The Vikings
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.34 You Save: $7.64 (51%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $5.00 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Vikings
Movie Review: Screen legends in very beautiful film
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay, Hollywood has never been strong on history. I mean you have current day Randall Wallace proudly saying, "History should never get in the way of a good story." Well, maybe. May not. Movies are for entertainment, but history, real history can be honored while giving a good rousing story. I am still hoping someday someone will get this through their brains, and film The Bruce's tale with the big budget of Braveheart. His story is more amazing than any Randall Wallace screenplay.
So here is another Hollywood costumer, another historical vehicle for Leigh-Curtis, studio darlings of the era, so should you expect much? Surprisingly, yes, this film had an eye for details that was generally missed in most costumers of this period. Right off the bat - notice no horned Viking hats that are forever etched in our minds. They get BIG points for that! The costumes as a whole are very impressive. I was surprised at the care given. There are strong bits of real Viking lore, such as their mistrust of the fog, that really caught me and had me admiring this film. It is quite clear (and the DVD extra footages details this) they went to great lengths to really make this feel as true as they could.
So what you are left with in the end? Screen legends, Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Ernest Borgnine (yeppers than is Ernie under the long hair and beard playing Kirk's Da!!) There are some beautiful location work, not the typical Hollywood backlot feel to the movie. Jack Cardiff's score is dead bang on for the film, underscoring the mood of this Epic. Sharp direction and breathtaking scene blocking add to the power of the tale, with the vivid color used to give this a sweeping style what few costumers of the period had.
There story is basic, Ragnar (Borgnine), Viking King has two sons Einar (Douglas) and Eric (Curtis). Douglas is daddy's boy, the best at everything. Neither Einar or Eric know they are half-brothers. Douglas kidnaps the Welsh bride Morgana (Leigh) of an English King to holds her for ransom. Naturally, in short order both of Ragnar's sons fall for her. Leigh is positively radiant here! But hey ladies, so are hunky Curtis and Douglas. While helping her to escape, Curtis, Leigh and Ragnar are taken by the English. The English king tosses Ragnar into the wolf pit, but not before Curtis defies the king and gives Ragnar a sword to die a Viking's death.
The walking of the oars, the siege scenes are just done so well, that it really sets this film above the typical Hollywood costumers and is well worth a second, and third look. It's sad the film didn't get the credit it deserves at that time. We smart little people can now relish this on the beautiful DVD transfer and appreciate a great film that was too quickly dismiss decades ago.
Hollywood cinema magic at it's peak, the prime of three Hollywood stars that have moved on to screen legends makes this one great Viking Saga.
Movie Review: Superior Swashbuckler
Summary: 5 Stars
Historically, 'The Vikings' is largely nonsensical, from its title sequence misapprhension of the centuries-later Bayeux Tapestry to its hash of the succession to the throne of Northumberland. But this film is great good fun! - a superior swashbuckler with a sound plot, breathtaking art direction, costuming, sets, & cinemaphotography, & solid acting & direction.Kirk Douglas gives a menacing yet humane portrayal of the Viking prince Einar whose falcon-disfigured milky eye inspires fear & loathing. Tony Curtis is, as far as looks go, perhaps a bit miscast but his energetic, seething performance amply redeems his presence. Ernest Borginine's Ragnar is fabulous - and one should keep in mind that Borgnine gave Ragnar life long before this sort of Borgnine role later turned him into a caricature of himself; Ragnar gives the film terrific heart & vitality. Janet Leigh is just...beautiful, despite the script's relegation of her female lead role into what is chiefly a plot device to motivate the action scenes. James Donald succeeds at fleshing out his character, but some of his lines are the only clichés in the script & yet he manages to rise above them with his careful elocution. And the ever-malevolent, narrow-eyed Frank Thring (Pontius Pilate in 'Ben-Hur', & a creep in 'Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome') does yeoman service as the conniving, spineless pretender to the throne. Alexander Knox's small role as the priest isn't much dramatically, but it's pivotal in the plot development, & his diction is at its customary excellence. Also memorable is the rune-reading Viking woman saga-teller whose moonlit face & sepulchral voice in the tidal crab-nibbling scene give the plot & its Norsemen their spiritual anchor.
The DVD's special features are interesting, informative, & enjoyable.
The supporting cast of Norwegian unknowns, all of them hulking & sweaty & masculine & lusty, lends a muscular depth to the action sequences & even, suprisingly, to the dramatic ones. Norwegian fjords & their sparkling waters & towering precipices provide a majestic setting for the action. And the dénouement at the English castle is one of the finest mediaeval assault & swordplay sequences on film, rarely rivalled, as for example, by those in the Charlton Heston film 'The Warlord'.
Most of all, who can forget the long ships? Painstakingly recreated from the best archaelogical evidence available at the time of filming, these rakish craft are in themselves stars of 'The Vikings' & they give ample evidence to why the Norsemen dominated the seas. The 'walking of the oars' sequence is not only unique, but it's one of the most enjoyable bits of all of cinema's swashbucklers.
'The Vikings' isn't history, but it sure is top-shelf entertainment chock full of style & panache. Kids & grown-ups will all enjoy its scenic majesty & full-blooded characerizations.
Movie Review: Great Fifties Vikings Tale!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ah, a personal wish fulfilled is the re-issuing of this film onto the DVD format. Although I have long had the older VHS version of this classic fifties romantic sword and sorcery trendsetter, I was recently amused to find it now listed in the DVD catalogue. Odin be praised! This was a formative film in my childhood, a monstrously popular box office hit that had all of us pre-adolescents entertaining ourselves for months clashing in back yards using make-shift stick swords and purloined garbage-can covers for shields as we fought out our own imagined action sequences. Indeed, everything about this film is attractive and appealing; the wonderfully photographed sequences along the fjords, the jaunty and majestic music, and the quite authentic long ships and settings. The cast adds to the fun with a star-packed line-up. Kirk Douglas looks appropriately Nordic (neat trick for the son of Russian Jewish immigrants), and more than acts out the part of the Viking prince, Einar, the eldest son and heir to the barbarian legacy of his outrageously roguish father, Ragnar, played masterfully by a full-bearded Ernest Borgnine. Tony Curtis adds a little blue-eyed soul to the cast as the star-crossed illegitimate heir to the English throne, and the quite lovely Janet Leigh (who at the time was Mrs. Tony Curtis) is the prized after English princess both the male principals have the urge to merge with. The scenes inside the Viking lodges are hilarious; the sequences in which a drunken Douglas has to successfully cut off a lover's braids from twenty yards with a battle axe without decapitating the lady in question to prove she wasn't unfaithful is spell-binding to experience. Terrific vicarious excitement for all of us overgrown kids in the audience.
The bottom line is that although none of it makes a whole lot of sense, just remember; we're talking serious action-adventure here! It is deliciously exciting fun and gives full disclosure of all the rowdy Viking boys having a rousing good time raiding, raping and pillaging, robbing and sinking other ships and finally storming a castle. And we find ourselves going along for the ride. Why not? The cinematography is superb, as is the musical score. Although not terribly accurate historically, the film does give us an intriguing look at primitive lifestyles in terms of different cultures cohabiting not so peacefully in the north Atlantic long ago, circa the fourteenth century or so. It is a great way to spend a couple of hours being entertained by some real Hollywood masters of the genre. Enjoy!
Movie Review: A joyous romp that offers everything you could ask for in an adventure movie
Summary: 5 Stars
The title sequence sets the tone of The Vikings perfectly: the Bayeaux Tapestry as animated by UPA with narration by Orson Welles. Whereas a lot of Sixties epics became so introspective and glum that the genre ended up disappearing up its own backside, this 1958 romp makes no claims to be taken seriously and, consequently, is terrific fun. This is no saga of angst on an epic scale but a joyous romp that offers everything you could ask for in an adventure movie.
A huge battle, a Viking funeral and Frank Thring doing his epic thing as the wicked imposter king Aella - not to mention dialogue like "Love and hate are horns on the same goat" - this has got it all. Producer-star Kirk Douglas has a whale of a time, dancing on oars, smashing through stained glass windows and doing all manner of manly things. Tony Curtis is on good form as the slave who is, unknown to him, his brother, Ernest Borgnine is suitably unrestrained as their Viking dad and Janet Leigh - my, but she was a healthy girl in those days - a heroine worth losing your left hand for. Just as well, really, because Curtis does just that. Douglas also gets in on the act, indulging his cinematic penchant for mutilation (a finger in The Big Sky, and ear in Lust For Life) to lose an eye to a falcon.
James Donald has some wonderfully uncomfortable comic moments, but the rest of the casting is pure Hollywood (Janet Leigh as a WELSH princess?), with one truly surreal exception: Leigh's maid is played by Alf Garnett's late, lamented other half, bringing to mind the splendid picture of Kirk Douglas phoning up Central Casting and demanding "We're making a Viking picture - get me Dandy Nichols!"
Technically, the movie is first-rate, with Mario Nascimbene's hum-along music, Jack Cardiff's varied Scope photography and Harper Goff's production design all especially praiseworthy while the under-rated Richard Fleischer's direction is top-notch, ensuring that the film always looks good and keeps moving. The final swordfight atop a tower overlooking the sea is a particularly well handled bit of mayhem and swagger. As long as you're not Welsh (Wales is referred to as a slag heap not worth one day's raiding), you'll love it.
The DVD includes an excellent 28-minute interview with Fleischer (not included on the PAL DVD released overseas) and theatrical trailer.
Movie Review: The DVD extras made me appreciate this epic adventure film
Summary: 5 Stars
A lot of historical research went into this 1958 epic, which takes place in the eighth century when the Vikings were a formidable force and England was composed of just a bunch of warring kings. And, considering the year in which the film was made, the special effects are wonderful. Most stirring of all is the ferocious battle near the end when the Vikings invade the castle of the wicked King where the beautiful Janet Leigh is locked up after she has promised herself to the King in order to save Tony Curtis's life. He's a former slave who has rescued her from kidnap of the Vikings. And Kirk Douglas as the one-eyed half-brother of Curtis wants his revenge for that as well as the death of his father, Ernest Borgnine.I remember seeing this film when it was originally released and loved it at that time. But now, so many years later, it has lost some of its allure and I found myself bored and trying not to judge it too harshly. After all, the acting is good, the story full of adventure and there was something to learn about Viking lore.
However, one of the joys of watching films on DVD are the special features. And the interview with director Richard Fleisher about the making of the film changed my experience of it into one of awe. This film was a formidable undertaking. It took one year to research and one year to make. And it is as historically accurate as possible. For example, the Viking ships were perfect replicas. They were so perfect, in fact, that it was found that the oar holes were too close together for the modern actors to use. The Vikings must have been short men with short arms. The director therefore had to use every other oar hole and half the amount of men that must have crewed the original ship. Much of the movie was filmed in Norway and the producers had an entire Viking village built. He also spoke about the dangers of some of the stunts and the valor of Kirk Douglas, who also had to wear a very uncomfortable contact lens for much of the film. The actors all lived in floating dormitories too, which would move during the night to different locations. I found all of this fascinating.
Therefore, in spite of my somewhat jaded view of the film, I do highly recommend the DVD. Taken as a whole, it is testament to the ingenuity of the filmmakers who turned the concept of the epic film into an art form.