The blu-ray release of Valhalla Rising from IFC Films could not arrive at a more appropriate time. We’re in the middle of a pandemic, with justified anger at police killing black and brown skinned citizens, and protests in all 50-states. We are living in a time where humanity has been forsaken. There are few films that display the kind of savagery you see in Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2009 picture. It’s a portrayal of the world before any kind of society, any sense of decency, and little separating the man from the beast. Mads Mikkelsen is a man possessed, playing the role of One Eye, a prisoner to a group of pagans, tethered to a pole at the neck, and forced to battle men to the death to stay alive. It’s not a question if One Eye will survive, because all who cross him are left in his wake, but where the journey will take him. Valhalla Rising is a fascinating study in the rage of men, a beginning of time, a search for a higher power, and the absence of god.
