Valhalla Rising (film)

Plot

A mysterious mute thrall with one eye is held by a Norwegian chieftain from Sutherland and forced to fight to the death in the Scottish Highlands. During his imprisonment, the man receives his meals from a young boy. One day, the man manages to kill the chieftain and his entourage and he impales the chieftain's head on a pike. Whilst leaving the land, the man soon realizes that the boy is following him. They reach a small group of Christian Norsemen who are persecuting the heathens of Scandinavian Scotland. The head of the group asks the boy about the man's origins and he, dubbing the man as 'One-Eye', tells that he came from across the ocean, possibly hinting that he is from Vinland. 'One-Eye' and the boy agree to join them to go on a Crusade. After a perilous journey where they travel in thick mist and food and water supplies dwindle, they reach the land.

Sailing up a river, they are attacked by locals who use primitive stone arrowheads. By then, they understand that they are not in the Holy Land. Their leader nevertheless contemplates to fight the locals and claim the land. 'One-Eye' has a vision of him trying to build a cairn. After they blame him for their fate, 'One-Eye' kills some of the crew members. 'One-Eye' and the boy leave and walk into the forest. Afterwards, the leader is killed by flying arrows.

'One-Eye' and the boy eventually reach the coastline and are soon met by over a dozen clay-covered warriors. One-Eye regards them knowingly, as he has already foreseen this event in a vision. He puts his hand on the boy's arm, then walks into the middle of the tribesmen. He drops his axe and his knife and closes his eye. One of the warriors, understanding what he wants them to do, fells him with one blow to the back of the head, before the other warriors finish him off. One-Eye's spirit walks into the estuary next to his cairn and disappears below the surface. On the beach, the remaining tribe members quietly withdraw back into the forest, leaving the boy looking out at the ocean. The sky grows dark.

Cast

Nicolas Winding Refn deliberately did not give formal names to the film's characters, save for One-Eye, although it is not the character's real name but a moniker given by The Boy. Names were assigned in the script to differentiate parts. This article addresses the characters as they are addressed by Refn on the DVD-commentary.

Release

The film premiered at the 66th Venice International Film Festival where it was shown out of competition on 4 September 2009. The Danish premiere followed on 31 March 2010. Vertigo Films released it in the United Kingdom on 30 April the same year.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, gives the film a score of 71% based on reviews from 55 critics. Metacritic gives the film a "generally favorable" average score of 61% based on reviews from 15 critics.

The reaction from Danish critics was split. Berlingske Tidende gave the film a rating of two out of six and called it "unbearably self-important". B.T., on the other hand called it a masterpiece and handed out a perfect score of six out of six.

Soundtrack

The score of the film was composed by Refn's frequent collaborators Peter Peter and Peter Kyed. Originally Refn had intended Mogwai as the composers of the score. The soundtrack was commercially released on 7 October 2013 by Milan Records who also released the score to Refn's films Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon . The soundtrack contains the complete score as well as unused cues and sections of the soundscapes sound designers Giles Lamb and Douglas MacDougall created for the film.

1. "Introduction" - Peter Peter & Peter Kyed (1:03)
2. "Caged" - Giles Lamb & Douglas MacDougall (1:41)
3. "One Eye Fights" - Giles Lamb & Douglas MacDougall (0:53)
4. "Montage" - Peter Peter & Peter Kyed (4:22)
5. "Arrowhead" - Giles Lamb & Douglas MacDougall (4:19)
6. "Escape" - Peter Peter & Peter Kyed (1:02)
7. "Return" - Peter Peter & Peter Kyed (3:03)
8. "Free" - Peter Peter (1:56)
9. "Christians" - Giles Lamb & Douglas MacDougall (4:03)
10. "Men of God" - Peter Kyed & Peter Peter (4:49)
11. "The Boat" - Peter Peter & Peter Kyed (12:02)
12. "Into Hell" - Peter Peter & Peter Kyed (3:40)
13. "Hell" - Peter Peter & Peter Kyed (9:34)
14. "Forest'" - Giles Lamb & Douglas MacDougall (2:14)
15. "Valhalla Rising (End Credits)" - Peter Peter & Peter Kyed (5:33)