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The 13th Warrior
Directed By John Mc Tiernan
The 13th Warrior—based on Beowulf—is the transposition of Akiro Kurosawa's Seven Samourai during the Viking era. While the original was going for wisdom and allegories, this new adaptation just goes for high testosterone action.
Antonio Banderas plays an Arab diplomat who gets involved with 12 other vikings out to save a remote village menaced by cannibal barbarians. This astute story has been written by Michael Crichton, a champion of ready-to-film books, whose imagination,as you can see, is worth his big $ salary. The question here is did we really need a third adaptation of the same story, since Seven Samourai had already been remade as a western in The Magnificent Seven (Crichton must have thought he was being really sneaky by transposing it to viking times and switching a 7 for a symbolic 13)? The answer is no, because it's still too early to have forgotten these 2 classics.
The 13th Warrior is in fact nothing else than a big budget action flick, where one fight scene follows the other until a facile victorious ending. John McTiernan, one of Hollywood's action specialists, stuggles here. There is no fluidity nor rhythm in the violence. While the gore sequences tend to approach a realism initiated by Braveheart, their gratuity displays rather an attraction for violence and therefore makes it closer to a Conan spin-off. In addition, even just considering this movie an action flick does not work. While the Viking era ended in 1100, The 13th Warrior features lots of anachronisms, particularly in the costumes composed of gladiator helmets, roman armor, and Spanish conquistador outfits!! These anachronisms sparkle onscreen and therefore destroy the little credibility you could have put in it, instead giving it a Xena feel. Finally, The 13th Warrior is badly edited, some scenes not matching preceding scenes. However, when you know that Crichton took control of the movie and had the final cut, it is explained.
But there are a few good points. First, Banderas's character remains an observer from the beginning to the end. You won't have to endure one of these painful mutations where the weakling transforms himself into brave hero who will save the day at the end. He remains a loser all along. Second, the scene where he learns the language of the Vikings by studying them, even if totally unrealistic, is interesting in its treatment.
The 13th Warrior is obviously bad, while it could have done something better with its premise (what the first two adaptations did). However, it is hard to condemn a movie that doesn't represent its John Mc Tiernan's cut (even if it's McTiernan); Crichton deserves all the blame instead.
Fred Thom
 Basic
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The 13th Warrior review
