Oh good lord is this a nice piece of junk - bloody, violent junk that follows the fortunes of a band of Vikings in England fighting the Saxons. The year is 821 AD. For the most part the big selling point is the scenery and authenticity that is put into the entire production.
The settlements look lived in, the blood and wounds looks real and suddenly you realize that life is medieval England was no summer picnic. Everyone looks grubby and cold. It was a short life. If you lived long to reach old age you still spent your days planning how to take from those who live next to you because you needed to feed you people - all the time stabbing or bludgeoning your neighbors as you do it.
I like that they whittled the gang down to four so each of the actors could get their own magnificent death scene as the quest works itself out. I knew right from the start that this wasn't going to end well for many of the characters I would come across. For that reason I watched this one in pieces.
The quest they are on is little defined. It took me half the movie to figure out what the Hammer of the Gods was. Hence the title.
There are several very disturbing scenes and images of depraved lifestyles. Call it Vikings 2.0. More than you really wanted to know about the Vikings. It's all so violent and ugly and depressing. Heart Of Darkness only the Viking version.
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6 comments:
This sounds like my kind of picture! I have to track this one down!
You know I always tell people who complain about how awful life is in the twentieth century: "Well at least you don't have to deal with Vikings." and they always look at me funny. Maybe they should all watch this picture.
It certainly doesn't paint the Vikings as a sweet and kindly group. I remember scene where a character is washing the blood off himself and I thought how odd that was to do. Because everyone just walks around with the blood of their victims on them like it's some kind of cologne. They must have jus stunk up the room too.
Compared to Valhalla rising?
This one has a lot more action and less dead time than Valhalla Rising
did.
Cool...thanks
Don't thank me until you see it for yourself. I found it rough and that may just be because I am a weinie.
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