A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: 13th Warrior

Date Viewed: 9/18/99

Details:

Antonio Banderas

Vladimir Kulich

Music score: Jerry Goldsmith

Orchestration: Alexander Courage

Producers: John McTiernan & Michael Crichton

Director: John McTiernan

Score: +

The Review: Based on the (co-producer) Michael Crichton's 1976 novel Eaters of the Dead, which in turn is a retelling of the early-8th century Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. In the same way in which Mary Stewart offers a retelling of the Arthurian myths grounded in a reality and plausibility accessible to a 20th-century ear, so does Crichton cloak the kennings of the Beowulf Poet in modern garb. Fireworms, Grendel (Wendel) monsters, and "Grendel's mother" are illuminated by an interpretation akin to an anthropological study by an observant outsider and stranger. The narrator (Banderas) is an Arab poet expelled from Baghdad and sent on a specious ambassadorial trip north (accompanied by Omar Sharif, in a short cameo); little suspension of disbelief is necessary to repatriate Banderas to the Near East. He becomes attached as a reluctant "13th warrior" to a band of twelve volunteer North-men who have been summoned back from their explorations of Southern Europe's rivers to assist in the defense from the brutal pillage of what appears to be a cannibalistic monster. The narrator soon needs to become more than observer, and the twelve slowly diminish. The movie's atmosphere is well-designed: at times moody, dark, foggy, gritty, claustrophobic, and gruesome. The violence of battle is graphic. The scenery is attractive, if occasionally bleak: it was filmed, in large part, in British Columbia, which seems an appropriate surrogate for the Denmark and Sweden of the epic.

The (relatively unknown) supporting cast of North-men are randy, fatalistic, grim and quite capable -- in levels both as actors and as warriors. The epic's central hero Beowulf is moved to the periphery in Crichton's interpretation, although still clearly the leader (Vladimir Kulich as Buliwyf). The warriors themselves assume a more dominant ensemble role.

The sole conceit of the movie (presumably shared by Crichton's book?) is the means and speed with which the Arabic narrator learns the language of the North-men with which he is traveling. But the situational humor of introducing a full-blooded and athletic Arabian horse to the mangy mounts of the North-men, makes up for this.

Excellent score and orchestration.

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