Severed Ways
Encyclopedia
Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America is a 2009 independent adventure drama film that tells a story of Norse explorers battling nature, natives and Christianity in North America in the year 1007 AD. It was written, directed, edited and produced by Tony Stone who also plays one of the lead characters.
The story is told in near-documentary film fashion, using only natural light. Its initial shaky camera
technique slows down into smoother cinematography. It has very little dialog, spoken in ancient languages. The soundtrack features anachronistic heavy metal music
. Though unrated, the film shows human-to-human violence, animal killing, defecation and sex.
The film received mixed reviews, with critics commenting on aspects of poor production quality and on Stone's innovative use of the camera.
men are stranded in northeastern North America when their party of explorers loses a battle with Skraelings
(indigenous peoples). The two men move northward, hoping to link up with an expedition led by Leif Ericson
. They deal differently with the grim situation, one turning inward spiritually and the other reverting to a primal state, but both men are beset with memories of their earlier lives. Orn (Tony Stone) remembers his wife (Gaby Hoffmann
), and Volnard (Fiore Tedesco) flashes back to his childhood home and his Christian sister (Clare Amory) who committed suicide after Volnard killed the man who converted her to Christianity. Traveling, they encounter two Irish monks who have escaped from another Viking party—one monk (Sean Dooley) is murdered when he tries to convert the Vikings, and a makeshift Christian church is burned down. The other monk (David Perry) joins the journey. The Viking men disagree about the monk and they separate. On his own, Orn meets a beautiful native Abenaki woman (Noelle Bailey) who drugs and rapes him. Volnard bonds with the surviving Christian monk who washes his feet. An Abenaki man trails Volnard, intending to kill him. The two Vikings are reunited, but Orn kills the monk, the Abenaki man kills Volnard, and Orn builds a funeral pyre for his dead countryman. The strange cold land ultimately prevails over Orn.
to Vinland
(North America) hoping to establish a colony at the beginning of the 11th century.
s for Severed Ways were made in Maine
and Newfoundland, including L'Anse aux Meadows
, an early Viking encampment site. Most of the scenes of human interaction were filmed in rural Vermont
over several years (ending in autumn 2006) on wooded land owned by Tony Stone's family. Stone, a resident of New York City, was familiar with this land from spending "three or four months a year" there in his youth. He wanted a location where he could do whatever he wished, free of big city limitations. He said, "I've always had this dichotomy between being super rural and super urban."
With very little budget but aiming for a "grand scale", Stone used two lightweight HD PRO digital video
cameras for a sense of immediacy, capturing the action only in natural light. Stone said he employed shaky camera
techniques at the beginning of the film to convey an off-balance feeling similar to that of the two main characters lost in a new land. As the story developed, Stone slowed the camera movements. He wished to give a sense that the natural environment would eventually close in over the lost men; to show the story "from the point of view of the trees and the woods".
The film is unrated, not submitted for review by the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system. Stone is shown defecating in the film, and he slaughters and butchers a chicken. Scenes of brutal violence—murder and rape—are part of the story.
The characters speak very little in the film. When they do speak, it is in Old Norse
or the language of the Abenaki people. The archaic speech is subtitled in English on the film's theatrical print; the DVD offers English or Spanish subtitles. The English subtitles are translated into idiomatic Modern English, for instance, one of the characters says, "We're toast if we stay here." Another piece of dialog, spoken during a meal, is "This fish is really killer."
of the black metal
and death metal
subgenres, consists of previously released tunes by Old Man's Child
, Melissa Auf der Maur
, Dimmu Borgir
, Morbid Angel
, Brian Eno
, Judas Priest
, Popol Vuh
and Queens of the Stone Age
. Stone chose anachronistic music that would reinforce "the belief system of these vikings ...the warrior spirit, the harshness, the visuals of battle, the pagan side."
Parts of two different songs by Burzum
are played as the Vikings encounter a North American native. Varg Vikernes
, whose solo musical project is known as Burzum, was convicted in 1994 of murdering Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous
), a Norwegian musician and occasional business partner of Vikernes, and he was convicted of four counts of arson—burning down historic wooden Christian churches in Norway. Like Vikernes, Stone's film character Orn expresses distaste for Christianity and an unyielding faith in Odin
and Thor
.
.
The film officially opened in New York City on March 13, 2009, at one theater: the Angelika Film Center
. It remained open for two weeks, grossing $18,728 at the box office.
It was released on DVD by Magnet Releasing and Magnolia Home Entertainment on July 28, 2009. The DVD offers subtitles in English or Spanish. Extra features include six minutes of two deleted scenes, ambient footage of nature and Newfoundland, and the church-burning scene. In Australia, the DVD was released with a Restricted MA15+
rating, warning those under 15 years of age against its "Strong themes and violence." Netflix and Amazon offer the film as "Not Rated", but Walmart lists it as having an R rating.
noted Stone's adroit use of the beautiful natural scenery but criticized his lack of a "coherent tone" and described the grittier parts of the film as undermining "the moments of grandeur." Stone was compared favorably to filmmaker Werner Herzog
for some of the film but in other scenes "his characters are running around like costumed geeks at a comic-book convention."
Variety
criticized the poor production, beginning with "still-breathing corpses—an early warning of the semi-amateur production values to come." Variety ridiculed the slangy language of the subtitles: "really killer" and "we're toast". The magazine praised Stone for his ability "to disappear into the wilderness—and his character—with minimal crew."
The Village Voice
was sharply critical, saying Stone should have been stopped from making the film. The Voice wrote that "the spectacle of two dudes mucking about in the primal forest becomes tedious as Stone embraces a '70s dippiness".
The Boston Globe
wrote that the most of the scenes "look like a homemade educational reenactment", and that the film was "Part Werner Herzog wilderness trial, part epic music video, part religious commentary, part jest". Otherwise, the Globe praised Stone's competence, his "refreshingly open eye", and how the camera "swoops and lopes and circles."
The story is told in near-documentary film fashion, using only natural light. Its initial shaky camera
Shaky camera
Shaky camera, shaky cam, hand-held camera or free camera is a cinematographic technique where stable-image techniques are purposely dispensed with. The camera is held in the hand, or given the appearance of being hand-held, and in many cases shots are limited to what one photographer could have...
technique slows down into smoother cinematography. It has very little dialog, spoken in ancient languages. The soundtrack features anachronistic heavy metal music
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
. Though unrated, the film shows human-to-human violence, animal killing, defecation and sex.
The film received mixed reviews, with critics commenting on aspects of poor production quality and on Stone's innovative use of the camera.
Plot
Two VikingViking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
men are stranded in northeastern North America when their party of explorers loses a battle with Skraelings
Skræling
Skræling is the name the Norse Greenlanders used for the indigenous peoples they encountered in North America and Greenland. In surviving sources it is first applied to the Thule people, the Eskimo group with whom the Norse coexisted in Greenland after about the 13th century...
(indigenous peoples). The two men move northward, hoping to link up with an expedition led by Leif Ericson
Leif Ericson
Leif Ericson was a Norse explorer who is regarded as the first European to land in North America , nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus...
. They deal differently with the grim situation, one turning inward spiritually and the other reverting to a primal state, but both men are beset with memories of their earlier lives. Orn (Tony Stone) remembers his wife (Gaby Hoffmann
Gaby Hoffmann
Gabriella Mary "Gaby" Hoffmann is an American actress.-Birth:Hoffmann was born in New York City. Her mother, Viva , is an actress and writer and appeared in many of Andy Warhol's movies during the 1960s...
), and Volnard (Fiore Tedesco) flashes back to his childhood home and his Christian sister (Clare Amory) who committed suicide after Volnard killed the man who converted her to Christianity. Traveling, they encounter two Irish monks who have escaped from another Viking party—one monk (Sean Dooley) is murdered when he tries to convert the Vikings, and a makeshift Christian church is burned down. The other monk (David Perry) joins the journey. The Viking men disagree about the monk and they separate. On his own, Orn meets a beautiful native Abenaki woman (Noelle Bailey) who drugs and rapes him. Volnard bonds with the surviving Christian monk who washes his feet. An Abenaki man trails Volnard, intending to kill him. The two Vikings are reunited, but Orn kills the monk, the Abenaki man kills Volnard, and Orn builds a funeral pyre for his dead countryman. The strange cold land ultimately prevails over Orn.
Cast
- Tony Stone as Orn
- Fiore Tedesco as Volnard
- Gaby HoffmannGaby HoffmannGabriella Mary "Gaby" Hoffmann is an American actress.-Birth:Hoffmann was born in New York City. Her mother, Viva , is an actress and writer and appeared in many of Andy Warhol's movies during the 1960s...
as Orn's wife - Clare Amory as Volnard's sister
- David Perry as an Irish monk
- Sean Dooley as the second monk
- Noelle Bailey as an Abenaki woman
- Nathan Corbin as a Viking thrall
- James Fuentes as an Abenaki man
Theme
The film's setting was inspired by the story of Thorfinn Karlsefni, an Icelandic explorer who followed Leif EricsonLeif Ericson
Leif Ericson was a Norse explorer who is regarded as the first European to land in North America , nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus...
to Vinland
Vinland
Vinland was the name given to an area of North America by the Norsemen, about the year 1000 CE.There is a consensus among scholars that the Vikings reached North America approximately five centuries prior to the voyages of Christopher Columbus...
(North America) hoping to establish a colony at the beginning of the 11th century.
Production
Establishing shotEstablishing shot
An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects...
s for Severed Ways were made in Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and Newfoundland, including L'Anse aux Meadows
L'Anse aux Meadows
L'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Discovered in 1960, it is the only known site of a Norse or Viking village in Canada, and in North America outside of Greenland...
, an early Viking encampment site. Most of the scenes of human interaction were filmed in rural Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
over several years (ending in autumn 2006) on wooded land owned by Tony Stone's family. Stone, a resident of New York City, was familiar with this land from spending "three or four months a year" there in his youth. He wanted a location where he could do whatever he wished, free of big city limitations. He said, "I've always had this dichotomy between being super rural and super urban."
With very little budget but aiming for a "grand scale", Stone used two lightweight HD PRO digital video
DV
DV is a format for the digital recording and playing back of digital video. The DV codec was launched in 1995 with joint efforts of leading producers of video camcorders....
cameras for a sense of immediacy, capturing the action only in natural light. Stone said he employed shaky camera
Shaky camera
Shaky camera, shaky cam, hand-held camera or free camera is a cinematographic technique where stable-image techniques are purposely dispensed with. The camera is held in the hand, or given the appearance of being hand-held, and in many cases shots are limited to what one photographer could have...
techniques at the beginning of the film to convey an off-balance feeling similar to that of the two main characters lost in a new land. As the story developed, Stone slowed the camera movements. He wished to give a sense that the natural environment would eventually close in over the lost men; to show the story "from the point of view of the trees and the woods".
The film is unrated, not submitted for review by the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system. Stone is shown defecating in the film, and he slaughters and butchers a chicken. Scenes of brutal violence—murder and rape—are part of the story.
The characters speak very little in the film. When they do speak, it is in Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
or the language of the Abenaki people. The archaic speech is subtitled in English on the film's theatrical print; the DVD offers English or Spanish subtitles. The English subtitles are translated into idiomatic Modern English, for instance, one of the characters says, "We're toast if we stay here." Another piece of dialog, spoken during a meal, is "This fish is really killer."
Music
The film's score, primarily heavy metal musicHeavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
of the black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
and death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
subgenres, consists of previously released tunes by Old Man's Child
Old Man's Child
Old Man's Child is a black metal band from Norway. The band is the brainchild of Galder who is the only permanent member of the band now.-Formation:...
, Melissa Auf der Maur
Melissa Auf der Maur
Melissa Auf der Maur is a Canadian rock musician from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Her career has included 5 years as bassist with the band Hole and she later toured with The Smashing Pumpkins for their 2000 tour. Her second solo album, Out of Our Minds, was released on March 30, 2010. She is also a...
, Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo, Norway, formed in 1993. Dimmu borgir means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, Faroese and Old Norse. The name is derived from a volcanic formation in Iceland, Dimmuborgir...
, Morbid Angel
Morbid Angel
Morbid Angel is an American death metal band based in Tampa, Florida. UK music magazine Terrorizer ranked one Morbid Angel album in its “Top 40 greatest death metal albums”, with their 1989 debut Altars of Madness appearing at number 1...
, Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
, Popol Vuh
Popol Vuh
Popol Vuh is a corpus of mytho-historical narratives of the Post Classic Quiché kingdom in Guatemala's western highlands. The title translates as "Book of the Community," "Book of Counsel," or more literally as "Book of the People."...
and Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, United States, formed in 1997. The band's line-up has always included founding member Josh Homme , with the current line-up including longtime members Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo , alongside Michael Shuman and...
. Stone chose anachronistic music that would reinforce "the belief system of these vikings ...the warrior spirit, the harshness, the visuals of battle, the pagan side."
Parts of two different songs by Burzum
Burzum
Burzum is a musical project by Varg Vikernes . It began during 1991 in Bergen, Norway and quickly became prominent within the early Norwegian black metal scene...
are played as the Vikings encounter a North American native. Varg Vikernes
Varg Vikernes
Varg Vikernes is a Norwegian black metal musician, writer, philosopher, religious and political activist, arsonist and convicted murderer.Vikernes was born near Bergen, Norway. In 1991, he founded the one-man music project Burzum, which quickly became popular within the early Norwegian black metal...
, whose solo musical project is known as Burzum, was convicted in 1994 of murdering Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous
Euronymous
Øystein Aarseth , who went by the pseudonym Euronymous, was a Norwegian guitarist and co-founder of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem...
), a Norwegian musician and occasional business partner of Vikernes, and he was convicted of four counts of arson—burning down historic wooden Christian churches in Norway. Like Vikernes, Stone's film character Orn expresses distaste for Christianity and an unyielding faith in Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
and Thor
Thor
In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...
.
Release
Severed Ways was shown on June 8, 2007, in the 43-seat Wilshire Screening Room as a competitor in the Los Angeles Film FestivalLos Angeles Film Festival
The Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times is an event held annually in June in downtown Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles Film Festival began as the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival in 1995. The first LAIFF took place over the course of five days in a single...
.
The film officially opened in New York City on March 13, 2009, at one theater: the Angelika Film Center
Angelika Film Center
Angelika Film Center is a movie theater chain in the United States that features independent and foreign films. It operates theaters in New York City and Texas. Its headquarters are in New York City.-History:...
. It remained open for two weeks, grossing $18,728 at the box office.
It was released on DVD by Magnet Releasing and Magnolia Home Entertainment on July 28, 2009. The DVD offers subtitles in English or Spanish. Extra features include six minutes of two deleted scenes, ambient footage of nature and Newfoundland, and the church-burning scene. In Australia, the DVD was released with a Restricted MA15+
Australian Classification Board
The Australian Classification Board is a statutory classification body formed by the Australian Government which classifies films, video games and publications for exhibition, sale or hire in Australia since its establishment in 1970. The Australian Classification Board was originally incorporated...
rating, warning those under 15 years of age against its "Strong themes and violence." Netflix and Amazon offer the film as "Not Rated", but Walmart lists it as having an R rating.
Critical response
The film received mixed criticism. Regarding viewer reactions, Stone said, "It seems like a love or hate thing." The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
noted Stone's adroit use of the beautiful natural scenery but criticized his lack of a "coherent tone" and described the grittier parts of the film as undermining "the moments of grandeur." Stone was compared favorably to filmmaker Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog Stipetić , known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.He is often considered as one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner...
for some of the film but in other scenes "his characters are running around like costumed geeks at a comic-book convention."
Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
criticized the poor production, beginning with "still-breathing corpses—an early warning of the semi-amateur production values to come." Variety ridiculed the slangy language of the subtitles: "really killer" and "we're toast". The magazine praised Stone for his ability "to disappear into the wilderness—and his character—with minimal crew."
The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
was sharply critical, saying Stone should have been stopped from making the film. The Voice wrote that "the spectacle of two dudes mucking about in the primal forest becomes tedious as Stone embraces a '70s dippiness".
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
wrote that the most of the scenes "look like a homemade educational reenactment", and that the film was "Part Werner Herzog wilderness trial, part epic music video, part religious commentary, part jest". Otherwise, the Globe praised Stone's competence, his "refreshingly open eye", and how the camera "swoops and lopes and circles."