this film wears cormac maccarthy on its chain-mail sleeve

'valhalla rising' (2009)
written & directed by nicolas winding refn

'his vision, from the constantly passing bars,
has grown so weary that it cannot hold
anything else. it seems to him there are
a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world.

as he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
the movement of his powerful soft strides
is like a ritual dance around a center
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.

only at times, the curtain of the pupils
lifts, quietly - an image enters in,
rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,
plunges into the heart and is gone.'

- 'the panther' rainer maria rilke (1875 - 1926)