The 13th Warrior

The 13th Warrior (1999)

Director: John McTiernan, Michael Crichton

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Diane Venora, Dennis Storhøi, Vladimir Kulich, Omar Sharif

Writers: Michael Crichton (novel), William Wisher (screenplay), Warren Lewis (screenplay)

Synopsis:

Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan (Banderas) falls in love with a powerful man's wife and is sent by the Caliph from Baghdad to serve as ambassador in a far away country. On the way to his new post, he encounters a Viking encampment led by Buliwyf (Kulich). During his visit with the Norsemen, Ahmed becomes unwittingly embroiled in a quest to rid a distant kingdom of a great and ancient evil. 

First Impressions:

I saw this movie in theaters when it was released in 1999. It appealed to me for a couple of reasons, I had read the book the movie was based on and, as I've mentioned a few times now, I am a big fan of the fantasy genre. I remember enjoying the movie on first viewing mostly because I love stories about heroism and this movie, for all its faults, is one of those. I've seen it several times since then and I have owned it on at least two different formats (VHS and DVD). The appeal of the movie has diminished somewhat after those subsequent viewings but its been a few years since I saw it last. Let's see how it stacks up under a more critical eye.

Story/Direction: 

"The All-Father wove the skein of your life a long time ago. Go and hide in a hole if you wish, but you won't live one instant longer. Your fate is fixed. Fear profits a man nothing."

The story in film is a classic one. An everyman joins a group of warriors to travel to a far away land to fight impossible odds against an ancient evil. We've all heard some version of that tale told at least once in our lives in some form or another. This movie, however, draws its inspiration from Michael Crichton's novel The Eaters of the Dead, which was itself inspired by an ancient story (which apparently turned out to be one big hoax). The film borrows aspects from Beowulf  and other classic tales, so there's definitely a foundation for a good story. Unfortunately, a good story can still be turned into a bad one if the tale is poorly told and that's what we're dealing with here.

It's not all bad, though. The story told in the movie is not from the perspective of the "hero," Buliwyf, but is told from Ahmed's point of view. As I mentioned in my previous review of Ladyhawke, I enjoy it when a film shows us a remarkable set of circumstances through the eyes of a wholly unremarkable individual. In the beginning of the movie Ahmed is just a poet who is thrust unwillingly into participating in a great quest. we get to see how he not only reacts to his first experience with battle and violence but we also get to see how he reacts to a completely foreign culture to him, which sets the stage for a few solid moments of levity in an otherwise dark movie.

Overall, I think the story issues may stem from the film's troubled production. John McTiernan, who was originally hired to direct the movie, left partway through the production and was replaced by Michael Crichton. Though I'm not sure which scenes in the film were directed by who, the directorial change definitely had an impact on the flow of the story. There are subplots that get introduced that get rushed through or aren't even explored at all. There are also several potentially interesting characters that don't really get explored at all. Other than Ahmed and Buliwyf, I didn't know the names of almost any of the other characters until I checked IMDB.

Acting:
It's hard to say whether the acting in this film is good or bad because there simply isn't enough of it. The only members of the cast that get anything to do are Banderas, as the main protagonist, and Dennis Storhøi as Herger, the jocular member of the viking band who befriends Ahmed.

Banderas does a competent job as Ahmed, which at this point in time, was a role that was quite a bit outside the actor's wheelhouse. Up until this point, Banderas had primarily played slick and unflappable heroes, like those seen in Desperado and The Mask of Zorro. Ahmed, on the other hand, is pretty much confused most of the time and spends much of the first two acts as a bit of a coward. Banderas manages to play these traits fairly well.

Storhøi's Herger takes on the role of the older, wizened mentor. More often than not these types of characters are presented as grumpy and somewhat world-weary. However, The 13th Warrior chooses to go a different route by making Herger jovial and a bit of a rogue. The relationship between the two characters works well and you believe in their friendship. As for Storhøi's performance, he does a pretty good job all in all.

I'd also like to give a quick mention about Vladimir Kulich's turn as the hero, Buliwyf. I'm not sure there was a better casting decision in this movie. Kulich is huge, has a deep commanding voice and just looks like one would imagine a viking to look. Kulich isn't given much to say but he makes the most of what he's given.

Visual/Special Effects:

The effects in this film are pretty good for the time and have aged fairly well. We're treated to only the smallest amount of early CGI, which doesn't look all that great by today's standards but it's only used for a couple of background shots and didn't really take me out of the movie.

The makeup and practical effects are quite good in the movie. When you watch a film based on a book called The Eaters of the Dead, it's safe to assume that there's going to be a fair amount of blood in it and that assumption would be correct in this case. This movie has decapitations, sword wounds and the limbs fall like autumn leaves. when there's that much blood and guts, it can be easy to slip into B horror movie shlock, but by using darker lighting and by keeping the gore confined to battle scenes only, the film manages to avoid looking too cheesy.

Score/Music:

The music, done by the great Jerry Goldsmith, is a highlight of this film. The score is suitably epic in scope and fits very well within the heroic adventure. It's been a few days since I watched the film and I still find myself humming it absently, so it meets my first rule of a good musical score. Overall, I'd say the score is one of the main highlights of the film.

Action:

There's a lot of action in this movie and, for the most part, it's done pretty well. The movie takes an interesting approach to all of the hand to hand combat in that instead of showing long and drawn-out duels the fights are all fairly quick, involving only a few swings before a sudden and bloody end. The fight scenes are displayed using the quick-cut, wobbly steady cam approach that's quite popular nowadays. Normally, I don't care for that style but here it works as a way to show the panic felt by Ahmed as he tries to navigate his first encounters.

Likewise the battle scenes are also done pretty well. Unfortunately, there not as epic in scale as films like, Braveheart or The Lord of the Rings but they're effective nonetheless. McTiernan (or Crichton) make good use of darkness and rain to give the battles a lot of personality. Now that I'm thinking of it, I suppose one of the good things about having poorly explored characters is that you're never really sure who among the heroes is going to bite it, which makes for a few good surprises at least.

Final Verdict:

My opinion of this film hasn't changed all that much after this viewing. It's still pretty poorly told but there's some pretty good fight sequences and a great score that make it worth checking out if you're in the mood for some hack n' slash action.