In our age of myriad streaming platforms, most individuals reside underneath a false perception that almost each film ever made is obtainable in some type or vogue. That is merely not the case. There are literally thousands of misplaced motion pictures and quite a few movies that exist in degraded codecs sans an honest 35mm print. Within the case of the latter motion pictures, short of a pricey restoration, they’re all the time going to look dodgy. And as time goes on, the streaming variations of those movies, sometimes ripped from an previous VHS launch (which was formatted to suit a 4×3 display screen), may simply disappear (at which level you may be compelled to chase down a pirated copy).
Hrafn Gunnlaugsson’s Viking yarn “When the Raven Flies” is at the moment hanging on in such a deadly state. Launched in 1984 and chosen to be Iceland’s entry for Finest Worldwide Function Movie (then Finest International Movie) at that 12 months’s Academy Awards (it didn’t make the minimize), this Ninth-century-set story about an Irishman in search of revenge in opposition to the Vikings that killed his mother and father is currently viewable on YouTube in an artlessly cropped 480p presentation. I doubt that is how the 77-year-old Gunnlaugsson would like for his movie, which /Film has deemed one of the 14 best Viking movies ever made, to be seen, however, for no matter cause, that is all we have. And it is a disgrace as a result of Gunnlaugsson’s movie is a singular entry within the Viking film style.
When the Raven Flies is a Viking movie executed as a Spaghetti Western
You in all probability did not know you wanted a “Yojimbo”-inspired Viking flick, however “When the Raven Flies” is a compellingly brutal companion piece to Akira Kurosawa’s traditional, in addition to Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western riff “A Fistful of Dollars.” (Gunnlaugsson’s motion pictures have been known as “Cod Westerns.”) Jakob Þór Einarsson stars as Gestur, an Irishman who’s traveled to Iceland to play two rival Viking factions in opposition to one another as a way of exacting bloody vengeance for his or her cold-blooded homicide of his mother and father. There’s an fascinating wrinkle right here in that his still-living sister, an unnamed character performed by Edda Björgvinsdóttir, was kidnapped by the Vikings as a baby and is unwilling to help him in his process.
Additionally fascinating: the weaponry. There aren’t any epic sword fights in “When the Raven Flies.” As an alternative, a lot of the fight is carried out with knives, which are sometimes flung (à la James Coburn in “The Magnificent Seven” or Tomas Millian in “The Large Gundown”). I’m the furthest factor from a Viking historical past fanatic, however that is apparently not traditionally inaccurate for the period (although the shortage of axes, which they did use, is curious). In any occasion, Gunnlaugsson, clearly engaged on a low finances, makes probably the most of this determination, framing the motion with eager consideration to background and foreground placement of his actors. This isn’t a cultured film by any means, however Gunnlaugsson has a eager mise-en-scène, which is one thing I am unable to say about most digital filmmakers these days.
It is best to give “When the Raven Flies” a looksee on YouTube, if solely since you by no means know when that video goes to vanish. This is hoping Gunnlaugsson can in the future scrape collectively the funds to get his movie restored.
