The whole movie was pretty good and was a good buildup but the ending where Murtagh was killed kind of ruined it for me. The movie was built up to be realistic but there were no repercussions for what happened at the game.
DAMN!
I remember a line in Bjorn's speech to his father that was something to the effect of "Though he escaped, fear not he will not escape Odin's wrath, etc."
Murtagh appeared to be affluent enough to have a good lawyer. Plus he did not ever, technically, harm or kill anyone. He did hand Lyn the knife which makes him culpable for the murder, but, that would be hard to prove since Lyn was dead at the end of the film. I just rationalized that he got off on that technicality.
SPOILERs
Murtagh got killed by Bjorn with the sledgehammer. Justice served IMO
In the version I watched, it showed Bjorn at his house, smashing his head with the sledgehammer. What version ends before this?
shareThere isn't much reference to time in the ending sequence. We know Murtagh fled the scene. Perhaps the law had not yet caught up on him. A lot went on that night. It would take a lot to suss out what happened and who did what. Also, it looked to me like he was more of an observer of the chaos and violence that he insighted rather than an active participate in that violence, so perhaps even if the whole story came out, he wouldn't be prosecuted.
I got the sense of him hiding out at home full of remorse for his actions and the loss of Lyn. I thought it was a fairly good ending. A little surprising, but good.
Bam said the lady.
I guess I couldn't believe that Bjorn would sit back as his brother was beaten. Family is family, you have to back your brother's play.
I respect the last act of this movie but I don't like it. I thought the movie was best when the players - especially the reluctant ones - got lost in the fantasy.
I realize I'm in the minority, but I would have rather had a non-violent ending where the vikings won and Erik realized his ex was no good.