In the past two decades, the entire cultural landscape – and films about European history in particular – has been weaponised and politicised by the far right.Ī guide to the far-right mindset was created on Stormfront, the notorious white-nationalist site, in 2001. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty ImagesĮggers would doubtless be horrified to be associated with such movements, but The Northman illustrates how cinema can be misappropriated in ways its makers never intended. ‘QAnon Shaman’ … Jake Angeli inside the US Senate chamber on 6 January 2021. The shooter at the 2019 massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, drew Norse insignia on his possessions and wrote “see you in Valhalla” on his Facebook page. Anders Breivik, the Norwegian extremist who murdered 77 people in 2011, carved the names of Norse gods into his guns.
Valknut tattoo offensive full#
The deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 was full of Nordic symbols on banners and shields. The far right’s love of Nordic lore goes back to the Third Reich and beyond, – and the connection is stronger than ever. On that day in Washington, Angeli was similarly topless and animal-adorned, his torso bearing tattoos of Nordic symbols now associated with white-supremacist movements, including a stylised Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer), Ygdrasil (the “world tree” of Norse mythology) and the Valknut (an ancient symbol of interlocking triangles). On the face of it, some images of Skarsgård in The Northman – bare-chested, pumped-up with battle rage, wearing a wolf’s pelt as headgear – are uncomfortably close to those of Jake Angeli, AKA the “QAnon Shaman”, the abiding mascot of the 6 January assault on the US Capitol. The Northman is going to be epic… Hail Odin.” He is restoring pride in our people with his great films. Even before the film’s release, far-right voices were giving their approval on the anonymous message board site 4chan: “Northman is a based movie, all white cast and shows pure raw masculinity.” “Robert Eggers. Skarsgård’s love interest, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, could be the far-right male’s dream woman: beautiful, fair-haired, loyal to her man and committed to bearing his offspring. Its hero, played by Alexander Skarsgård, is not a million miles from the “macho stereotype” Eggers complained of – a brawny warrior who settles most disputes with a sword and without a shirt. Men do the ruling and killing women do the scheming and baby-making. The Northman’s 10th-century society appears to be uniformly white and firmly divided along patriarchal lines. Robert Eggers at the Los Angeles premiere of the film this month.
0 kommentar(er)
