Valhalla Rising

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn, Ace Jordan Nicolas Winding Refn

Overview

A man with a remarkable talent for violence must fight to survive when he sets out on an extraordinary journey in this fantasy from director Nicolas Winding Refn. One Eye (Mads Mikkelsen) is the nickname given to a nameless, mute warrior who has become a slave to Barde (Alexander Morton), a wealthy Scotsman who obtained One Eye for his remarkable fighting skills. One Eye is a fierce warrior but shows little loyalty to his master, and when the opportunity presents itself, One Eye murders Barde and his mercenaries and sets off on his own, with a young boy (Maarten Stevenson) tagging along to speak on his behalf. Eager to leave Denmark behind in favor of freedom and adventure, One Eye throws in his lot with a band of Christian Vikings, who've set out on an ambitious quest to travel to Jerusalem and claim the Holy Land as their own. But the voyage to the Holy City is a difficult one, and the Vikings are met with violent resistance, forcing One Eye to rely on his talents as a warrior to protect himself and his young apprentice. Valhalla Rising received its North American premiere at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/30/2010
UPC:	0030306975894
Original Release:	2009
Rating:	NR
Source:	MPI HOME VIDEO
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:33:00
Sales rank:	38,040

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Mads Mikkelsen	One Eye
Maarten Stevenson	The Boy
Gordon Brown	Hagen
Andrew Flanagan	Gudmond
Gary Lewis	Kare
Gary McCormack	Hauk
Alexander Morton	Barde
Jamie Sives	Gorm
Ewan Stewart	Eirik
Matthew Zajac	Malkolm
Donny Boaz	Actor
Rebecca Summers	Actor
Danilo Di Julio	Actor
Eli Bildner	Actor
Devon Ogden	Actor
Aidan Flynn	Actor
Trista Robinson	Actor
Melanie Avalon	Actor
Landon Ashworth	Actor
Stewart Porter	Kenneth - Pagan
James Ramsey	Gudmund - Christian Viking
Rony Bridges	Magnus - Christian Viking
Douglas Russell	Olaf - Christian Viking
Garry Sweeney	Christian Viking
Tashi Tsering	Indian
Tsering Dorjee	Indian
Peter Peter	Composer
Peter Kyed	Composer

Technical Credits

Nicolas Winding Refn

Roy Jacobsen

Ace Jordan

Nicolas Winding Refn	Director,Screenwriter
Roy Jacobsen	Screenwriter
Johnny Andersen	Producer
Bo Ehrhardt	Producer
Henrik Danstrup	Producer
Joni Sighvatsson	Executive Producer,Executive Producer
Mads Peter Ole Olsen	Executive Producer
Thorir Sigurjonsson	Executive Producer,Executive Producer
Yves Chevalier	Executive Producer
Carole Sheridan	Executive Producer
Christine Alderson	Executive Producer
Linda James	Executive Producer
Des Hamilton	Casting
Ace Jordan	Director,Screenwriter
Rick Tucker	Producer
Lene Børglum	Executive Producer
Thorir Sigurjónsson	Executive Producer
Cameron Mercer	Sound/Sound Designer
Douglas MacDougall	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Nicolas Winding Refn's Valhalla Rising does for Norse mythology what Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey did for space exploration. For that reason alone it's bound to be misunderstood, misinterpreted, and reviled by viewers in search of some easily digestible entertainment. Those who don't mind a bit of a challenge, however, will savor Refn's methodical, deliberate, and hallucinatory approach to the tale of a mute, one-eyed warrior's slow descent into hell. Broken up into six chapters, the film unfolds at a creeping pace. But it's never boring; with mounting dread, stunning cinematography, sudden blasts of violence, and a mesmerizing score by Peter Kyed and Peter Peter, it's unceasingly intense, and impossible to look away from. Somewhere in the Scottish highlands, a stoic warrior named One-Eye (Mads Mikkelsen) languishes in a hillside cage. He is a prisoner, held against his will and forced to fight for his own survival. One day, while bathing in the river, he finds an arrowhead, and uses it to escape. After impaling his warden's head on a stake, One-Eye is followed over a hill by a young slave named Are (Maarten Stevenson), who previously tended to him while he was locked up. Eventually, the pair crosses paths with a group of Christian crusaders, and joins them on their journey to Jerusalem. After becoming lost at sea in a dense fog, the weary travelers discover that they have drifted far off-course. Now stranded in a strange land, they are forced to confront their deepest fears while struggling with the discovery that they are not alone. For many movie fans, the mere mention of Vikings or Norse mythology conjures up images of massive armies and epic battles. But Refn and co-screenwriter Roy Jacobsen are interested in deeper issues than humankind's preoccupation with clashing swords, and anyone hoping for an action-packed adventure is best advised to steer far clear of this enigmatic, meditative tale. Giving the film the look and feel of a particularly stark Hieronymus Bosch painting, cinematographer Morten Søborg masterfully conveys One-Eye's supernatural clairvoyance and externalizes the supporting characters' existential paranoia, negating the need for dialogue through the use of captivating imagery that's steeped in symbolism and subtext. Patient viewers will find it a deeply rewarding, transcendently beautiful experience. Clocking in at just 90 minutes, Valhalla Rising takes us on a brutal, cerebral journey that's unusually profound for a film of such brevity, effectively proving that a film needn't be forebodingly cumbersome in order to tell a serious-minded, richly textured story.