Severed Ways - The Norse Discovery Of America (2007/Magnolia/MagNet DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Feature: C-

 

 

If any production plays loose with history, it is either a comedy (think Mel Brooks), genre film being hip (Highlander), or toying with its audience (A Knight’s Tale) or is mixing anachronism with history in ways it should not, as Tony Stone’s Severed Ways – The Norse Discovery Of America (2007) does.  Backed with a Heavy Metal music soundtrack (Judas Priest and bands more familiar to fans than the public at large), the film is seriously trying to tell the story of Vikings coming to America.  It was even revealed years ago that a coin was found that pointed to Leif Erikson arriving here long before Christopher Columbus.

 

The result is a strange mix of battle scenes, headbanger moves and moments that come out of nowhere and revisionist history that does not even make any sense.  Yes, the cast and production looks authentic at times, but by way of a Metal tour?  At best, this will amount to a curio or cult piece, if anyone remembers it.  However, it did not stay with me and all I wanted to do was see if it could get better in its 109 minutes.  No luck.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was apparently shot on digital video of some kind, maybe early HD, but the result is weak and in this format, a watered down look.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is stretching out a soundtrack that is not conceived for multi-channel much.  The combination can look cheap in bad ways, but we have seen worse.  Extras include “severed scenes”, three making of featurettes and trailers.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo