Thread by @RichardBSpencer

#TheNorthman is a great film. It's probably the best, most memorable, and gut-wrenching I've seen this year.

On one level, *The Northman* is a "White Nationalist Epic," though, of course, the writer-director didn't mean it to be propaganda. But the "historically accurate" casting ... the Norse mythology...the obsession with fathers and sons and blood lines...it's all there.

That said, as White Nationalists are claiming *The Northman* as their own—and the media is squealing about this—something important is being missed.

At the end of the day, *The Northman* is a somewhat hopeful but fundamentally demoralizing film. It's thus strange White Nationalists are praising it as their own propaganda ... but, of course, this is a group that, unconsciously and consciously, embraces losing.

*The Northman* is based on the source material of *Hamlet*, perhaps the world's most demoralizing play, which depicts the destruction of the Danish kingdom and the end of Hamlet's blood line.

In *Hamlet*, hope comes in a martial figure, Fortinbras, pronouncing "shoot!" at the close. Perhaps Denmark might be happier under his brutal rule than it was after being driven into chaos and madness by the play's true villain—Hamlet.

Claudius remains an entirely sympathetic figure, the play's tragic hero: capable of introspection and confession, he understands the geopolitical exigent he finds himself in and springs into action—maintaining stability and putting Denmark on a warlike footing.

I offer this "hot take" on *Hamlet* to show that Shakespeare—regardless of the great poetry and intelligence he cloaks Hamlet in—depicts him as a deeply destructive, perhaps even evil, figure. The play is tragic in the way that horrible Hamlet is eventually victorious.

In *The Northman*, "Amleth" is not as intelligent as Hamlet, but he's depicted as a much better person. He is a brutal animal for most of the movie but slowly finds his true humanity and manhood—and even fatherhood. This is completely foreign to the Prince of Denmark.

That said, Amleth gets his revenge at the cost of destroying his extended family, himself, and any semblance of a functioning community.

The "knowledge" Amleth gains is much like Hamlet's: he learns about the dark side of everything—his mother and father included—and is incapable of anything other than bloody revenge and reuniting with his clan "in Valhalla."

A REM perspective (@MarkBrahmin) reveals an additional meaning. The film ends with Amleth and Fjülnir killing each at the foot of a volcano: that is, before Vulcan or his successor fire god, Yahweh.

Thus, the film depicts the death of two brave, flawed, and brutal men, offering themselves up as human sacrifice to the evil blood-hungry Yahweh. The rise of Christianity is hinted at in other places in the film—and might be the film's broader message.

*The Northman* is a great film, and *Hamlet*, a great play. But to see either as moralizing or positive propaganda is simply wrong. Both are radically demoralizing and depressing; they both depict losing and invite the audience to embrace nihilism.