It’s a fierce battle. Vehicles overturned and lost, tents disappearing in the middle of the night, fire threatening their very existence, warriors cursing as they struggle against the odds, and those damn fucking backers. I’ll tell you what, they need to be more free with the króna, eh?
Wrath of Gods (2006) is all about conflict, the conflict between man and man, man and Nature, man and his art, perhaps even man and Odin. This is a documentary about the making of the aforereviewed Beowulf and Grendel (2005), wherein they filmed in Iceland, a land by turns sunny, windy, snowy, and dangerous. Between the landscape, the water, and the people, the actual shooting of the movie makes for a hairy adventure, and the audience gets an interesting look behind the scenes of an indy pic, the stresses over finances, threatened walkouts, scheduling slowdowns, injuries, and general mayhem that might be unusual for most films.
It’s more gripping than the actual movie, because we know it’s real. Between weather that starts out all polite and descends into the depths, claiming vehicles, amity, and nearly the movie itself, and the people reacting to that stress, it hovered between interesting and fascinating.
If you have an interest in the making of movies, Wrath of Gods might be just your cup of tea. Very cold tea.
