<em>The Northman</em> Is an Unsentimental Portrait of a Hero
In the gritty Viking tale, revenge is both a worthy obsession and an undeniable hindrance.
The magic of Robert Eggers’s breakout first film, , a horror fable about a Puritan family besieged by supernatural forces, lay in its authenticity. Not from the close attention to period detail, though that was itself impressive, but from the earnestness of its tone, which presented every supernatural element as matter-of-factly as the grim realities of corn farming in 17th-century New England. That same practicality pervades Eggers’s newest work, , a violent Viking tale of loss and revenge. The film beckons you
