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Withnail ganders at THE 13TH WARRIOR
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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Am i First? Whoo-hoo. Anyway is this movie gonna be rated pg-13 or R?
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...first. Now I can die happy. Movie sounds good. Let's face it, Crichton films aren't known for their intellegence. Though it would be nice to see some intellegent fantasy now and then. Oh, well. We'll just have to wait for LOTR (please God please please).
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I remember reading Michael Crichton's book "Eaters of the Dead" back in the late 70's and found it a clever and creepy retelling of "Beowulf" from the perspective of an Arab outsider to the world of 10th century Vikings. It's a shame that (from reading the review) all that made it to the screen were the battle scenes but McTiernan is certainly the fellow to do them well! I'm still looking forward to this one but, as was mentioned by a fellow poster above, I'm really pinning my hopes on LOTR...
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The foreign tounge you're talking about is modern day norwegian. A bit different from the Norroen language the vikings spoke, but it sounds very similar.
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i remember when i first saw the trailer for this i swore i wouldnt be suckered into seeing another crichton movie! now i know im a fool because come august ill have my ass in the theater, and very likely after i see it ill once again swear never to be suckered in by anything crichton again!
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This guy's reveiw lost a great deal of credibility the second I read he would have preferred seeing Arnold in the lead role. Playing not only an Arab, but a scholar. Uh-huh... I buy that one. To me that was the equivalent of you movie fanboys suggesting Bruce Campbell for everything. I'll have to wait and see for myself.
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All this Indiana Jones crap and assorted hack-n-slash nonsense leaves me with less than stellar hopes for this film. Eaters of the Dead was a *realistic* take on the Beowulf legend fer cryin out loud. From the descriptions of the movie that've appeared here, it sounds like they've abandoned that angle completely. Which, of course, defeats the entire purpose of the story. *sigh*
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not completely clear, is he actually in the movie or does he just do VO? If he's in it I'll see it just for that. I got to see LOA re-released in 70mm when I was a kid. Ever since then, I'll watch anything with that dude in it, he kicks ass.
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Hey Rick. According to the MPAA website and IMDB, it's rated R for "bloody battles and carnage."
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I can't wait to see THE 13TH WARRIOR. I want a kick ass Viking movie with BRAVEHEART type battle scenes. John McTiernan seems to be back to is good old days of DIE HARD, PREDATOR, DIE HARD 3 and THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. McTiernan should really try to work with Schwarzenegger again because they did KICK ASS work in PREDATOR (though LAST ACTION HERO was a dissapointment but very underated). Arnold and John once had Joel Silver's war comic book film SGT.ROCK and they should team up and make that film happen once and for all. I hope John reads this and asks Arnold to do SGT.ROCK.
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Yes, I must agree. The casting of an Austrian as the Arabic narrator would be even better than the casting of a Spaniard in the role.
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Why is this guy being hard on DH3. What was so bad about it. It had a clever concept, a lot of great action set pieces, great chemistry between Bruce Willis and Sam Jackson, and Jeremy Irons doing his first action movie villan role. I enjoyed Die Hard 3 just as much, if not more, than 1 and definetly more than 2. Now that I'm on the subject, Last Action Hero wasn't all that bad either. No, it wasn't a brilliant script but the concept alone was pretty clever. Why would you wanna erase these two fils from your mind when you could erase Medicine Man?
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I don't know what to make out of this. The book Eaters of the Dead was very talky, and NOT full of huge action set peices, so I don't think that this will be a very accurate interpretation. However I am a sucker for fantasy, and while it has rarely been done well in cinema, I will glady pay the entrance fee to see a John McTeirnan (sorry about the spelling) action film. As was said up above, I just want to see the LOTR, but why won't they make Dragonlance? It would translate to the big screen much better than Tolkien.
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Those very people that spent hours speculating on the SWTPM and then lambasting it when it comes out shall be the same ones that shall do the same to lotr!
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Are you on crack, Withnail?!!! This movie is a heap! Bondosan saw this piece of junk in March earlier this year and said it "blew goats". I agree! Go back at watch "Poldark" you git!
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Why don't they just team up to finally make this film. I am a big fan of the old comics and Arnold is the right action star for the job.
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Jeez! This has to be one of the most delayed films of all time. I saw the first teaser trailer for this almost two years ago. I also hear that we may be in for another title change to just "Warrior." It also frightens me that so many of you have suggested that Michael Crichton's name is an earmark for lack of intelligence. Perhaps you are refering to some of his books that have been ravished on the screen ( ex: "Sphere," "Congo"). Somehow I don't think you have read the actual books. Mr. Chrichton is an amazingly gifted writer with an incredible intellect. He almost always teaches as he entertains, and he has some of the traits that make a great writer: curiosity and imagination. Fans of science fiction, fantasy and techno-thrillers should be glad we have him. Read some of his non-fiction books if you are not convinced. I esspecially enjoyed his autobiographical, "Travels."
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Jun 29, 1999 11:44:10 PM CDT
Crichton copies himself and reinvents the wheel with other thing
by uncapie
"Jurassic Park" is nothing but "Westworld" with dinosaurs instead of robots that go beserk! "Andromeda Strain" an updated version of "Magnetic Monster" that was made in the fifites. "Disclosure": a fast buck. "Congo": pissed off sign language making monkeys.
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McTiernan is such an underrated director. The lack of dialogue would be a blessing in many of today's movies. But you have to understand that film isn't just dialogue. It is a medium of acting, direction, photography and sound. If you want to see great dialogue, check out theater, but don't bash a movie for its lack of it. Enter John McTiernan, who can save you from listening to horrid dialogue by doing the storytelling for you! His style of direction is one that requires a lot from the viewer. Predator is a flick that'll seem very simple to many a viewer, but upon closer analysis, it has many subtle things in it. I for one am excited to know McTiernan's back at work. As an action flick, "The 13th Warrior" should be hot.
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A fellow reader of this forum told me that the zoom/pan out/change language trick was used long before 'The Hunt for Red October' came out. It was actually used for the first time in 'Trial at Nuremberg' with Maximilan Schell changing from German to English. Anyway, that's today film history lesson.
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A fellow reader of this forum told me that the zoom/pan out/change language trick was used long before 'The Hunt for Red October' came out. It was actually used for the first time in 'Trial at Nuremberg' with Maximilan Schell changing from German to English. Anyway, that's today film history lesson.
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