Hey folks, Harry here. It seems I've been covering screenings of 13TH WARRIOR / EATERS OF THE DEAD for years... and the first reviews came in February of 1998... But due to scheduling problems with Antonio Banderas and the reshooting team... plus John McTiernan's commitment to direct Pierce Brosnan's latest action film... Well, it just made it so that it was a loooong post process. The initial reviews from Joe Hallenbeck, Goldfinger and the Big Bad Wolf were mixed... going from terrible to mixed to favorable. And through the testing process the movie has improved it's reputation. And this time the word is favorable from Withnail, and I hope that perhaps we'll see a rip-roaring kickass VIKING film this August 13th. We'll keep an eye on this one...
Hey Harry!
Withnail here, over on the other side of the Atlantic in 'swinging London, baby'.
Tonight I managed to sneak into a screening of the finished version of the new John McTiernan actioner - The
13th Warrior.
I've been waiting for a long time to see if this unashamed battle flick could erase the memory of Die Hard 3 and
Last Action Hero. And the answer is, yes it does, but it's not up there with Die Hard I, Predator or The Hunt for
Red October. For more details, read on...
The 13th Warrior
Actions speak louder than words. Much louder, if the way that director John McTiernan handles this movie is
anything to go by. This tale of Norse Action Heroes has only sparse dialogue, with the swords doing most of the
talking.
Many films are eventually made into video games, but The 13th Warrior feels like a computer game that¹s been
recreated shot, scene by scene on film. There¹s the opening set up where Antonio Banderas, helped by wise
veteran Omar Sharif and bits of his own voiceover, is forced to join a band of Vikings who are travelling North to
face a nameless enemy.
And from then on, the film breathlessly rushes from action set piece to action set piece. Each, seemingly, more
bloody than the last. But like a video game, there¹s no real point to it all, apart from the need to beat the bad
guys. The action sequences are broken up by odd clues that just allow you to get to the next big fight. And it
doesn¹t have a begining and an end, just a first battle and a last battle.
Banderas, sadly, doesn¹t have much to do apart from wave his sword around and be struck by a regular burst
of inspiration that will lead them to the scene of their next big punch up. And as he¹s nowhere near as physically
imposing as any of his co stars, he¹s not particularly believable. It would have worked much better with
someone like Schwarzenegger in this role.
Where it fails narratively, though, it succeeds in terms of pure action. McTiernan, almost entirely using handheld
cameras, creates some of the most impressive battle scenes ever put on celluloid. Much of it is also
astonishingly violent, with a fair number of severed heads and disembowellings.
Visually, it¹s also a winner. From the opening shot of a bolt of lightning revealing Banderas and co. in storm
tossed boat, to the closing image of a Viking ship sailing into the mist, it constantly stuns and amazes.
Peter Menzies Jnr¹s photography is pretty fabulous too. Much of the film takes place at night, with the characters
lit only by fires - and he pulls off this difficult feat with apparent ease.
It¹s a pity then that the story couldn¹t have been fleshed out more to give the whole thing more resonance.
McTiernan fans, will still have much to cheer about though. It¹s a strong return to form for him, and there are a
few nice references to his previous movies. At the start the Vikings are speaking in a foreign tongue, but with a
slow zoom in and zoom out to one of them, they mix into speaking English - just like the Russians did in The
Hunt For Red October.
He also borrows liberally from other stories. The first third is very reminiscent of the Magnificent Seven, and one
section where Banderas and the Vikings discover their flesh eating enemies in a network of caves, looks eerily
like an R rated version of Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom.
A testosterone filled treat then, but one which manages to bypass the brain.
Withnail.
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