SeveredWays

Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America (2007)

So I’m going to try and explain this movie’s plot as best I can. The year is 1007 AD and a couple of Vikings are left behind when the rest of their party flees from some attacking Indians. These two Vikings, Velnard and Orn, decide to head north with the hope that they will be able to catch the attention of another Viking ship. But before deciding this they spend some time building a shelter, which means we get a montage of them chopping trees down for the next 10 minutes (seemed much longer). Then after they decide to head north we get a montage of them walking. Then they find some Monks and kill them (or so Orn thinks). There is a flashback where we see Velnard kill his sister’s boyfriend who is converting her to Christianity, so Velnard lets his monk go. Then they kill a couple of chickens (onscreen animal deaths are so entertaining), pluck them and rip out the innards. Then more walking, they find an Indian then lose track of him. Even more walking happens then Orn gets his freak on with an Indian woman that ties him up. More walking happens, until Orn sees to it that the other monk is slaughtered. Velnard and Orn get into a big fight and kick each other’s butts. Then Velnard is killed by an Indian, who is killed by Orn. More walking and then Orn dies in the snow.

Okay I really didn’t enjoy this movie. In fact I found it to be a rather unpleasant experience to watch. There just isn’t much to the story to support a movie that is nearly 100 minutes long. The fact that they tell the story with very little dialogue and try to use onscreen chapters with titles to explain what is going on doesn’t help matters either. Plus I understand that this is fiction, but the movie does try and be a realistic portrayal of survival. I mean there is a scene in the movie where one of the actors drops his pants and we the audience get to watch him take a shit right there on camera up close! Oh and it lingers long enough for us to see him wipe as well. I would also imagine this is why the filmmaker decided to have us spend 10 minutes watching them chop trees down, and again kill live chickens on camera. So when the metal music starts and Orn starts to head bang I was sort of confused. And then when they run into probably the only other two white men in America I was just pissed. But to be honest this movie is mostly just shots of the characters moving around the forest as they head north. So I guess I shouldn’t worry that much about the story making sense or being entertaining at all.

Now the one thing that I did like about Severed Ways is the camera work. While I honestly don’t think much of this effort from Tony Stone the director and screenwriter, Tony Stone the cinematographer is freaking awesome. There is some beautiful scenery in this movie and it is all shot exceedingly well by Stone. Both day and night shots are setup and captured well. Though I will admit that some of them do tend to linger too long overall I liked the look of the movie.

My final rating on this movie is going to give it some credit for looking as good as it does. But honestly between the Viking crapping in the woods, the chicken killings, and the glacial pacing there is no way that I can recommend this movie to anyone. Magnet Releasing has put out far better movies than this. For more information on those check them out at http://www.magnetreleasing.com/index.html

1 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer