Antonio Banderas

Diane Venora

Dennis Storhøi

Vladimir Kulich

Omar Sharif

Anders T. Andersen

Richard Bremmer

Tony Curran

Mischa Hausserman

Neil Maffin

Asbjørn 'Bear' Riis

Clive Russell

Daniel Southern

Oliver Sveinall

Sven Wollter

Albie Woodington

John DeSantis

Erick Avari

Maria Bonnevie

Richard Ooms

Dylan Gray Woodley

Bjørn Ove Pedersen

Scott Elam

Ghoncheh Tazmini

John 'Bear' Curtis

Andrew Kavadas

Jeremy Van der Driesen

Layla Alizada

Alex Zahara

Joe Bulatti

Mina E. Mina

Mona Storhøi

Turid Balke

Suzanne Bertish

Susan Willis

Kristen Cloke

Yolande Bavan

Clare Lapinskie

Tarik Batal

Brett Reyez

Akesh Gill

Natalia MacLeod

Kaaren de Zilva

Sven-Ole Thorsen

Alaina Lander

Al Hachlaf

Brian Jensen

Michael Jonsson

Mark Acheson

Gunnar Skjavestad

Malcolm Jolly

Owen Walstrom

Greg Michaels

Warren Lewis

Michael Crichton

John McTiernan

Brent Woolsey

Michael Langlois

Bill Laity

Melissa R. Stubbs

Jerry Phillips

Russ Wideman

Cam Sutherland

Steve Woodley

Dieter Rauter

Kevin Schartner

Monica Schlosser

Jacob Rupp

Ken Kirzinger

Scott Hubbell

Sonny Surowiec

Pat Young

Edward Wrayton

Paul Rutledge

Trish Schill

Rene Van Hullebush

Mike Mitchell

Casey O'Neill

Fred Perron

Lisa Lancaster

Greg Schlosser

David Jacox

Dave Hospes

John Stoneham Jr.

David McKeown

Dave Leader

Cam Hamilton

Shawn C. Orr

Billy Laye

David Mylrea

Brad Loree

Dan Belley

Troy Brown

Eric Bryson

Reg Glass

Becky Bates

Bud Hamilton

Marny Eng

Celia Bond

Duane Dickinson

Tony Lee Boggs

Danny Epper

Jim Dunn

John Dodds

Todd Braithwaite

Jim Finkbeiner

Corry Glass

Ned Dowd

Jerry Goldsmith

Andrew G. Vajna

John Wright

Lou Arkoff

Wolf Kroeger

Ethan Dubrow

Patricia McCorkle

Peter Menzies Jr.

Casey Grant

William Wisher

Helen Jarvis

Anita Hart

Leigh Hennessy

Gregory J. Barnett

David Lewis

Christopher Boyes

Michael Key

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The 13th Warrior

Touchstone Pictures

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United States of America

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**_Good Viking Adventure -- Could've Been Great_**

The story of "The 13th Warrior" (1999) comes from Michael Crichton's novel "The Eaters of the Dead" which combines the legend of Beowulf with a historical account of an Arab diplomat who meets and dwells with the Vikings after being banished from his homeland due to an adulterous liaison.

Antonio Banderas stars as the Arab while the hulking Vladimir Kulich heads the Viking cast in the Beowulf role of Buliwyf (pronounced in the film BULL-vie). Speaking of Kulich, he would've made for an excellent Mighty Thor back in the day!

The plot of the film is great: Once Banderas meets up with the Vikings, they run afoul of a mysterious brutal tribe from the deep woods. Banderas is selected as the lone non-Viking to assist the 12 Norsemen in ridding the communities of the threat, hence "the 13th warrior." The cast, characters, story, locations (Campbell River, Vancouver Island), sets, costumes, score (Jerry Goldsmith), and cinematography are all of the highest order.

At a little over an hour and a half the film moves along briskly with a lot of action. Make no mistake, "The 13th Warrior" is a Class A film, but some story elements seem to be underdeveloped. This is probably due to the conflict Michael Crichton had with director John McTiernan. Crichton insisted on reshoots and cut at least 30 minutes of McTiernan's work, reportedly important character-developing scenes.

We see this in the very prologue of the film: The story of Banderas' banishment from his homeland due to his indiscretions is literally relayed in a matter of a couple minutes. And at the 8 minute mark we are introduced to the Vikings with very little mystery and zero suspense build-up. The contrast of the sophisticated Arab culture with the coarse, rugged Norsemen is great, but I would have enjoyed seeing these characters fleshed-out a bit more. After all, the more we know the individuals, the more we care about what ultimately happens to them.

Which brings us to the final 30 minutes of the film involving Banderas and the Vikings infiltrating the malevolent tribe's stronghold and a final attack on a Viking village. The visuals of these scenes are awe-inspiring but they fly by so quickly that the viewer is left disoriented and strangely uninvolved, not to mention unmoved by the story's outcome.

All this reveals that "The 13th Warrior" COULD have been an outstanding 140-minute Viking epic, along the lines of "Troy" (2004); instead we are left with a brisk, action-oriented, near-throwaway Viking popcorn flick. I would love to see a Director's Cut some day but Vladimir Kulich opines that it will unfortunately never happen.

Nonetheless, I appreciate the film as is. It's a good Viking adventure flick that's professionally done, despite the post-production problems. It's one of those films that gets better with each viewing, probably because everything flies by so quickly on initial plays.

Despite it's flaws, "The 13th Warrior" isn't too far from rivaling Kirk Douglas' brilliant 1958 "The Vikings" as one of the greatest Viking films ever made. A Director's Cut could possibly even topple "The Vikings" from its lofty, coveted perch.

The film was shot in British Columbia: Campbell River on Vancouver Island, Williams Lake and Pemberton, British Columbia.

GRADE: B-/B.

The Movie Mob

**Overall: Ignore the reviews. The 13th Warrior is the best Viking epic of all time!**

The greatest historical Viking battle epic you never heard of. Just like Jurassic Park and Westworld, The 13th Warrior is based on a Michael Crichton book and boasts an incredible action director, John McTiernan (Die Hard, Predator), Antonio Banderas as the leading man at the top of his career, excellent practical effects and beautiful sets and costumes. Yet, critics obliterated the film, and it failed at the box office, becoming one of the biggest box office flops of all time. I have no idea how this happened or why the reviews are so bad because this is an EXCELLENT movie. The battle scenes in The 13th Warrior are in league with other action epics like Braveheart, The Last Samurai, or Kingdom of Heaven. The story is similar to 300, where a small band of warriors face impossible odds and mixes a little horror with fantastic action and great character development. I’m not sure how The 13th Warrior ended up in the garbage can, but it belongs on the top shelf with the best action epics.

CinemaSerf

This is my kind of film, and so despite that rather dodgy casting of Antonio Banderas - indeed, the pretty ropey casting throughout - I still rather enjoyed it. Banderas is a gentle poet whose eye wanders at the court of the Caliph. That earns him a new job as ambassador to the Northmen and so off he rides, with his sagely friend "Melchisadek" (a few scenes from Omar Sharif). His arrival at their camp is greeted with indifference until a messenger arrives regaling them with horror stories of a terror back home. Their soothsayer advises that thirteen men must return home to combat this evil - but the last of this warlike baker's dozen must not be of their race. Oops - wrong place, wrong time for Antonio and off he sets into an enjoyably paced series of set-piece action scenarios with a Norse theme to them. Luckily, he befriends the charismatic "Herger" (an enthusiastic but pretty hopeless Dennis Storhøi) and intrigues the new king "Buliwyf" (Vladimir Kulich) with his ability to "speak sounds" (write!) and together they gradually bond in the face of their menacing enemy. It's not a great film, no - the dialogue is poor and the acting really isn't up to much ether but there is loads of swordplay, flaming arrows and the whole thing is generally quite light-hearted and good-humoured. This mythology always lends itself well to a good story and the (underplayed) clashes of culture between the rough and ready warriors and their more refined guest adds a little richness to the plot. You won't remember it afterwards, and I bet Banderas probably doesn't want to - but it doesn't hang around and kills an hour and an half easily enough.

The 13th Warrior - Trailer (Fan-Made)

The 13th Warrior

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