The 13th Warrior (1999)
October 27, 2024 12:39 AM - Subscribe

A man, having fallen in love with the wrong woman, is sent by the sultan himself on a diplomatic mission to a distant land as an ambassador. Stopping at a Viking village port to restock on supplies, he finds himself unwittingly em...

A Muslim ambassador exiled from his homeland, Ahmad ibn Fadlan (Antonio Banderas) finds himself in the company of Vikings. While the behavior of the Norsemen initially offends ibn Fadlan, the more cultured outsider grows to respect the tough, if uncouth, warriors. During their travels together, ibn Fadlan and the Vikings get word of an evil presence closing in, and they must fight the frightening and formidable force, which was previously thought to exist only in legend.

Betty Jo Tucker: Director John McTiernan (Die Hard) had Banderas in mind for this role from the beginning. “He is a versatile and very involving actor, and I think he is someone who an audience can enjoy and believe in as they take this extraordinary adventure with him,” according to McTiernan. Banderas was attracted to the story because of its mystery. To Banderas, Ibn's journey became “an initiation process into being a man and into being a better person.”

Unlike in The Mask of Zorro, the warrior training Banderas’ character receives here is neither humorous nor extensive. Educated as a poet, Ibn relies on the other 12 warriors. These huge men (average height – 6 foot, 6 inches) treat the smaller Banderas like a mascot and call him “Little Brother.” The developing trust and friendship between these men from different cultures emerges as a major theme of splendid film.

However, a lack of subtitles when the Norsemen talk with each other keeps the audience in the dark about what’s happening at times. Not to worry. Exciting battle sequences make up for any minor shortcomings. Yes, these scenes may contain too much blood and gore for sensitive viewers. (My husband thinks they give new meaning to the term “heads will roll.”) But weapons were a necessity during the time depicted, and people had to be ready to fight or they would die. One of the film’s most impressive scenes features as many as 200 horsemen charging into battle with torches, an awesome sight to behold.


MaryAnn Johanson: It doesn’t really sound all that exciting, does it? Reads like a fairly standard sword-and-sorcery quest flick that you’d expect to star Dolph Lundgren and go straight to video, right? But no verbal description can do this movie justice.

The 13th Warrior, brilliantly directed by John McTiernan (The Hunt for Red October), is the action/adventure movie boiled down to its purest form. This is storytelling at its most visual — this is what film should be doing. Everything not absolutely essential to telling the tale has been pared away. Some would say — have said — that too much has been pared away, that essential plot elements and backstory have been thrown away to the movie’s detriment. The 13th Warrior is based on Michael Crichton’s novel Eaters of the Dead, a book I have not read — and I suspect that’s part of why I don’t feel as if things that should be here are missing. I only saw what was on screen, and not what wasn’t.

Much does go unexplained in The 13th Warrior, but that’s part of why I was so fascinated by it. We are never told the year in which the events take place, for example, which I felt lent the film a mythic, timeless quality. For most of the film, we’re never quite sure if the warriors are facing an enemy that is actually supernatural — the creatures are “a hate from old times,” or more simply, “demons.” And when they are more fully revealed, it requires a bit of thought to appreciate them — in fact, it would have been unrealistic for the characters to have the kind of perspective that would allow them to explain for the audience who the enemy is.
. . .
I can’t think of a single film that truly compares with The 13th Warrior. In an arena of cookie-cutter movies and TV-show remakes, this is an original. I don’t think there’s a higher compliment one can give a movie these days than that.


John Scalzi: It really is this sort of character work, in the writing and the acting, that elevates The 13th Warrior. Ensembles in action films are not unusual, of course; if nothing else, you need characters to nobly die off at regular intervals. The curse of most action film ensembles is that the characters usually seem to know they are in an action film, and they quip and jape accordingly. Before someone accuses me of hypocrisy here, I clearly have nothing against quippery, or even japery; they have their time and place. I will say, however, that it’s nice that the characters in The 13th Warrior don’t feel like they know we’re watching.

And, I don’t know, maybe that was one of the things that doomed The 13th Warrior. The late 90s were the era of films like The Rock and Con Air and Armageddon, the action films that knew all too well that they were action films, the whole Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer-ness of it all. A film where Norsemen gutted out sword fights in the mud in (perfectly excellent, this is John McTiernan we’re talking about) action sequences that did not have cuts every other second, was perhaps just out of season when it hit the theaters. The film’s financial woes can’t be laid entirely on that — I remind you once more of the significant structural issues — but The 13th Warrior wouldn’t be the first film for which “wrong place, wrong time” was a factor in its underperformance.

I go back to The 13th Warrior, and can skip past a lot of its flaws, because I like watching its Norsemen be smart about what the hell is going on with them. It’s a rare enough quality in an action film that it stands out when you see it. It makes it worth watching again.


Trailer
posted by Carillon (11 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
I would have sworn this was posted before because I remember my comment talking about much I love the language acquisition scene where we have no idea about what they are saying for months either, and slowly he picks up words, and finally is able to communicate. It's such a beautiful representation of language learning. It's not like 100% accurate, but captures a spirit I think.

I love that it isn't shy around showing all these characters deaths. It makes sense because of Beowulf of course, but they pretty much all die or are incapacitated.

I love the scenes prepping for the inevitable raid, then the mist descends, and there's a fight. The preparation though is so nice, it really helps build character as these people work, but also experience the stress around waiting for a raid.

IDK I'm not sure why it was so poorly received, it is very much a favorite of mine.
posted by Carillon at 12:53 AM on October 27 [6 favorites]


To Banderas, Ibn's journey became []
Educated as a poet, Ibn relies on []...


Wait, do people in the actual movie refer to him as Ibn or is that just this reviewer? (And if the former, is the weirdness of that made evident?)
posted by trig at 7:48 AM on October 27 [2 favorites]


Decent movie with a troubled production. IIRC McTiernan was removed from the project and Michael Crichton reassembled the film.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 10:14 AM on October 27 [1 favorite]


That language acquisition sequence is great.
posted by rmd1023 at 11:41 AM on October 27 [4 favorites]


My ... mother... was a pure woman.
posted by porpoise at 11:43 AM on October 27 [5 favorites]


Wait, do people in the actual movie refer to him as Ibn or is that just this reviewer? (And if the former, is the weirdness of that made evident?)

Yes, it's a bit of a joke early in the movie when Banderas' character introduces himself to the Norseman with his full name, and all they get out of it is "Ibn." He tries to explain that "ibn" means "son of" but they wave it away. Later in the movie, as mentioned above, they mostly call him "Little Brother."

I love this movie and also thought it was unjustly ignored, and rewatch it periodically, most recently last year. While telling my wife about this post she said "I could watch that again," and, you know, I could too, so I guess I know what we're doing this afternoon.
posted by Pedantzilla at 1:29 PM on October 27 [3 favorites]


I dragged some people to this against their own judgement, when we came out, I was like 'see, that was really good' but they somehow remained unconvinced. And they probably remain wrong to this day.
posted by biffa at 3:53 PM on October 27 [6 favorites]


A fine movie (over the top in a few ways), based on a solid novel, based (in part, obvs) on a fascinating historical document.
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:44 PM on October 27 [2 favorites]


The trailer for this is peak 90’s! Antonio Banderas looking moody while Enigma plays and the movie title pops up in Exocet (aka the Diablo II font)
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 10:46 PM on October 27 [3 favorites]


What's that? The soundtrack to this movie rocks? Yes, yes, it does. Do I listen to it periodically ever since? Yes, yes, I do.

I still remember going to see this with my dad. It was probably one of the last times we went to a movie, just the two of us (no, no, he's alive and well - but future movie goings have been more family ventures!).

The atmosphere of the film is superbly set, be it waiting for the assault inside the Great Hall or the line of fire weaving its way through the fog "the fire vyrm!" I loved the give and pull between what could be supernatural and the reality behind it. The constant berating between the Vikings and "Ibn" with respect going back and forth, be it the norsemen barking at his horse before it leaps over the barrier to the "toothpick?" comment before Ibn demonstrates the lethality of his makeshift scimitar.

Perhaps it works so well because we have our audience surrogate in Ibn, and his perspective is framed perfectly in a manner where we also feel we're there, too, alongside him in a culture we don't quite understand, in the midsts of events that indicate the ending of an age.

"You will not see it again, it is an old way."
posted by Atreides at 7:58 AM on October 28 [3 favorites]


God, I love this movie! It's so different from many other action films, as the reviewers mention. I love the moodiness of the landscape, and the use of long lenses is very unusual, showing us the perspective of the characters rather than a god-like ability to just see what's happening. All the actors are amazing too, the Vikings are just incredible. Definitely need to watch it again. The great Jerry Goldsmith score is a big part of the success of the movie as well, as Atreides says.
posted by dellsolace at 7:23 AM on October 29 [1 favorite]


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