History YMMV / TheNorthman

** Many people have compared the movie to ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'', especially the [[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 1982 film]], with some even calling ''The Northman'' 'the best ''Conan'' movie in years'. There are many similarities between the two films (the protagonist is a stoic badass from a ProudWarriorRace and the son of a ruler who seeks revenge for a parent's murder and the slaughter of his village, he obtains a CoolSword from a burial mound and receives guidance from sorcerers, he has to stealthily infiltrate the enemy camp because brute force won't cut it, he receives help from his love interest who urges him to give up revenge, [[spoiler:with their romance ending in tragedy]] and more). Even the opening scene is highly similar to ''Conan'''s, with a gravelly-voiced narrator introducing us to the protagonist and his epic journey. Heck, if you ramped up the fantasy elements ''The Northman'' could make a decent SwordAndSorcery movie. The ''Conan'' references are by design too, with Creator/RobertEggers stating in an interview: "There's a lot of ''Conan'' referencing, I have to admit. Many tips of the hat. I've been told by my PR team to keep it light, but this is in some respects me trying to do ''Conan the Barbarian'' by way of ''Film/AndreiRublev''."

** Many people have compared the movie to ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'', especially the [[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 1982 film]], with some even calling ''The Northman'' 'the best ''Conan'' movie in years'. There are many similarities between the two films (the protagonist is a stoic badass from a ProudWarriorRace and the son of a ruler who seeks revenge for a parent's murder and the slaughter of his village, he obtains a CoolSword from a burial mound and receives guidance from sorcerers, he has to stealthily infiltrate the enemy camp because brute force won't cut it, he receives help from his love interest who urges him to give up revenge, [[spoiler:with their romance ending in tragedy]] and more). Even the opening scene is highly similar to ''Conan'''s, with a gravelly-voiced narrator introducing us to the protagonist and his epic journey. Heck, if you ramped up the fantasy elements ''The Northman'' could make a decent SwordAndSorcery movie. The ''Conan'' references are by design too, with Creator/RobertEggers stating in an interview: "There's a lot of ''Conan'' referencing, I have to admit. Many tips of the hat. I've been told by my PR team to keep it light, but this is in some respects me trying to do ''Conan the Barbarian'' by way of Andrei Rublev."

* OlderThanTheyThink: Some people assume that the main character being named "Amleth" is a reference to ''Film/Hamlet''. Actually, Hamlet is itself based on an older Danish folk tale, and Amleth was the ''original'' name of the character.

** Did Gudrun [[spoiler: really engineer the murder of her husband and the attempted murder of her son or is this something she told herself after the fact? Her words to Amleth imply she doesn't really love Fjolnir or his sons as she states she's willing to become Amleth's bride if he kills them, and later on when she is finally killed she thanks Amleth. Is she really the evil hag the film presents her as, or just a woman suffering from trauma and mental problems? The fact she claims she was laughing when she was seemingly ''shrieking'' upon being carried away also casts doubt into her words and implies she might have StockholmSyndrome]].

* HypeBacklash: The movie suffered from this - after receiving raving reviews and very good word of mouth upon its premiere, the film brought wide audiences toward itself... and people started to instantly ask what's all the buzz about, up to the point it started to affect the box office in the opposite direction.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: Some people came to see this movie after the success of Film/TheLighthouse to see what Robert Eggers can make with a big budget, some people came to see an epic Viking revenge tale, and some came to see Creator/AnyaTaylorJoy's nude debut.

** Many people have compared the movie to ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'', especially the [[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 1982 film]], with some even calling ''The Northman'' 'the best ''Conan'' movie in years'. There are many similarities between the two films (the protagonist is a stoic badass from a ProudWarriorRace and the son of a ruler who seeks revenge for a parent's murder and the slaughter of his village, he obtains a CoolSword from a burial mound and receives guidance from sorcerers, he has to stealthily infiltrate the enemy camp because brute force won’t cut it, he receives help from his love interest who urges him to give up revenge, [[spoiler:with their romance ending in tragedy]] and more). Even the opening scene is highly similar to ''Conan'''s, with a gravelly-voiced narrator introducing us to the protagonist and his epic journey. Heck, if you ramped up the fantasy elements ''The Northman'' could make a decent SwordAndSorcery movie. The ''Conan'' references are by design too, with Robert Eggers stating in an interview: "There's a lot of ''Conan'' referencing, I have to admit. Many tips of the hat. I've been told by my PR team to keep it light, but this is in some respects me trying to do ''Conan the Barbarian'' by way of Andrei Rublev."

* HypeBacklash: Seems to be suffering from this - after raving reviews and very good word of mouth upon premiere, the film brought wide audiences toward itself... and people started to instantly ask what's all the buzz about, up to the point it started to affect box office in the opposite direction.

* MemeticMutation: Calling the film "the ''real'' [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2019 live-action]] ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 Lion King]]''" due to the similarities in plot[[note]]as ''Lion King'' takes inspiration from ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', itself inspired by the Amleth legend that ''The Northman'' loosely adapts[[/note]].

* SpiritualAdaptation: As mentioned under MemeticMutation, Amleth's fight with the Mound Dweller has been described as the most accurate depiction of a Creator/FromSoftware boss fight ever - a descent into a dark tomb to steal a weapon from the decaying specter of a giant, once-mighty warrior who attacks with slow but brutal strikes. He even uses clear wind-up tells for his attacks that Amleth dodges.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Due to how white nationalist groups have appropriated UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge imagery to promote their ideology, some people speculate as to whether the movie's content indicated that Creator/RobertEggers was a white supremacist or at least spousing their views implicitly[[note]]an example is the [[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/22/norse-code-white-supremacists-reading-the-northman-robert-eggers this article]] which includes claims of how accuracy is merely a red herring or if white supremacists don't hate your work, you might be doing something wrong regardless[[/note]]. These claims are being heavily disputed as cases of either [[ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch wholly misinformed speculation]] or deliberate [[HitlerAteSugar guilt by association]], as the movie's depiction of Viking culture eschews NostalgiaFilter and presents it as nightmarish and brutal, and Eggers explicitly [[https://twitter.com/strangeharbors/status/1515053245948993541 noted]] his distaste for far-right appropriation of Norse history. This wasn't helped by some prominent white nationalists [[MisaimedFandom praising the movie's "messages" as "admirable"]].

* RealityIsUnrealistic: The arctic fox that helps Amleth is actually a real fox, through many viewers mistook it for a (poorly rendered) CG one.
** All the night scenes where shot at night but many people assumed they were day for night. Might have to do with night sky which was comped in to simulate what the human eye sees but what a camera does not photograph.

** Did Gudrun [[spoiler: really engineer the murder of her husband and the attempted muder of her son or is this something she told herself after the fact? Her words to Amleth imply she doesn't really love Fjolnir or his sons as she states she's willing to become Amleth's bride if he kills them, and later on when she is finally killed she thanks Amleth. Is she really the evil hag the film presents her as, or just a woman suffering from trauma and mental problems? The fact she claims she was laughing when she was seemingly ''shrieking'' upon being carried away also casts doubt into her words and implies she might have StockholmSyndrome]].

** Did Gudrun [[spoiler: really engineer the murder of her husband and the attempted muder of her son or is this something she told herself after the fact? Her words to Amleth imply she doesn't really love Fjolnir or his sons as she states she's willing to become Amleth's bride if he kills them, and later on when she is finally killed she thanks Amleth. Is she really the evil hag the film presents her as, or just a woman suffering from trauma and mental problems?]]

** Ingvar Sigurdsson as the He-Witch, the CrazyIsCool transvestite sorcerer invoking Odin.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Sure, UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge sells... but perhaps not when it's a slow burn revenge-driven story, with only one (and short) actual battle where Vikings [[RapePillageAndBurn get to business]] (and [[NeverTrustATrailer some trailers primarily featured that latter aspect only]]) and lots of old Norse mysticism and bizarre rituals audiences are not necessarily familiar with. Also not helping is that the marketing only shows Amleth as his {{shirtless|scene}} [[TheBerserker berseker]] self, while he actually doesn't spend much time onscreen as a berserker, quickly shaving his BarbarianLongHair and spending the rest of the film in slave garb.

* SpiritualAdaptation: The DungeonCrawling scene (where Amleth enters a burial mound to steal a magical sword from the undead king buried here) has some similarities with ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' in terms of setting: the game is set in a FantasyCounterpartCulture of medieval Scandinavia, and burial mounds filled with treasures are everywhere, especially since undead creatures similar to the Mound Dweller are the most common type of enemy inhabiting them (from {{Mooks}} to minibosses).

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Due to how white nationalist groups have appropriated UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge imagery to promote their ideology, some people speculate as to whether the movie's content indicated that Creator/RobertEggers was a white supremacist or at least spousing their views implicitly[[note]]an example is the [[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/22/norse-code-white-supremacists-reading-the-northman-robert-eggers this article]] which includes claims of how accuracy is merely a red herring or if white supremacists don't hate your work, you might be doing something wrong regardless[[/note]]. These claims are being heavily disputed as cases of either [[ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch wholly misinformed speculation]] or deliberate [[HitlerAteSugar guilt by association]], as the movie's depiction of Viking culture eschews NostalgiaFilter and presents it as nightmarish and brutal, and Eggers explicitly [[https://twitter.com/strangeharbors/status/1515053245948993541 noted]] his distaste for far-right appropriation of Norse history.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Due to how white nationalist groups have appropriated UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge imagery to promote their ideology, some people speculate as to whether the movie's content indicated that Creator/RobertEggers was a white supremacist or at least spousing their views implicitly[[note]]an example is the [[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/22/norse-code-white-supremacists-reading-the-northman-robert-eggers aforementioned article]] in MisaimedFandom which includes claims of how accuracy is merely a red herring or if white supremacists don't hate your work, you might be doing something wrong regardless[[/note]]. These claims are being heavily disputed as cases of either [[ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch wholly misinformed speculation]] or deliberate [[HitlerAteSugar guilt by association]], as the movie's depiction of Viking culture eschews NostalgiaFilter and presents it as nightmarish and brutal, and Eggers explicitly [[https://twitter.com/strangeharbors/status/1515053245948993541 noted]] his distaste for far-right appropriation of Norse history.