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Eggers wanted to reclaim Viking lore from 'white nationalists'. He's bothered by them enjoying The Northman.

posted 3 years ago by [deleted]
12 replies | jump to latest

Ahead of The Northman’s release, you spoke about wanting to reclaim Viking lore from white nationalists who had appropriated it. Yet the film nonetheless appears to have been embraced by some of them online. Are you disheartened by that turn of events? Do you think they’ve misunderstood the film, and your intentions?

I think that if you are someone who’s searching with a hammer, then everything is a nail. And I can’t help that attitude. [laughs]

Does it bother you that some extremists seemed to react to it in that way?

How could it not? But like I said, I said what I said.

You’ve previously done witches and sea creatures—why now Vikings?

I was not interested in Vikings and the macho stereotype, and the right-wing Nazi misappropriation of Viking culture cemented my disinterest as an adult. But when I went to Iceland, the landscapes were incredibly inspiring, and I wanted to know about the people who sailed there in the 10th century and didn’t die. [laughs] Also, I really liked the sagas. I became very passionate about the sagas, and the idea of a Viking movie appealed to me. Then a couple of years later, I had lunch with Alexander Skarsgård, and he had been trying to make a Viking movie for some time. The idea of doing it with Alex made it real, and he’s the perfect person for it.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/robert-eggers-feels-he-needs-to-restrategize-after-the-northman?ref=scroll

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

Other interesting tidbits

How much did you have to rely on CGI? It doesn’t appear to be an effects-heavy film, but I suspect that it required more than The Witch and The Lighthouse.

I think people would be surprised to find out the amount of CG in the first two movies, but it’s all very invisible and minor things. With this, something like 85% of the shots have an effect in them, and they could be as simple as erasing a safety wire. I think the intention is always to try to do it for real as much as possible. But certainly, shooting a film of this scale, in this day and age, it’s impossible to do everything for real, just for health and safety reasons. I mentioned the safety cables—you didn’t have to always use a cable back in the day, and you do now.

Going forward, does it make you rethink your own strategy regarding the types of projects you want to tackle?

I need to restrategize in terms of what I’m pitching to a studio. Like, how do I be me and survive in this environment? Because while they wouldn’t have me anyway, I wouldn’t want to direct a Marvel movie, and I’m also not going to try to get the rights to Spawn or something either. I’m going to keep doing what I’m going to do. But I know that everybody’s nervous right now, you know? Everybody’s nervous. And it’s justifiable.

[–] legnadibrom (6248) 3 years ago

doesn't he have a beard?
he misappropriated manliness and really needs to give it up

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

He does have a beard, yeah.

The thing that's strange about this is that all three of his films so far have had exclusively white casts. For someone who is seemingly aligning themselves with the multicultural left he's done a very poor job of working with minorities. It seems to me like he's overcompensating and speaking out in order to protect himself from criticism, a few online users have cottoned on to the fact his films are exclusively white thus far.

So either he's a proud lefty and has done a ridiculously poor job of diversifying his films, or perhaps he is a right leaning individual and is merely paying lip service to the media to shield himself. It's a bit hard to say which at this point.

I do know many were happy that this film wasn't 'woke' but with these statements from him he's gonna' embitter some of those that praised him.

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 3 years ago

As usual, your clear perspective is a pleasure to read.

I like how they say "Do you think they’ve misunderstood the film, and your intentions?" and never once consider that they might be labeling some people "white nationalists" because they misunderstand them and their intentions.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

They were really prying at him to get him to completely shame and distance himself from 'white nationalists'. To be fair he half-assed a reply without going fully into the bashing. Though he did bite and distance himself from them some what.

I do agree with the fact that the interviewer and co' are definitely misunderstanding some of the appraisal the casting for this got. People were happy at the authenticity of having a Viking revenge film set in Iceland, having a White cast with no modern revisionism (such as Vikings of African or East Asian descent).

This obviously is 'racist' to some peoples, for some reason, even though these same people likely bemoan the white castings ('whitewashing' as they call it) of films set in Asia, Africa and South America. Some even kicked up a fuss because Gal Gadot (an Ashkenazi Jew from the Middle East) is meant to be playing Cleopatra (a Macedonian Greek who ruled in ancient Egypt). Which is pathetic because studies have shown that modern Ashkenazi Jews share a strong affinity with Greeks. Of course these people seemingly wanted a Black Woman or an Arabic Muslim for the role. Gal is 'too white' somehow when if anything she's likely 'browner' than Cleopatra was.

Of the Jewish populations in this cluster, the Ashkenazim were closest to South European populations (specifically the Greeks) and they were also closest to the Turks.

2007 study by Bauchet et al. found that Ashkenazi Jews were most closely clustered with Arabic North African populations when compared to the global population of that study. In the European structure analysis, they share genetic similarities with Greeks and Sicilians, reflecting their east Mediterranean origins

The closest people related to Jewish groups were the Palestinians, Bedouins, Druze, Greeks, and Italians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_on_Jews

[–] Befus (494) 3 years ago

How can you "appropriate" your own culture?

[–] R_Kane (15828) 2 years ago

“Disinterest” means “impartial.” It does not mean lack of interest.

This Bozo specifically says he has a lack of interest, the English word for which is “uninterest.”

So we’re on this topic discussing an uneducated movie director.

Why?

[–] Leodicaprio (6426) 2 years ago

who had made multiple films that were great and that were and always will be better than you've ever done.

its like the mechanic who can fix a car quickly, but cant tell you where Poland is on the map. or the world renown heart surgeon who has no emotional intelligence and cant read somone when they feel awkward.

hes a great director, he doesnt have to be a great linguist

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

Absurd.

[–] whynotwriteme (7725) 2 years ago

He's obviously lying to preserve his status as an active filmmaker. If he didn't spout this kind of Woke drivel to the press, he'd be canceled in about 5 minutes and never be allowed to make another movie again.

[–] Hybrid66 (1516) 2 years ago

He's right.

Nazis and neo-nancies are lame and revolting cowards. Also retarded educationally.

Americans, adored the world over (lol) love their racism, though.

[–] Nanook (1960) 2 years ago

Hmm. Well, I happen to be from melanin-deficient Celt and Slav stock as well as a nationalist, but I'm next to impossible to offend, a fan of his work and suffer no guilt other than from my own (in-)actions. These little "acceptable" discriminatory remarks don't pass unnoticed, alas.