The 13th Warrior (formerly The eaters of the dead)

Title:  The 13^th Warrior

U.S Release: 8/27/1999

Directed by John McTiernan (Reshoots by Michael Crichton)

Written by William Wisher, Jr. & Warren Lewis

Story by Michael Crichton (based on his book “Eaters of the Dead”)

Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures

Cast:

Antonio Banderas - Ahmad ibn Fadlan

Vladimir Kulich – Buliwyf

Dennis Storhøi – Herger

Omar Sharif – Melchisidek

Tony Curran – Weath

Daniel Southern – Edgtho

Diane Venora - Queen Weilew

Maria Bonnevie – Olga

The Skinny:

Ahmad(Banderas) is a Muslim poet living in Baghdad sometime in the 10^th century.  He lives an affluent life for the time period until he has an affair with the wife of a prominent nobleman.  This nobleman uses his connections to have him made an ambassador for the Nation of Islam to the northern lands of Scandinavia, pretty much exiling him for sleeping with his wife.  

Not long after he comes across a Viking funeral party (called “Northmen” at the time) and basically gets voluntold into joining their quest to aid the King Rothgar in defending his lands from a “terror that must not be named”, later dubbed the Wendol. Ahmad gets to display his intellectual prowess and show off the prestigious ability of his Arabian horse, first mocked by the Northmen for its small size.

However, it becomes obvious that the Wendol are cannibals, eating even their own dead, and attack quickly and mercilessly in the night.  More obvious is that Ahmad is no warrior, and through the aid of Herger (Storhøi) he learns how to defend himself and aid the Northmen in their many battles against the Wendol. 

Though the other 12 warriors are strong and skilled, they are dispatched rather quickly, until Buliwyf, seeing no other choice, takes the remaining warriors (including Ahmad) on a mission to kill the “Mother of the Wendol” in hopes that will stop the Wendol once and for all.

On the Surface:

This film definitely fell short (due to production and post production problems, more on that later) of the epic/grim image it was going for.  It’s redeeming quality however, is Jerry Goldsmith’s musical score.  Its hard for me not to get lost in the mood of this film when the music is so engrossing.  No fancy fight choreography, and no long drawn out fight sequences, as this film tries to show how bare bones life in 10^th century Norway was compared to modern times.  Because of the disheveled feeling of the film, the performances seem out of place at times and hard to understand.  Dennis Storhøi’s performance seems almost wasted, and his crazed personality almost cookie cutter because of it.  Vladimir Kulich performance was impeded as well, and his character comes off as stereotypical and forgetful.  The look of the film definitely captures the wardrobe, culture and lifestyle of the time, but this is easily overlooked when trying to decipher who each warrior is, only to have them killed off and trying to remember who exactly is left.  Even to the casual viewer, it’s easy to tell where this film starts coming apart, and it’s tragic because there is so much potential in it just waiting to be seen but never got its chance.

Production wise:

Michael Crichton’s book “Eaters of the Dead” was based off real historical documents of Islamic Ambassador Ahmad ibn Fadlan as he encounters Vikings sometime in the 10^th century.  He of course takes artistic liberty to fill in all the missing parts, and the element of the cannibalistic “Wendol” was purely his creation. 

Filming started in 1997, with a big budget common for such a film, and a marketing campaign geared up to pitch the film upon release.  However, early cuts of the film got sour reviews from test audiences, and so began the many changes, script re-writes, and re-edits that would be this films undoing.  Eventually Crichton himself stepped up to reshoot many scenes, and re-write the shooting script himself since test audiences didn’t like many elements taken directly from his own book.  Greame Revell was the original composer for the film, but was dropped and his score discarded since the film’s tone turned out to be very different and replaced with Jerry Goldsmith.  Antonio Banderas even hurt his back filming many of the stunts in the film, and lost motivation to continue, though he pushed through in the end.  There are even stories of bad luck during the production of the film, such as Dennis Storhøi nearly drowning while filming the underwater sequences.  The changes on the film even affected Omar Sharif  in such a bad way he decided to quit acting for awhile.  After all the reshoots the film’s title was changed from the original title, like the book, of “Eaters of the dead,” to “The 13^th Warrior.”

                                  

Why I like the film:

As I stated before, Jerry Goldsmith’s score is the main redeeming quality of this film.  I don’t know how much time he had to compose and record the music, but it definitely sounds great and massive at times.  For the film score aficionado’s it is worth it just to listen to the score.  The music definitely fills in the gaps left by the re-editing where it can.  For the raid on the village sequence the music creates the necessary intensity for it.

Antonio Banderas, a good actor as always, does well as for his role.  Though he’s a native born Spaniard playing a 10^th century Middle Easterner, it fits as best it can in the end product.  The sequence where he learns the Nordic language was underappreciated.  It subtlety was genius and actually very historically accurate, as ambassadors and diplomats alike had to literally sit, listen and then decipher what they were hearing, deduce what was being said and try to speak back what they heard hoping they would make a verbal connection, eventually learning how to speak that way.  This process may not be as prevalent today.

 Vladimir Kulich’s performance is spot on and I would’ve liked to see the deleted scenes where we see more of his character.  Its hinted that he’s not just a dumb brute, he’s a quick study and very intelligent.   He unfortunately would not get many lead roles, (which I think he would’ve done well in) and I’ve only seen him in minor roles or other big budget movie failures.

I enjoyed seeing Tony Curran in a role before he became well known, it’s always novel seeing how actors got their career’s started.  I liked Daniel Southern’s performance and, though limited, the performances of the rest of the 13 warriors.  I would’ve liked to see more of Southern in other films, but sadly cannot find much.  The love story between Maria Bonnevie’s character and Bandera’s did feel forced and it wouldn’t surprise me if this was a result of the all changes to the film.  She’s a beautiful actress and her part in the film was sadly diminished.   

The actor who’s career suffered the most from this film was Dennis Storhøi.  A Norwegian actor with mostly voice acting experience, he most likely was trying to break into American Hollywood with this film, as was Kulich, and he was very believable as the small, crazy and very effective Viking warrior he played in the film.  His chemistry with Banderas was noticeable and I liked seeing his crazed facial expressions in the battle sequences.   He unfortunately would not act in anymore American films (that I can find anyways) but has gone on to a successful voice acting career in Norway since.

This film is rated R, and you can see why by some of the few but oblivious gory scenes.  Stream where available and/or listen to the soundtrack when you have the time.  Not a film that will blow you away but one that will entertain as long as you ignore it’s flaws and respect it for what it tried to be.