In his third full length film, Eggers was given a substantial budget, over twice his other films, and it shows. It's lovely to look at and meticulously constructed, like his other films. Having more money seems to have added a commercial element I can't quite put my finger on that was absent in previous efforts. The story is fairly cliché, young prince survives the betrayal and murder of his father and swears revenge on the traitor - becoming a savage warrior in the process. He has brought back actors from previous films and added some higher end ones, all of which are great in their roles and obviously wanted to work with him. Ethan Hawke is maybe the weakest in his role as king but when the weakest role is still fantastic, you can't complain. Alexandre Skaesgârd is intense with his body language, psychical presence and wears his anger well throughout as the revenge seeking prince. Bjork has a small role that suits her well, particularly her voice and Nicole Kidman takes on what could have been a forgettable character and gives her life.
The film was a commercial failure at the box office but I see it having a long life in video and streaming for years to come and I will buy the BluRaye. Eggers does use original languages but not exclusively so most of the film is in English. The other languages didn't need subtitles to understand what was happening. He is a stickler for original language so the English throughout was unexpected. There was nudity in the film and some sex but nothing terribly explicit. In fact, some of the nudity took me out of the film because while it wasn't exactly "the guy is naked but there is vase in front of his junk" censorship, it wasn't NOT that either. there is a en epic naked sword fight in a volcano that was maybe cropped a little too carefully to hide things which, for me at least, always brings attention to the director hiding something and it's more distracting than seeing a penis briefly. Woman don't get to be quite as modest. It is pretty violent in parts but I wouldn't say any of it is out of place for the story and Eggers does not shy away from things like rape is happening - but he doesn't make it selling point as others might have and I really appreciated that.
There is some debate on whether or not this is a fantasy film. Maybe. There are fantastical elements but most of them can be easily dismissed as the character's fantasy or the mythic interpretation melting with the real event. I liked an ambiguity and the myth making mixing with the action.
Not my favourite from Robert Eggers but three great films out of three is a pretty good record! I don't think he is chomping at the bit for more large budgets and frankly he doesn't need them. More frankly, I don't think many films needs the enormous money poured into them.
2 comments:
I've only seen the one Eggers film, "The Lighthouse," but I was impressed. I've seen the previews for this and was worried about the level of violence. I'll probably see it because the number of directors with any guts and a real voice these days are few and far between.
I loved the witch and look forward to his version of nosferatu. This was good, we enjoyed it for the most part but it’s his weakest film I think.
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