Day 314: Valhalla Rising

For some odd reason today I started thinking about one of my favorite lesser-known movies called 'Valhalla Rising.' It's by director Nicolas Winding Refn, who is probably best known for 'Drive' but I know him best as that guy who makes consistently unusual films. Most of them eschew typical plot structures, character arcs, and even dialogue sometimes. They're highly unpredictable, and to someone who has grown tired of the regular theater experience, extremely entertaining. The only thing that you do know going in is that something weird, probably violent, yet really epic is going to take place.

'Valhalla Rising' is my favorite of his films, up there with 'Drive,' because it strikes the right balance between unusual narrative, action, suspense, and thought provoking themes. The main character is a Scandinavian fighting slave portrayed by Mads Mikkelsen, already not your typical background, but it gets weirder. His name is One-Eye, due to a facial wound that's left him without his left eye, and he never speaks. Not a single line of dialogue as far as I'm aware.

Another piece of this puzzling character are the visions he has, always shown in this striking red filter.

The journey truly begins when he has a vision of himself in a bath here, where he finds an old arrowhead in the basin. Then after his captors take him to a brutal fight, One-Eye is taken to said basin, where he looks down and, hey presto, there's the arrowhead. Even years after watching I'm not entirely sure if he can see the future or what. These visions crop up, always in red, to give vital plot details. Sometimes they're not about the future though. They, at times, reveal certain a character's true nature, show him premonitions of danger, give insight into the world, and probably some other interesting stuff I'm just not seeing.

After he manages to make an escape thanks to the arrowhead, he meets a young boy who seems to be able to understand One-Eye despite his lack of speech. They travel together for a while before running into a group of fanatic militant Christians hellbent on spreading the word of God through the sword. It's at this point that the boy gives One-Eye his name. They make a tense peace, and end up camping with them for the night, when they find out over a fireside chat that the Christians are headed to Jerusalem. Given that One-Eye is a slave, and the boy an outcast, they decide to go with them.

They board a boat and take to the sea, where the journey immediately takes a turn for the worse. A thick fog encases their vessel, making it impossible to navigate. For weeks they're totally blind, driven one way or another by fickle winds. Supplies run low, tensions are high, and the Christians seem ready to off One-Eye and the boy as symbols of Satan's terrible luck. Just as they're ready to turn to seawater for hydration, they end up inland, sailing through fresh waters. Unfortunately, they're inland on the wrong continent, and find themselves in a savage new world.

Things pretty much get worse and worse for One-Eye and the boy until, in the end, everyone on the boat winds up dead. Like I said, it's not your typical movie. I think you could classify it as a tragedy? Maybe? 'Experimental' perhaps? I'm not sure. It's thought provoking though, and it certainly has you on the edge of your seat the whole time. What's funny about this movie is that nobody seemed to understand how to market it. Like many Refn movies, it was often portrayed as your standard action flick in the trailers, only to receive poor reception because that's just not really what it is at all.

Check out the poster they used for Australian audiences for example:

The van Damme-esque blood splatters, epic posing, army in the background, random quotes about violence ... it all points to the same thing. Thing is, he never even holds that sword, nor is there an army involved at any point, and the quotes are totally made up. This poster is straight up lies. The trailer is equally misleading, but in different ways. None of it really captures what the movie is, but to be fair, doing that is pretty much impossible without watching it yourself. That's what make Refn's movies so interesting, but so difficult to get out there. You never know what you're gonna get.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley