'Valhalla rising' - a dark mystery of life and death by Nicolas Winding Refn

Do not look for historical truth in this movie - it is not there.

Don't look for visionary ideas about the meaning of life.

Don't look for "good, bright moments".

What is it about?

This movie is about fate as a philosophical concept, about the inevitability of death and the inevitability of life, as you shape it by your actions.

This movie is about finding yourself, freedom, and the price you must pay for it.

This movie is about a man's path to ultimate liberation.

Well, I think I'm done with the pompous statements. So now I'll talk in a more down-to-earth way.

To start with, it's challenging to give a precise definition to the genre of the film by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn 'Valhalla Rising.' Refn defined it as "sci-fi post-punk without science"... He knows better, of course, but in my opinion, this word combination confuses more than explains. I would call this movie a "noir mystery with a historical setting," which doesn't really explain much, but it still sounds a bit clearer. If you have any fresh ideas, you are welcome to create your own unique definition.

The problem is (as is often the case with good films with mystical overtones) that you just can't point your finger at any of the characters or plot twists and say, "Aha! There it is!" I feel that this movie seems to be the closest relative of such films as Jim Jarmusch's 'Dead Man' and David Lynch's 'Lost Highway.' And those brilliants are the almost impossible ones to define.

The plot is rather unpretentious - a mute one-eyed (an apparent reference to Odin, if you ask me) slave picе lives a miserable life as a barbarian gladiator-slayer somewhere in the Scottish mountains. The action is set somewhere at the time of the First Crusade. One day the One-Eyed manages to kill all his masters and escapes, after which he runs into some Vikings (I think they are Vikings. There is no direct reference to who these people are in the movie) who offer him to go with them to the Holy Land. He agrees, and they depart on their journey... Which ends very, very far from Jerusalem.

I did not cite Jarmusch's film as a comparison by mistake. There are many parallels between the two movies. So much so that at times I've almost expected to hear the enchanting music by Neil Young. Johnny Depp's character in Dead Man had his spirit guide, an Indian named Nobody, and One-Eyed had his own, a slave boy who escaped with him and has no name at all. In fact, all characters in the movie are nameless, nor do they have any history or biographies. For Refn, it does not matter who these people are or where they come from. What matters is what they are doing and where they are going at any given moment.

The film is long, symbolic, and intentionally slow. It only occasionally bursts into short, action-packed episodes, but the tension gradually builds to almost unbearable, ending in a violent yet in some strange way hopeful finale.

What else can we say? This movie is certainly not for everyone. It is not suitable for cozy Sunday viewing under a warm blanket. It will tear you out of your soft, plush reality and hurl you into a place where there are few answers and where those answers are scary and uncompromising. It will make you wonder - why and where you're going, and what could be more frightening than the ultimate answer to that question?

But if you feel strong enough, watch 'Valhalla Rising.'

Who knows what answers it will tell you.

P.S. And yeah, Mads Mikkelsen is almost unbearably cool.