Review of Valhalla Rising (2009) by Dangerj1980 — 27 Apr 2012

I first watched "Valhalla Rising" on Netflix. I came across it while browsing the Foreign Films genre and I thought the cover looked cool, plus the small description sounded interesting. I watched it right before bed, and after it was over I was not sure if I liked it or not.

Still, something about it stuck with me. The next morning, I recalled the brief, violent action sequences and the haunting, lonely quality of the film and I wanted to watch it again. I didn't get the chance for a week or so.

This time, for whatever reason, I was taken into the movie. It opened on the grey, desolate Scottish plains, and I could actually feel the biting wind and the cold mist on my face. I felt the brutality and desperate rage of the main character, One-Eye, as he was dragged from place to place by his captors and forced to fight for their entertainment.

I felt the cruel elation as he escaped through bloody surprise and ingenuity, and then came the unease as he found himself amidst a group of Christians bound for the Holy Land. The claustrophobic boat ride across an endless, cursed sea was thought provoking and strange, as was their landing on the shore of an unknown land of ghosts and savages.

"Valhalla Rising" is not a movie I would watch with my parents or girlfriend, or a group of friends. I think it is best watched alone, in the dark, and on a day when you feel down in the dumps.

To qualify, this is the viewing scenario that worked best for me, I am not advocating it as the "only" way to watch the film. These were merely the circumstances that allowed me to fully enter the barren and bleak world that Refn has created.

All in all, I think it is a good movie. I would not call it a great movie, but it is certainly a force to be reckoned with if you are in the right frame of mind.