The 13th Warrior

1999 "Prey for the living."
6.6| 1h42m| R| en
Details

A Muslim ambassador exiled from his homeland joins a group of Vikings, initially offended by their behavior but growing to respect them. As they travel together, they learn of a legendary evil closing in and must unite to confront this formidable force.

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Reviews

Dorathen Better Late Then Never
Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic
SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
williamgregorburton This is one of the best "medieval" movies I have ever seen, and I've seen a lot of them: El Cid, Braveheart, Excalibur, The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring series, Ivanhoe, Adventure of Robin Hood, and the unlisted Prince Valiant. I have watched The 13th Warrior over 20 times.The music is very good, the story is believable: hominid anthropology overlap credible, holds together well, and I have always thought the film's portrayal of Ibn Fahdlan's learning transition, learning Old Norse by listening quietly to the other characters, makes his (our) transition to understanding all of the characters speech quite believable. Good job, there.The battle scenes are great, well constructed, lots of long-shot perspective, avoids cheap close-ups, the cannibalistic bear warriors fierce, the horse riding first rate, and the cave fight scary. As I do not like enclosed spaces, this portion is very believable.While the only notable actor, besides a short cameo by Omar Sharif (Melchisidek), is Antonio Banderas (Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan); I thought the ensemble acting of the others including Dennis Storhøi (Herger) Vladimir Kulich (Buliwyf) were very good. I have yet to see these actors, except Tony Curran, anywhere else.The only complaint I have is the geography. As a geographer, I know full well that Scandinavia can be, for the most part, short on coniferous forests. I deduced that the filming was done, not on location, but in Canada, which I found later to be true. Admittedly, it was probably cheaper to shoot in Canada, and made the story more enjoyable with a few more trees.I am amazed that there are those who've submitted reviews on this site, who rated the abysmal Conan The Barbarian higher the the The 13th Warrior! Honestly, after reviewing the movies on the Best Medieval Movies Of All Time, I cannot think of a better movie than The 13th Warrior.
Robert J. Maxwell A nice, high-echelon, young Arab (Banderas) is sent as an emissary to the Bulgars in 922 AD. At the time, the Middle East was the center of civilization. While Europeans were living on a flat earth, the people of Egypt were measuring its circumference. They invented soap. They also invented algebra, for which may God forgive them.Banderas is more or less shanghaied into joining a band of Norsemen returning to their home to protect it against the people of the mist, the Wendlos. I don't know if the Wendlos existed or not but they do in this movie.Banderas is revolted by the slovenliness of the Vikings. And who can blame him. They pass around a bowl to wash their faces in, but they also spit in it and one guy blows his nose into it using the one-nostril side slip method. But, like a good cultural anthropologist, he adapts to the ways of his hosts without trying to convert them to his religion or his customs.I was watching this on YouTube and at this point, Disney blocked the middle third of the film because of some copyright dispute. Therefore, it appears, I missed Diane Venora, which is a damned shame. Although, come to think of it, they could have used Mia Maestro because they look so much alike. I wonder if they are one and the same person. Has anyone ever seen Venora and Maestro together in the same room at the same time? No? I thought not.The ending is a sword-slinging bash in the rain and the mud. The Wendlos are all bundled up in bear costumes and whatnot so it's hard to tell whether they're supposed to be human or not. Someone has suggested they were Neanderthals but that's out of the question. It's out of date by some 50,000 years for one thing.Guess who wins the slogging match? RIGHT, the Norsemen and Banderas, fighting the enemy together, drenched in blood. The Vikings were pretty destructive when you get right down to it but they left us a few souvenirs -- "skiff", "shirt," "Thursday", "Friday," and so on.
Jim Fulton The story is based on Eaters of the Dead, by Michael Crichton, who intended it as a revisualization of Beowulf. Indeed, I can easily imagine it as an intermediate legend from which Beowulf sprang. (Crichton actually took a hand in directing some of the film.) This is one of the few movies that is much better than the book.The adventure aspect of the film is a lushly photographed north land, an unspecified region of Scandinavia, actually shot in British Columbia. Not the travelogue of many adventure movies, here the weather varies rapidly from brilliant sunshine on verdant forests to gloomy, drenching rain to haunting mist, which becomes a major plot element.For action, imagine an Arabian poet, exiled as Ambassador, having to join a band of warriors led by Buliwyf, i.e., Beowulf, in defending King Hrothgar against a large army of "Wendol", the "eaters of the dead", which the Northmen fear are demons. (The suggestion from the book that the Wendol might be Neanderthal is never mentioned in the movie except through the casting of the extras that portray them.) What makes this movie riveting is the acting of the ensemble. Antonio Banderas gives one of his best performances as the Arabian poet. Vladimir Kulich makes Buliwyf, i.e., Beowulf, a brooding but powerful leader. And Dennis Storhøi delivers an Oscar-worthy supporting performance as the Northman who befriends the Arab. Throughout the movie, the viewer sees not mere characters, but people, men who depend on one another, who live and fight together with all their bravado and superstitions, fears and faiths. Together the actors enable us to witness the birth of myth.
Wuchak The story of "The 13th Warrior" 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 tribe of cannibalistic Neanderthals who masquerade as fearsome bears and live in a mysterious cave complex. 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 put together extremely well -- this is a Class A film all the way -- 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 cannibal's cave stronghold and a final Neanderthal 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," "Braveheart" or "Gladiator;" 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 very professionally put together, 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 the greatest Viking film ever made (of course, there aren't many). A Director's Cut could possibly even topple "The Vikings" from its lofty, coveted perch. Better than both though is the awesome TV series "Vikings" that started in 2013.The film was shot in British Columbia: Campbell River on Vancouver Island, Williams Lake and Pemberton, British Columbia.GRADE: B-