The Last King/Birkebeinerne: A Tale of Two Trailers

[nineveh_uk]

Last night I got round to watching Norwegian 2016 film The Last King (original title Birkebeinerne), a drama set in medieval Norway telling a true* story from the Norwegian civil war of the rescue of the infant king Håkon Håkonsson by two members of the Birkebeiner faction who skied with him over the mountains to safety, and 800 years or so later led to a commemorative ski marathon. I'm never particularly hopeful about medieval-set films, but I was pleasantly surprised by this, which stuck to a 90 minute retelling of the core story with sufficient context to give the point to it, but without feeling the need to spiral off into multiple sub-plots telling the director's vision of the entire conflict. It's very well-acted, it's pretty well-written, and it is exceedingly well-skied. I'm rather suspicious that it was made in the first place because someone looked at this famous painting and this well-known Norwegian actor and drew the obvious conclusion that if Kristofer Hivju is a dead ringer for a medieval Norwegian nation hero he should play one, and if so it was certainly a good choice as Hivju's combination of a commanding screen presence with a certain warmth works really well. They also have an absolutely charming youngster playing baby Håkon in scenes that I assume involved quite a lot of improvisation. So, if you like medieval-set dramas, corners of European national and church history you may not know about, or winter sports I definitely recommend it (currently on Amazon Prime in the UK). I was also very impressed with the ponies. The stunt skiing is one thing and it is fantastic**, but the stunt riding had me holding my breath for people galloping horses along icy tracks.

I was also interested in how it was marketed to different audience. This is the Norwegian trailer, aimed at an audience who are largely going to be aware of the basic story from school, in the same way that you don't need to tell an English audience who Henry VIII is. No English subtitles, but you can get the point without them. TL:DR there is actual dialogue (and an evil Danish bishop).

Watch on YouTube

This is a pretty accurate representation of the film.

This is the English-language trailer. It's got quite a lot in common with Norwegian one, but has to do a different job of introducing the concept to an audience who don't know the plot simply from the title. However despite the overlap in visual material it manages to be epically cheesy and cliched. The voiceover feels antiquated in style, they've shoved in every vaguely sexy shot they could, and very carefully made sure that there isn't a single word of dialogue that might give away that the film is actually in Norwegian.

Watch on YouTube

*As far as film goes, that is.

** The lead actors did quite a lot of it, but there is some they definitely didn't. Bushy beards are a great help to stunt teams, I imagine.

Comments

[azdak]

Men skiing with babies is a hook that will get me every time.

It's weird how the voiceover transforms the effect - the same shots are suddenly, as you say, cheesy, and it rally doesn't help that the voice artists sounds like a graduate from the NiF dubs school.

[caulkhead]

I THINK it's the WEIRD EMPHASIS on RANDOM words that DOES IT. (If that's what NIF dubbing is like I'm glad I've never come across it).

[nineveh_uk]

Have I never sent you an example of the NiF dubbing? I must remedy this. It is so, so bad you can't believe it.

[caulkhead]

You have not. I'm kind of scared now.

[nineveh_uk]

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[azdak]

The NiF dubbing is hysterical (if taken in in very small doses) and has the same "I learned my vocal style from cheap Dixney rip-offs" quality.

[nineveh_uk]

I found myself checking some of the more emotional scenes to make sure it was really as bad as I could remember and yes, yes it is that bad. It's the way that they are reading the subtitles aloud and pace them the same, even if that means a massive gap in the middle of the sentence.

[nineveh_uk]

I'm now wondering whether this is in fact the medieval Norway equivalent of those 90s Athena posters!

sounds like a graduate from the NiF dubs school
Harsh, but true. He's just trying so hard to sound portentous but goes much too far. Actors delivering lines are at least doing so in normal human voices (mostly).

[antisoppist]

Are there reviews from English speakers terribly upset that it has subtitles and fewer naked Norwegian women in baths than the trailer would suggest?

[nineveh_uk]

Not that I have noticed, but you never know!

[moon_custafer]

I once came across a dvd of The Advocate (1993) in the packaging equivalent of that English-language trailer— the marketing department had evidently been instructed to pitch the movie as a sexy legal thriller set in France and starring Colin Firth, and to not let slip that it’s set in the 15th century. Stills of the movie’s many nude scenes were useful on both counts.

[nineveh_uk]

The Advocate, as in the alternative name for The Hour of the Pig??? Which is a film I have seen and enjoyed (and which actually holds quite an important place in my own creative development as one line in it sparked me off wanting to write as a teenager in a way that I hadn't before), but would in no way imagine advertising as a sexy legal thriller set in France!

[moon_custafer]

There’s a genre of movie marketing which is basically “how can we make this story look like a genre we think mainstream audiences will go for (broad comedy, “erotic thriller,” etc) instead of what it really is.”

[caulkhead]

That's an astonishing difference. One of them looks like something I would very much like to watch, and probably shall later on this evening, and other like something I would go out of my way to avoid.

[nineveh_uk]

I fear that "Game of Thrones without Dragons" is not the selling point they think it it. Civil war with cute baby and skiing, OTOH....