Northern Lights Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Northern Lights Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 23, 2025

The vast section of our nation known alternatively as "middle America" and/or "flyover country" is often seen as a bastion of conservative values and lifestyles, leaving the coasts of the United States free to experiment with more liberal and to some no doubt provocative tendencies (and I say that as a resident of Oregon). It may be of considerable interest, then, to find out that a major socialist movement right here in good ol' 'Murica started in (are you ready?) — that hotbed of radical activity North Dakota. There's quite a bit of news bandwidth being expended as this review is being written about the so-called "democratic socialist" candidate who recently won the Mayoral primary in New York City, but it may surprise some to find out about, yes, "democratic socialist" ideas having permeated not just the ethos but also the actual politics and elected (as in made it past the primary) officials in our 39th state, way back in the early days of the 20th century. That factual background is probably enough to give Northern Lights enough power, and if it's occasionally hobbled by its non professional cast and its obviously ultra low budget, it's a really remarkable testament to a movement that few probably remember if they even knew it existed to begin with.

Northern Lights seems to be going an almost documentarian route (something that may be more apparent after listening to the commentary), as it features an elder named Henry Martinson more or less as himself. The connection to "reality" is bolstered by the fact that Martinson was the grandfather of co-director John Hanson. That bit of casting actually turns out be a bit of artifice ultimately, as the main part of this story is revealed as a quasi-flashback after Henry starts poring over old documents and photos belonging to an earlier North Dakota farmer named Ray Sorenson (Robert Behling). As the commentary also addresses, budgeting issues led to the decision to have quite a bit of plot information imparted via text crawls, something that happens recurrently at various moments, and which may frankly be slightly interruptive.

That said, the film documents the growing dissatisfaction and ultimate activism of Everyman Sorenson, who finally becomes a "fellow traveler" (pun intended) with the Nonpartisan League in order to fight back against what Sorenson (probably accurately) sees as overweening corporate and political interests which are in essence "screwing the little guy". Sound familiar? There are any number of cinematic referents to this basic story and even presentational sensibilities that can be drawn, including everything from the unionizing sentiments of Norma Rae to the hardscrabble itinerant farming life of The Grapes of Wrath to perhaps quite saliently The Emigrants and The New Land, in that Sorenson and his cohort are like the characters in those films of Scandinavian descent, albeit here Norwegian (there are long swaths of the film in that language, with forced English subtitles).

Northern Lights Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Northern Lights is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.77:1. A prefatory text card offers this information:

This 4K restoration of Northern Lights was created by IndieCollect and Metropolis Post in collaboration with directors John Hanson & Rob Nilsson.

After the feature's actual closing credits roll, there's also this subsequent information:

This motion picture was digitally restored by IndieCollect @ Laboratory for Icon & Idiom, Inc.

The picture source was the 35mm fine grain master positive digitally captured by Metropolis Post using a 6.5K Lastergraphics Scanner.

The audio source was the HDCAM-SR tape master.

Somewhat hilariously and perhaps to fend off negativity from "grain-phobes", the back cover of this release overtly mentions the film's "grain rich black and white 16mm" photography. The fact that this was sourced off of a fine grain instead of a negative may concern some, but the result is very pleasing. I personally would have preferred a bit more contrast and probably a slightly less bright overall presentation (something that may be ironic given the fine grain master positive source), but this offers some really quite excellent fine detail (look at the protruding pesky nose hair emanating from Henry's proboscis). Admittedly some of the wider framings can tend not to offer a wealth of fine detail, but there's still a commendably organic appearance to things. There's some very slight age related wear and tear that has made it through the restoration gauntlet.

Northern Lights Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Northern Lights features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track that delivers some great "atmosphere" courtesy of good ambient environmental effects. A charming and evocative score is also well rendered, if relatively intermittent. As mentioned above, there are several scenes where the characters speak Norwegian, with forced English subtitles, but otherwise English dialogue is delivered cleanly and clearly, and optional English subtitles for those moments are available.

Northern Lights Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Filmmakers John Hanson and Rob Nilsson, moderated by Film Historian Daniel Kremer


• Northern Lights Re-release Trailer (HD; 2:00)


• The Way Things Seem to Be: A Portrait of the Life and Work of Rob Nilsson Trailer (HD; 4:42)

Northern Lights Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of my brothers-in-law was born and raised on a homestead in North Dakota, in a house which had belonged to his family for generations and which evidently due to its remote location didn't even have indoor plumbing until the mid 20th century. Kind of interestingly given the "insular nationality" of the community depicted in this film, the area my brother-in-law grew up in had a lot of Czech immigrants, which may indicate how "fertile" North Dakota must have seemed to adventurous types from all over the globe trying their own hand at the American Dream. As Northern Lights amply demonstrates, that Dream is probably not going to be just handed out without a fight, and if the film has a few performative stumbles and a somewhat disjunctive narrative due to budgetary constraints, it's a really remarkable film. Technical merits are solid and the commentary informative. Recommended.