Arctic

Great survival film. I have to say to the people who are complaining that there was no dialog, slow burn, or impressive scenery these are people who are not interested in more than the regurgitated garbage that comes out of Hollywood they are expecting the “Fast and the Furious” type of movie where the actors all look perfect and beautiful and fully made up and every shot is something out of a coffee table book. This movie is gritty and real. The Artic isn’t always beautiful it is harsh and unforgiving. Being stranded you may not have countless conversations with a volleyball and you don’t have action packed adventures of being chased by a polar bear or dodging storms every second of the day. Mads proves again that he is an amazing actor. Deserves an Oscar but I don’t have faith that he will be recognized even though he should. For a small budget film this was amazing and I give Mads all the credit in the world for taking a chance on this. If you are a fan of the tv show “Survivor Man” you will like this. If you are a fan of “Man vs Wild” and expect urine drinking and staged action packed fluff you won’t like it. This movie is about the unbreakable human spirit and hope.

Arctic is the best movie I've seen. Everything felt real and the scenes are very intense. The cinematography is marvelous. Every shot is iconic. The story is well scripted and engaging, showing the human life value.

This movie starts slow but builds over time. Very little dialogue but some much depth of character - shows beautifully the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity. Beautifully filmed with incredible scenery I’m certain you will enjoy this one as much as I did.

This is a true tale of survival. Out alone in the Arctic, Mads does an excellent job portraying what it's like to be stranded and surviving off instinct. This is one of the best survival films I've seen, second only to "The Edge" with Sir Anthony Hopkins. This movie is lacking in script, but when you're alone in the Arctic, what else would you expect. I give the movie two thumbs up. Well worth the cost of buying the movie and makes me think, "what would I do in that situation?"

Spoilers: The girl never talked. Not even a word. So you don't know who she is. You don't care about her and don't care if she dies. In fact, she threatens the hero's life , who you care about slightly more because Mads Mikkelsen gives a powerful performance, even though you really don't know who he is either, so you want him to cut her loose. You're not invested with the hero in saving her. You're bickering with the hero the whole time instead of being bonded with him in the journey. It's his journey, not yours. And you're probably not going to identify and bond with the only other character in the film - a potato sack. I guess this creates some engaging tension, but it's annoying tension. It leaves him dragging a heavy sack around like Weekend at Berny's for two hours that feels like three. For me, it would have helped if he talked to himself and her all film - if the filmmakers were committed to her not talking. That could have provided dialogue, thoughts, motivation, backstory, layers, energy... They tried to deepen the emotional experience with dialogue as desolate as their arctic setting, which was beautiful and well-shot, but they took it too far and got too artsy. It's basically a silent film. It's an incredible film, 100 years ago. Positively, it felt very gritty and realistic, which is a refreshing change from Hollywood. In sum, I liked the movie, they got a lot right - acting, setting, theme, grit... but you're left disappointed because with another layer it could have been better.

I may be biased, one of the writer’s is my nephew. I preordered this, it was In my library and I was able to watch it yesterday.I think it was great. It choked me up at the end. Very well done!

My husband was the one who really wanted to watch this movie, was not really keen of watching it. I watch this movie with open mind knowing it might be a slow phase movie,seeing some of the not so good reviews.It was indeed a slow or dragging movie, but the real depiction of someone being trap in an isolated place was amazing, the scenery, the actor was great, emotion was spot on.Its great to watch movies this kind of movie.

If you want to spend two hours staring at Mikkelson's mug here's your big chance. There is no dialogue, no other characters, no particularly interesting scenery, no plot, no action, no beginning, no end, no nothin'. At least the non ending could have been worse...well...no it couldn't. Don't waste your time or your money.

A man Overgard (Mads Mikkelsen) is stranded awaiting an unlikely rescue in the middle of the Arctic Circle afterhis plane had crashed.His daily routine, check the lines he'd set to catch fish (which he'll eat raw) map-out his surrounds and try to make contact with the outside World with a dynamo-powered distress beacon, his nearest neighbours Polar Bears.One day, he sees a rescue helicopter above having responded to his signals, however, a blizzard is raging, the copter comes down killing one and seriously injuring a young woman (co-pilot)(Maria Thelma Smáradóttir)Overgard does what he can to help her using medical equipment found on-board the craft, he'll also find equipment that will help survival on-board his crashed plane that he uses for shelter.Among the items, he finds on the Helicopter, a map, which he uses to identify their location and indeed a base.He maps out a route with the intent of trying to reach it dragging the sleigh with the injured woman on-board and all the equipment he can carry.The journey is perilous and he will encounter impossible difficulties which cause him to find an alternative route.Can either survive as the problems continue to mount or will it be a lost cause?A well made, credible and truly tense drama that will have you taking and indeed feeling each step frequently during the journey in the struggle for survival.Worth a spin, even if caught on a movie channel/ network.

Mads Mikkelsen in Top Form. Der Film lebt von der ganzen Atmosphäre des Nordpols und ist kein Actioner!Er zeigt den Kampf des Überlebens in dieser rauen Umgebung und die Härte die es einem abverlangt.

I was somewhat wary about buying a DVD of “Arctic” as the previous time I'd seen a (possibly) similar film was when I'd watched “The Mountain Between Use” which I found to be clichéd and predictable – too Hollywood if you like.I found “Arctic” on the other hand to be an excellent film. There are only a few characters in “Arctic” one of the main ones being the Arctic itself, or at least the part of it that is shown in the film. Another thing that there's not a great deal of is dialogue. What dialogue there is, is mostly in English but some of the dialogue is not English and will possibly not be understood my most viewers that are not familiar with that particular language, but that is probably not unintentional as the viewer is simply watching what is happening without any signposted explanations (a la Hollywood).With only a few characters and with little dialogue there's got to be something to make the film good and one such thing is the tension which is there pretty much from very early on in the film and continues throughout the film, with the ever-present Arctic and its changing emotions (one minute bright and calm and then angry and disruptive the next). Lead actor Mads Mikkelsen carries off his role in the film superbly. His Nordic roots might help him possibly in that role (if that is not too much of an assumption) but the same could not be said about the Brazilian director – Joe Penna who directs his first feature film with “Arctic” and his directing is superb and the fact that this is a film with long scenes of not a great deal going on on the face of it, must take a great deal of confidence and skill.If you want an action packed Hollywood-esque Arctic film then I'd probably avoid, but if you want something a bit more subtle but nevertheless still very intense then I'd definitely recommend “Arctic”.I'm not sure how well the film would work with subsequent viewing for me, but I will definitely be watching it again all the same.On the DVD (ASIN: B07PRNRTXQ) you get:“Arctic” (1 hour 34 minutes)Scene SelectionSpecial Features:Featurettes: “The Story Behind “Arctic”” (1 minute 42 seconds); “Interview with Mads Mikkelsen” (1 minute 22 seconds)Deleted Scenes (five short scenes)Set Up: 5.1 Dolby Surround, 2.0 StereoOptional English Subtitles

A bit disappointing, two things that annoyed me, first the helicopter that found him then crashed, well the crash wreckage was of a totally different helicopter!!!, secondly, the girl he rescues from the downed helicopter had a nasty laceration on her abdomen, so why was she practically comatose the whole film!!!, was really looking forward to this as I like Mads Mikkelsen, even forked out for it on Blu ray, that'll teach me I suppose!!!!

The star of the show is wilderness — cold, barren, icy, beautiful. The people in it, or the few who are seen, are minimal and inconsequential, black dots in a vast white landscape. This is no place for man. It’s different for other creatures, well adapted as they are through evolution by natural selection over thousands of years. The polar bears, arctic hares and foxes, seals and walruses are at home on the ice. Human beings, bundled up in down jackets, are not. They shiver, look worried, are frequently lost.A downed Danish pilot named Overgård (Mads Mikkelsen) is one of these. His plane, formerly airborne, is now a wreck on the ground in the snow. But enough of the fuselage is still intact to act as temporary refuge for him. He’s out of matches and lighters so he can’t build fires from wood the plane may have, nor can he cook food. What food? He’s no hunter, as he has no gun. But he can fish, and this he does by digging holes in the ice and lowering nylon lines with makeshift hooks attached into the frigid water below. The main species here is Arctic trout and that’s what he feasts on, sushi style. It’s monotonous but nourishing.The radio was knocked out in the crash. He’s isolated, help nowhere to be found. What can he do? Two options: stay or leave. But if he leaves, for where? He pores over the ordnance survey maps, plotting a course overland to the nearest Arctic station, hundreds of miles away. Can he attempt it? Or is it better to wait for help from the air?On the ground, in the snow, he has dug out a large message the size of, say, the Sydney Opera House. It says S.O.S. We see it from the air in one shot, clearly visible. But the Arctic is wilderness, untrammelled and unending, planes and helicopters and people scarce in it. He’s in a place where he doesn’t belong.For the first third of the film he’s alone, the last man on Earth. Or so it feels. He talks to himself, sometimes in English, other times in Danish, because there’s no one else to talk to, not even a washed-up volleyball, the sort Tom Hanks conversed with when he was stranded on a desert island in the Pacific. So Overgård is lonely. He only has himself and these featureless days.But an event occurs that will change this dull dynamic. One day a helicopter appears on the horizon. The wind is thrashing violently and the craft is unstable. The pilot is trying to land the thing but can’t in the violent gusts. On the last attempt the helicopter flips and crash lands on its roof. All the occupants are dead, save for one young woman. She could be Nepalese. The handwritten script in papers on her seems to confirm this. At any rate, she’s in a bad way, her stomach lacerated and bleeding profusely, so in shock she’s barely able to talk. Overgård tends to her, nurses her, stays with her until she regains consciousness. Eventually she does. Sort of. In fact, she keeps slipping back into unconsciousness.He makes a decision: move her to the plane where the fuselage is roomier and has a bed she can lie on. The helicopter has a portable sled onboard. He carries the woman to the sled and straps her down. She’s in a large down sleeping bag for warmth. On the sled there’s room for other supplies such as tinned food, water canisters and tools. He transports all this back to the plane.The woman is too weak to move any farther than the plane. Here she must regain some strength before any thought of moving her farther afield can enter Overgård’s mind. Without such strength she will die. So he is patient with her, slowly nursing her back to a state of better health.Time passes. He now talks to her, but in truth he’s still talking to himself (and us). He hasn’t got much to say. In fact I reckon dialogue in the screenplay took about 30 minutes to write. There’s nothing in it, nothing to say. As stated in the first sentence of this review, the main player is the Arctic itself which is also mainly silent when the winds or wolves are not howling.Some of the best stories are journeys. This one doesn’t rank as great but a difficult journey will be undertaken. The main ingredients of the journey are two people, a sled, supplies and the harsh environment. Two people, but only one counts as useful, the other wholly incapacitated. Thus Overgård becomes a sled dog, straining and grunting as he pulls the sled across the ice. The ground of course is uneven; the Arctic has mountains and valleys. How Overgård negotiates these takes up a large chunk of the drama.What do they do at night? They shelter in ice caves dug by Overgård out of the ice. One night they have a visitor, a large male hungry polar bear. He sniffs out their cave, but Overgård repels him with a flare (part of the supply, along with matches and lighters, of the downed helicopter).In the truth, there isn’t much to say because very little happens. Some reviewers have called the film boring. I suppose that claim might be valid. Yet very little happens in the Arctic anyway. It’s bleak and barren with little color and almost no distractions. Monotony writ large, in other words. But there’s also stark and awesome beauty here and beauty is never boring. The story is worth it, in my view, just to see this remarkable place on film. And for me it was soothing to watch during the scorching heat of August in this part of the northern hemisphere I inhabit (Japan).But I understand what these critics are are on about. The plot is practically non-existent and the story has no depth at all. We don’t even know the name of the woman, nor even Overgård for that matter. I only learned his name by searching for it at imdb.com.Paul Theroux, the American writer, once wrote an illuminating essay on the art of writing and storytelling. In it he says one of the worst sins a writer can make is stranding a reader in the story, giving him or her no bearings at all to know where they are. How is a reader — or in this case, a viewer — stranded? By having no background understanding of the story. Lots of questions spring to mind. Who is the pilot, what was his mission, where was he flying, and why was he flying alone, if he was? Same questions for the helicopter and its crew. What were they doing there? Did they see the S.O.S. message in the snow? Who is the woman and why can’t she speak any English at all, surely the global linga franca no matter what China is now doing in the world? It’s inconceivable that she could be on an international mission without knowing a word of English. Additional questions: What base were these two trudging to and what help could they expect to find there? We are told nothing, left to imagine it all, which could sound generous of the filmmaker. But it’s not. It’s something else, or two things. Laziness and amateurism. The cameras do all the work in this film, not the non-existent writers of the script. Fine actor though he is, Mads Mikkelsen mainly grunts and grimaces his way through this regrettably bad film.Even the ending (which I won’t reveal) is lousy, dodgy, unrewarding. Maybe they just ran out of film stock. At any rate, definitely B-grade or worse. Even so, all is redeemed by the harsh beauty and brutality of the place.On the other hand, what will your great-grandchildren think when all this has melted away and most of the coastal cities around the world no longer exist, drowned under hundreds of meters of water. Denial of the climate crisis will not stop the ice from melting. In this sense the film may be a telling artefact.Four stars but only because of Mads Mikkelsen, who is always magnificent (even while grunting).