In the 11th Century, Vikings, Indians, and Irish Monks collide on the shores of North America in an historically unknown epic adventure of exploration, personal glory, and religious dominance. Two stranded Vikings wade through a grand primeval landscape as they struggle for survival while still in the grip of their Norse ways. "Mr. Stone, from his tangled hair to dirty feet, has taken himself and his story into the beyond - way, way beyond." - Manohla Dargis, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/movies/13seve.html "THIS IS AN AMAZING FILM that announces the arrival of a groundbreaking new voice." - Mike S. Ryan, Hammer To Nail http://www.hammertonail.com/reviews/drama/severed-ways-the-norse-discovery-of-america-film-review/ "'SEVERED WAYS' IS A VISIONARY WORK from one of the most promising new American narrative filmmakers in recent years. A chest-thumping, head-pounding, axe-wielding tromp through the wilderness, 'Severed Ways' is the unexpected, frankly unsolicited cinematic spawn of Werner Herzog and heavy-metal album cover art. But rather than parody, the film is a sincere valentine to leaden dramatics and brute manliness, a paean for a simpler, sillier, hairier historical moment. Director Tony Stone's stroke of strange genius is to conflate metal culture with its favored pagan iconography, asserting a continuum between unkempt warmongers and sweaty head-bangers." -Indiewire http://www.indiewire.com/2009/03/pagan-poetry-tony-stones-severed-ways-the-norse-discovery-of-america-247255/ "As with any nominal grouping, some of the films are good, some are bad, most are god-awful, so it's a pity this lot's making all the waves as I much prefer the full-bore DIY ethics of Tony Stone, who not only took paltry funds and turned out a viking epic called Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America, but did so by ditching out of NYC and living the Norse lifestyle in Vermont for long stretches over a couple of years. Stone stars as one of the pair of lost vikings, directs, kills and cooks a chicken, terrorizes a monk, burns a church (that he built himself), and even has a healthy bowel movement on camera. Do it yourself, indeed." -Reverse Shot http://reverseshot.org/interviews/entry/425/tony-stone "SOME OF THE RAWEST, MOST REALISTIC, DEEPLY PERSONAL INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING I HAVE EVER SEEN. It completely encompasses the true metal spirit." - All Metal Resource ""A MUST SEE"" - LA Weekly (full review) *** (3 stars) "Immersive, textural, ambient, and, in its enjoyably ridiculous way, not kidding. I can't wait to see what he'd do with the Pilgrims." - Boston Globe (full review) "LOONY and AWESOME" - Fader "Herzog has found a kindred spirit in Tony Stone, and this is probably the only film I can immediately think of in which the great German director's cinematic sensibility has been sustained and not merely homaged." -Not Coming Soon ***1/2 (3.5 stars) "Severed Ways the survivalist counterpart to John Waters' Pink Flamingos. But there's a dark, offhand undercurrent of humor alongside the heavy-duty naturalism. a director to watch, even if to go berseker for it you'd have to enter the theater under the influence of bog myrtle." -BoxOffice.com ""Severed Ways" Impressive and also absolutely ludicrous, this is the movie you need to recommend to that suburban metalhead cousin in desperate need of having his mind blown. " -Salon "It's a film with all of the scuzzy low-fi energy of something released by Death Like Silence in the early 90's yet with less than five minutes of dialog manages to express more than most art films could ever possibly hope to. A deceptively simple movie. Stone's film is also one of the most beautifully shot pictures I've seen in recent memory. Substantially hindered by budget, Severed Ways frames just about every single shot with as much of the North East's natural beauty as possible. Severed Ways is historical fact filtered through the eye of Frank Frazetta and then passed through the lens of Werner Herzog. It's a remarkable film that is not for everyone. Stone's film represents a new wave of indie that drives productions costs down while celebrating creativity and ideas. It is the absolute antithesis of contemporary indie, which many filmmakers use as a gateway to Hollywood rather than a means of maintaining total control. In a time where style over substance is gaining more momentum than ever, it's nice to find a film that holds art and storytelling above everything else." -Cinema Suicide http://www.heathenfilms.com/severedabout
