13th Warrior
I watched 'The 13th Warrior' tonight.
It is based on the Michael Crichton novel 'Eater of the Dead'. I have never read a Crichton novel, I have seen several of the movies based on his works. This isn't one of the best, nor is it the worst.
Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan (Antonio Banderas) is an Arabic diplomat who is sent to the west where he stumbles across a group of Vikings. While establishing contact with them he is drawn into a quest, as the 13th Warrior. The quest involves the group of Vikings and Ahmed saving another Viking King from the Wendol, cannibals who dress like bears (yeah I know it sounds silly, it does look better in the movie). This they do at much cost to the group.
Directed by John McTiernan, who also directed, among others Die Hard which is one of the greatest of all action films and is probably my favourite movie of all time (sadly this didn't stop McTiernan from directing 'Rollerball' (2002) which is pretty awful especially when you consider just how good the original is).
The film was not a great success at the cinema - losing $100 million.
It is hard to know why it lost so much as it is full of decent set pieces and it goes at a pretty reasonable pace. It may be a little shy on character development - but it is an action film and that is what people want. That said it is interesting to see an Arab character as a hero, mind you the days of that sort of distrust were still a few years off.
There is a section where Ahmed learns the language of the Norsemen - by listening to them, as he does this we watch them talk and slowly we pick up on them using English and lo and behold we understand them and Ahmed can now speak with them.
It is a clever way of doing it.
Similiar to the technique used in 'The Hunt For Red October', also directed by McTiernan.
Apparently the actual process of making the movie was fraught with difficulties. This doesn't really show in the film itself.
I am still not tempted to read any of Crichton's books.
IMDB scores it as 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes as 33% from critics and 66% from the audience.
William Wisher, Warren Lewis
Length 103 minutes
It is based on the Michael Crichton novel 'Eater of the Dead'. I have never read a Crichton novel, I have seen several of the movies based on his works. This isn't one of the best, nor is it the worst.
Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan (Antonio Banderas) is an Arabic diplomat who is sent to the west where he stumbles across a group of Vikings. While establishing contact with them he is drawn into a quest, as the 13th Warrior. The quest involves the group of Vikings and Ahmed saving another Viking King from the Wendol, cannibals who dress like bears (yeah I know it sounds silly, it does look better in the movie). This they do at much cost to the group.
Directed by John McTiernan, who also directed, among others Die Hard which is one of the greatest of all action films and is probably my favourite movie of all time (sadly this didn't stop McTiernan from directing 'Rollerball' (2002) which is pretty awful especially when you consider just how good the original is).
The film was not a great success at the cinema - losing $100 million.
It is hard to know why it lost so much as it is full of decent set pieces and it goes at a pretty reasonable pace. It may be a little shy on character development - but it is an action film and that is what people want. That said it is interesting to see an Arab character as a hero, mind you the days of that sort of distrust were still a few years off.
There is a section where Ahmed learns the language of the Norsemen - by listening to them, as he does this we watch them talk and slowly we pick up on them using English and lo and behold we understand them and Ahmed can now speak with them.
It is a clever way of doing it.
Similiar to the technique used in 'The Hunt For Red October', also directed by McTiernan.
Apparently the actual process of making the movie was fraught with difficulties. This doesn't really show in the film itself.
I am still not tempted to read any of Crichton's books.
IMDB scores it as 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes as 33% from critics and 66% from the audience.
William Wisher, Warren Lewis
Length 103 minutes
September, 1999
Buena Vista Pictures
posted by pat at 3:56 PM
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