched the much anticipated film Valhalla Rising on DVD, as I asked her for it for Christmas. If you know anything about the Vikings, you'll know where the title comes from, and how it pertains to the indie film about brutality, religion, and superstition (Valhalla is the Viking version of heaven). Broken up into six very poignant chapters, Valhalla Rising shows the journey of a slave in an unnamed Scandanavian country, crossing the paths with two very different tribes of Vikings, the second changing his life forever. Viking movies, those deemed respectable anyway, are pretty few and far between, and these are the sort of movies I enjoy very much, as my great great grandfather came to the US from Sweden - a hotbed of Viking activity. This is one of the reasons why I've been looking forward to seeing this movie for so long.

We're introduced to a mute slave known simply as One Eye (he has only one eye), as he provides entertainment for a tribe of pagan Vikings. They place bets on his life in fights to the death against other slaves. Each time before he fights, One Eye is chained to a pole with no shirt, and he shivers leading up to each altercation. The film does well to make the viewers want to shiver as well, each scene coated with desolate Northern landscapes, intense fog, and layer upon layer of mud. All the Vikings are clothed in frayed rags, toting axes and broad swords everywhere they go. The only compassion shown to One Eye comes in the form of Are, a blond slave boy who proves even more distant from the Vikings than One Eye does - leaving the viewer to wonder exactly just what his relationship is to the bearded, brutal men.

One day while bathing in a pool of water, One Eye comes across an arrowhead that he places in his mouth, seeking to strike at his captors when the time is right. And when that time is right, he lashes out with a vengeance in all its gory detail (he guts one man like a fish and decapitates another before placing his head on a pike). Are, scared but feeling as if he's far safer with One Eye than with anyone else, follows the Norseman around the Scandanavian countryside, over one desolate hillside after another. They eventually come across another band of Vikings, clutching crosses and swords. We think there's going to be trouble, as one man draws his sword when he sees One Eye, the latter gripping firmly the axe he took from the men who enslaved him. But, we come to find out that these new men are Christian Vikings, just about to set off for the Holy Land in order to reclaim it for God. One Eye is far from a Christian, and when asked where he's from, Are, who always answers for the mute warrior, tells the men that One Eye rose up from Hell. Despite the cryptic salutations, the Christians believe One Eye to be a mighty warrior, and ask him to accompnay them on their ship towards Jersusalem. Without a word, One Eye accepts.

The journey is seemingly a long one, and the fog from the Scandanavian hills falls second behind the one the follows the men aboard their ship. They can see nothing beyond the boat, therefore cannot use their oars. They begin to go partially mad, and some of the Vikings truly believe that One Eye has been sent by the Devil, that he had purposefully led them astray from their destination. When the fog passes, One Eye dips a cup into the water and drinks, and this probably alarms his fellow Norsemen even more. But we find he's not crazy and that the ship has drifted into fresh water.

Far from Jerusalem.

They land upon a heavily-wooded area, which, since I used to live there, looks like the more rural parts of South Carolina. We do come to assume it is the New World where they've land, as they encounter hostile natives, who, before we see them, are taking out the Vikings one by one. Most of the Northmen believe they've landed in Hell, and all seem to experience this in their own personal ways before meeting the heavily-painted natives (one man uses the cross-shaped hilt of his sword to continuously pray, another wallows in the muck, while One Eye finatically stacks rocks, as if building an idol to protect his soul or stacking his way to Heaven). This conclusion is completely left up to your own interpretation, and this is just one example of that sort of thing. The entire movie can be left to your own interpretation. One Eye seems to represent Hell, and Are perhaps represents the innocence of children and those who truly inherit Heaven. The film is definitely a commentary on religion and repentence. The brutality and whimsical killing of One Eye seems to combat that sense of repentence and piety on the scales on right and wrong. His dreams, scenes drenched in red, show us hints of what will come to fruition before it happens, which in turn eventually shapes the fate he chooses for himself.

Valhalla Rising is smart and gory. It's thought-provoking throughout. Despite the picture I've painted, it's slow and trippy with more scenes of the Norsemen staring into the distance than those of action and adventure. The biggest sense of this is seen in the quick, ultra-violent outbursts of One Eye, a warrior who knows that the only thing he's good at is delivering death. Valhalla Rising is one of kind, and surely not for every viewer, especially one\es expecting the action of other Viking films such as The 13th Warrior and Pathfinder. It will be awhile before I watch it again, but I will in fact watch it again. After all, it breaks the mold of the historical Viking-era film with its innovativeness.