The 13th Warrior - review
Oct. 26th, 2005 08:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wiseheartHad I not seen the DVD in the Auchan supermarket, I might never watched this particular movie, as I generally dislike Antonio Banderas. I just don't like his low-eyed "latin lover" image. But I wanted to know whether or not the DVD would be worth buying, so I sat down and watched the movie on German TV. As my PC was dead anyway, I had some time on my hands - and boy, was I glad that I did!
I loved the movie to pieces. Banderas was actually good - especially when he was wearing that black [I]kofiyah[/I] on his head. And he showed the Arabian poet's accommodation to a profoundly foreign society very convincingly.
But the really great thing was what they did with the Vikings. We got assorted glimpses of a culture that was rough and barbaric and utterly alien for the main character, including a language, which he had to figure out entirely on his own. Vladimir Kulich was extraordinary in the role of laconic Viking leader Buliwyf - I wish Peter Jackson had Rohirrim half as good and authentic in the LOTR movies. I think Kulich would have made a terrific Háma; for Éomer, he would have perhaps been a bit old, but for Théodred, maybe...
Anyway, the individual Viking Characters wre well drawn, too. Easily recognizable, save the names (grin). The women were strong personalities, despite the very little screen time they have been given (Miranda Otto's Éowyn couldn't reach them cold water, as we say over here), and I was very happy that they didn't make a sappy happy end out of Ahmad's one-night-stand with the Viking girl.
I was honestly shocked that they actually had the courage to kill off Buliwyf - I felt sorry for him, but killing him off was more realistic, I think. Althoug I would've loved to see the king's son, that arrogant prick, got eaten by the cannibals and Buliwyf become the new king.
As for visuals, I found King Hrothar's hall worth of a Beowulf movie, the ships neat, and the ship/pyre burials very impressive. The cave dwellings of the cannibals were properly creepy, and I loved the bridge leading to the cave entrance across the ravine. The Viking seer women were creepy, too, but in a good way. I loved them.
The enemy was rather interesting as well. I miseed a bit that we haven't larned anything about their motivations, more about their strange and frightening culture. But as the movie is based on Michael Crichton's Black Fog, perhaps I'll learn more when I've read the book. It seems, I'll have to renew my expired membership in the Foreign Languages' Library.
All in all, it was a good and interesting movie, one that I can recommend to everyone who's interested in the Middle Ages and a little bit of horror. And German TV was generous enough to rerun it on the next day, so that I won't have to buy it, after all. Hail to VCRs!
P.S: Vladimir Kulich - note your that name, folks!
Cross-posted to the Otherworlds board
I loved the movie to pieces. Banderas was actually good - especially when he was wearing that black [I]kofiyah[/I] on his head. And he showed the Arabian poet's accommodation to a profoundly foreign society very convincingly.
But the really great thing was what they did with the Vikings. We got assorted glimpses of a culture that was rough and barbaric and utterly alien for the main character, including a language, which he had to figure out entirely on his own. Vladimir Kulich was extraordinary in the role of laconic Viking leader Buliwyf - I wish Peter Jackson had Rohirrim half as good and authentic in the LOTR movies. I think Kulich would have made a terrific Háma; for Éomer, he would have perhaps been a bit old, but for Théodred, maybe...
Anyway, the individual Viking Characters wre well drawn, too. Easily recognizable, save the names (grin). The women were strong personalities, despite the very little screen time they have been given (Miranda Otto's Éowyn couldn't reach them cold water, as we say over here), and I was very happy that they didn't make a sappy happy end out of Ahmad's one-night-stand with the Viking girl.
I was honestly shocked that they actually had the courage to kill off Buliwyf - I felt sorry for him, but killing him off was more realistic, I think. Althoug I would've loved to see the king's son, that arrogant prick, got eaten by the cannibals and Buliwyf become the new king.
As for visuals, I found King Hrothar's hall worth of a Beowulf movie, the ships neat, and the ship/pyre burials very impressive. The cave dwellings of the cannibals were properly creepy, and I loved the bridge leading to the cave entrance across the ravine. The Viking seer women were creepy, too, but in a good way. I loved them.
The enemy was rather interesting as well. I miseed a bit that we haven't larned anything about their motivations, more about their strange and frightening culture. But as the movie is based on Michael Crichton's Black Fog, perhaps I'll learn more when I've read the book. It seems, I'll have to renew my expired membership in the Foreign Languages' Library.
All in all, it was a good and interesting movie, one that I can recommend to everyone who's interested in the Middle Ages and a little bit of horror. And German TV was generous enough to rerun it on the next day, so that I won't have to buy it, after all. Hail to VCRs!
P.S: Vladimir Kulich - note your that name, folks!
Cross-posted to the Otherworlds board
