The 13th Warrior
Directed by John McTiernan (Die Hard) and based on Michael Crichton's story Eaters of the Dead, The 13th Warrior is the tale of a young Arab nobleman, Ibn Fadlan (Banderas), who is banished by his sultan for an act of sexual indiscretion, and made ambassador to remote European lands. Encountering a band of Viking warriors, Fadlan agrees to accompany them as they answer a plea for help in the north, where cannibalistic brigands have been raiding remote settlements.
Inspired most obviously by Beowulf (with some influence from Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai), the premise of The 13th Warrior is terrific, but the execution falls far short of the story's possibilities. For starters, the film is badly paced, obviously running much longer in its original cut (the events which lead to Fadlan's banishment are compressed into 90 seconds of screen time, while subplots and characters are introduced and then abandoned with no explanation). Ironically, the sequence where Fadlan first meets the Vikings is painfully long, yet fails to adequately make clear who any of the characters are. This is further handicapped by the fact that the Vikings speak in their native tonguesans subtitlesfor roughly the first half hour of the film.
However, once The 13th Warrior finally gets going, the film becomes a fairly good adventure story. The battle scenes are exciting and well-staged, and the performers (particularly Banderas and Vladimir Kulich as Buliwif, the leader of the Vikings) are excellent. Technically however, the film remains a mixed bag. The sets, costumes, and locations are wonderful, but the drab photography does them little justice, and there are anachronisms (the Vikings pray to Odin and the gods of Valhalla but are attired in medieval armor). Jerry Goldsmith's score, however, is magnificent, a mythic blend of orchestra and male chorus.
In the end, whatever its faults, The 13th
Warrior does have some fine moments, and for anyone with an interest
in the genre, this film is certainly worth seeing.
Paul Andrew MacLean
Shelton CT 06484 USA
(800) 232-2224 voice
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LadyJanet@RenaissanceMagazine.com