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The 13th Warrior
USA 1999
Reviewed by Kim Newman
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
922 AD. Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan, an Arab poet, is sent abroad by the caliph as an ambassador. In Tartary, he meets some Vikings under the command of chieftain Buliwyf and, through a translator, communicates with Herger the Joyous, Buliwyf's lieutenant. A messenger from the North tells of a settlement ruled by King Hrothgar under attack by monstrous creatures. A seeress divines that 13 warriors must come to Hrothgar's aid but the thirteenth must not be a Norseman so Ibn Fahdlan is drafted.
At Hrothgar's settlement, the Vikings discover the attackers are man-eaters. Herger duels with the champion of Wigliff, Hrothgar's treacherous son, and Ibn Fahdlan gains the respect of his fellow warriors after a skirmish with the enemy. During an attack on Hrothgar's stronghold, Ibn Fahdlan realises the enemy, a tribe called the Wendol, are men wearing bearskins. The surviving warriors track the Wendol to their cave lair. Buliwyf kills the Wendol mother. The Wendol launch a revenge attack, during which Buliwyf duels with and kills the Wendol chieftan before himself dying. The Wendol retreat. Ibn Fahdlan returns home to write of his experiences.
Review
Post-production of The 13th Warrior has been so attenuated the film has been beaten into cinemas by its director John McTiernan's subsequent feature The Thomas Crown Affair. In many ways, it's not hard to understand how this happened since Warrior bears the battle scars of having been through the preview process, losing a few subplots and character explanations along the way.
Michael Crichton's 1976 novel Eaters of the Dead, which 'explains' the story of Beowulf by suggesting that Grendel and his mother were survivors of a tribe of Neolithic cavemen, is one of his more eccentric efforts. Meanwhile, this adaptation violates several rules of the big summer event movie: the apparent hero is in effect an observer who leaves all the heavy lifting to the Vikings; the climax seems insufficiently climactic (their leader killed, the fearsome Wendol just up sticks and leave); and there is no romantic interest beyond a little wound-tending.
It might also be that the daring stroke of making the spokesman for civilised normality Islamic (which has a precedent in Sidney Poitier's turn in The Long Ships, 1963) is just too much of a stretch for US audiences. To get round this, we are assured that the literate, fastidiously clean, reluctantly violent Ibn Fahdlan worships one God while the pagan Vikings have a parcel of under-explained beliefs almost as alien as the primitive, Venus-venerating, cannibal Wendol.
Banderas, having swashbuckled in The Mask of Zorro, comes across at first as a rather camp figure with heavy eye-liner, but soon he shows the sneering Vikings the right stuff by demonstrating superior Arab horsemanship and whittling a heavy sword down into an effective scimitar. After that, he has little else to do, though the film seems to imply that Ibn Fahdlan (a real historical figure) will become the author of Beowulf. Despite its ineffectual lead, The 13th Warrior doesn't play effectively as an ensemble hero movie like The Magnificent Seven (1960) or The Dirty Dozen (1967). Buliwyf is always at two removes, even when taking command and improving himself by learning to write, and Vladimir Kulich's quiet reading of the role is never given enough screen weight to suggest the foundation of a legend which will last for a thousand years. The most charismatic, canny character is Herger, whose plot function is to mediate between the narrator and the chieftain. Of the other ten warriors, half barely get a line out before they are beheaded and the rest are allowed a character trait apiece, as signalled by their names (Skeld the Superstitious, Ragnar the Dour, Rethel the Archer, and so on).
The genre it comes closest to is the horror movie, with the lurking Wendol chief glaring from the shadows like the monster from McTiernan's Predator. The Wendol are inevitably less fearsome up close than when glimpsed, though their slinky matriarch is a memorable creation and the art direction in their skull-festooned lair has a real Norse Chainsaw Massacre feel. With a spirited score, misty forest locations, plenty of sword-hacking and a few lifts from Kurosawa in the pitched battles, the film might not hold its own with Richard Fleischer's The Vikings but its pleasing, good-humoured ludicrousness should pass muster with bloodthirsty schoolboys.
Credits
- Producers
- Ned Dowd
- John McTiernan
- Michael Crichton
- Screenplay
- William Wisher
- Warren Lewis
- Based on Eaters of the Dead by
- Michael Crichton
- Director of Photography
- Peter Menzies Jr
- Editor
- John Wright
- Production Designer
- Wolf Kroeger
- Music/Music Conductor
- Jerry Goldsmith
- ©Touchstone Pictures
- Production Companies
- Touchstone Pictures presents a Crichton/McTiernan production
- Executive Producers
- Andrew G. Vajna
- Ethan Dubrow
- Co-producer
- Lou Arkoff
- Associate Producer
- Casey Grant
- Production Controller
- Gary Gillingham
- Production Co-ordinator
- Yvonne Melville
- Unit Production Manager
- Casey Grant
- Unit Manager
- 2nd Unit:
- Stewart Bethune
- Location Manager
- Rino Pace
- 2nd Unit Director
- John Sullivan
- Assistant Directors
- Bruce Moriarty
- Jim Brebner
- Paul Barry
- David Footman
- 2nd Unit:
- Jonathan Watson
- Michelle Foote
- Script Supervisor
- Christine Wilson
- Casting
- Pat McCorkle
- Canada:
- Lynne Carrow
- UK:
- Priscilla John
- Sweden:
- R.M. Frank
- Norway:
- Folk & Film
- ADR Voice:
- Barbara Harris
- Additional Photography
- David Gribble
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- John Clothier
- Camera Operators
- Robert Presley
- John Platt
- Steadicam Operator
- Robert Presley
- Visual Effects Supervisor
- John Sullivan
- Visual Effects Editor
- Kate Crossley
- Visual Effects Research
- Joel Hynek
- Visual Effects
- Cinesite
- Digital Visual Effects Supervisor:
- Jerry Pooler
- Digital Effects Producer:
- Kevin Elam
- Composite Supervisor:
- Kevin Lingenfelser
- Digital Compositors:
- Mark Lewis
- Ted Andre
- Marcel Martinez
- Patrick Tubach
- Cristin Pescosolido
- CGI Supervisor:
- John Hewitt
- CGI Animators:
- Dylan Robinson
- Mieko Yoshida
- Richard Klein
- Allen Ruilova
- Lon R. Shor
- Concept Artist:
- Nicolai Strehl
- Matte Painting Supervisor:
- Charles Darby
- Paint Supervisor:
- Joe Dubs
- Texture Painter:
- Don Campbell
- Roto Supervisor:
- Karen D. Klein
- Visual Effects Editor:
- Rod Basham
- Digital Artists:
- Erin M. Cullen
- Gilbert Gonzalez
- Corinne Pooler
- Julius Magodo
- Chris Wood
- Production Co-ordinator:
- Tracy Takahashi
- Data Engineer:
- Pavel Dvorak
- Additional Visual Effects
- Buena Vista Imaging
- Digital Phenomena, Inc
- Special Effects
- Co-ordinator:
- Thomas L. Fisher
- Supervisor:
- Mike Vezina
- Foreman:
- Nick Lawson
- Film Editor
- Dennis Virkler
- Art Directors
- Helen V. Jarvis
- Richard St. John Harrison
- William Heslup
- Head Set Decorator
- Rose Marie McSherry
- Set Decorator
- Ann Marie Corbett
- Production Illustrator
- Brent Boates
- Storyboard Artists
- Kevin Van Hoo
- C.R. Lister
- Naval Architect
- Doug Antonides
- Shield/Helmet Design
- Brent Harron
- Swords Makers
- Simon Atherton
- Brian Davenport
- Costume Designers
- Kate Harrington
- Co:
- Sandra J. Blackie
- Nancy Duggan
- Make-up
- Designer/Supervisor:
- Jeff Dawn
- Key Artists:
- Charles E. Porlier
- Stan Edmonds
- Victoria Down
- Make-up/Tattoo Artist
- Chauney W. Bawlf
- Hair Designer
- Peter Tothpal
- Key Hairstylists
- Janet MacDonald
- Ian Ballard
- Janet Sala
- Title Design
- Brian King
- Titles/Opticals
- Buena Vista Imaging
- Orchestra Conductor
- Jerry Goldsmith
- Orchestrations
- Alexander Courage
- Executive in Charge of Music, Walt Disney Motion Picture Group
- Kathy Nelson
- Music Editor
- Ken Hall
- Score Recordist/Mixer
- Bruce Botnick
- Music Programmer
- Nick Vidar
- Sound Design
- Chris Boyes
- Sound Mixer
- Robert Eber
- Re-recording Mixers
- Michael Minkler
- Frank Montaño
- Supervising Sound Editors
- Alan Robert Murray
- Co:
- Jay Wilkinson
- Dialogue Supervisor
- Lucy Coldsnow-Smith
- Dialogue Editors
- Karen Spangenberg
- Gloria D'Alessandro
- Frank Smathers
- Michael Haight
- Connie Kazmer
- Sound Effects Editors
- Gary Krivacek
- Adam Johnston
- Mike Dobie
- Doug Jackson
- Sam Crutcher
- Rick Franklin
- David Farmer
- Steven Boeddeker
- ADR
- Supervisor:
- Juno J. Ellis
- Recordist:
- Rick Canelli
- Mixer:
- Thomas J. O'Connell
- Editors:
- Denise Horta
- Stephen Janisz
- Nick Korda
- Mary Andrews
- Jere Harding
- Foley
- Supervisor:
- Victoria Martin
- Artists:
- Dan O'Connell
- John Cucci
- Recordist:
- Linda Lew
- Mixer:
- James Ashwill
- Editors:
- Matt Harrison
- Butch Wolf
- Jim Likowski
- Fred Burke
- Gary Wright
- Language Consultant
- Juta Kitching
- Marine Co-ordinator
- Dan Crosby
- Lead Boat Wrangler
- Jason Crosby
- Boat Wranglers
- Jason Mosimann
- Tom Stenner
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Brent Woolsey
- Armourer
- Glen English
- Head Wranglers
- John Scott
- British Columbia:
- Jamie Payton
- Wrangler Captains
- Lyle W. Edge
- Lee Phillips
- Animal Trainers
- Mark Dumas
- Steven Woodley
- Camel Trainers
- Sled Reynolds
- Gene Walker
- Cast
- Antonio Banderas
- Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan
- Diane Venora
- Queen Weilew
- Dennis Storhøi
- Herger, Joyous
- Vladimir Kulich
- Buliwyf
- Omar Sharif
- Melchisidek
- Anders T. Andersen
- Wigliff, King's son
- Richard Bremmer
- Skeld, superstitious
- Tony Curran
- Weath, musician
- Mischa Hausserman
- Rethel, archer
- Neil Maffin
- Roneth
- Asbjorn Riis
- Halga, wise
- Clive Russell
- Helfdane, fat
- Daniel Southern
- Edgtho, silent
- Oliver Sveinall
- Haltaf, boy
- Sven Wollter
- King Hrothgar
- Albie Woodington
- Hyglak, quarrelsome
- John DeSantis
- Ragnar, dour
- Eric Avari
- caravan leader
- Maria Bonnevie
- Olga
- Richard Ooms
- one-eyed old man
- Dylan Gray Woodley
- screaming boy
- Bjørn Ove Pedersen
- Wulfgar, the boy-messenger
- Scott Elam
- herald
- Ghoncheh Tazmini
- Shaharazhad, Arabian beauty
- Joe Bulatti
- Shaharazhad's husband
- Mina Erian Mina
- the caliph
- Mona Storhøi
- sacrificial woman
- Turid Balke
- oracle, old woman
- Suzanne Bertish
- Hulda
- Susan Willis
- Wendol mother
- Yolande Bavan
- Wendol mother companion
- Claire Lapinski
- Freyda
- Tarik Batal
- Arab page
- Brett Reyez
- caravan lieutenant
- Akesh Gillnatalia
- Mohammed MacLeod
- Kaaren De Zilva
- Layla Alizada
- serving girls
- Sven-Ole Thorsen
- would-be king
- Alaina Lander
- sleeping girl
- Jeremy Van Der Driesen
- Al Hachlaf
- Arab generals
- Brian Jensen
- Michael Brynjolfson
- Alex Zahara
- Mark Acheson
- John Bear Curtis
- Andrew A. Kavadas
- Norsemen
- Gunnar Skjavestad
- Norseman on ship
- Malcolm Jolly
- Wulfgar retainer
- Owen Walstrom
- Wendol guard
- Certificate
- tbc
- Distributor
- Buena Vista International (UK)
- tbc feet
- tbc minutes
- Dolby digital/SDDS/DTS
- In Colour
- Prints by
- Technicolor
- Anamorphic [Panavision]