Post by Shonokin on Oct 10, 2006 9:38:34 GMT -8
So when I can, I like to take in a good Viking flick. And when I say "good" I mean "any" because really there's extremely few good dramatic movies about Vikings.
I bring this up because of a couple of things. First off, that I just watched BEOWULF & GRENDEL, a newish Canadian-produced movie filmed in Iceland. The story has been changed quite a bit in certain key details. The central point of change is that Gendel is seen as a very sympathetic character who fights only when he has been wronged. Which of course is not like the original epic poem where Grendel and his Ma are the epitomes of evil in the flesh.
There is also a secondary focus on the spread of Christianity which is not present in the poem, at least not as far as I can remember. I haven't read the poem in oh, 20 sump'n years.
Outside of that it seems to be a pretty good attempt at adapting the poem to the screen in a faithful manner. The changes that are made do not bother me much, though I think a truly malevolent Gendel would be interesting to see. The spread of Christianity was written into the tale in a very interesting way so I found it fascinting that it was in there.
The only thing that really stuck in my craw was that there is a witch in the movie played by Sarah Polley, who makes absolutely no attempt at any sort of accent, unless American/Canadian is supposed to the accent. Since all the other actors had various heavy European/Asiatic accents that at least sort of melded together, her new world accent was extreeeemly out of place.
I'm not sure if I like it better than Crichton's take on Beowulf with THE 13TH WARRIOR, but it was an entertaining Viking movie.
So watching this made me think about other Viking movies I've and enjoyed, such as THE 13TH WARRIOR. Well I've seen several, but really enjoyed only a few. Probably the best to date is Nils Gaup's PATHFINDER, (Ofelas) which is based on a Scandinavian folktale. There's no big hairy Conan looking muscle guys waving massive swords or wearing horned helmets in this, but it is a really well told story and really well filmed and is definately more of an Art House type movie.
The sad thing is that in 2007 a Hollywood remake of PATHFINDER will be coming out, but with the setting being North America, with Indians as the protagonists. From the trailers and early reviews it sounds very glitzy and MTV-like and that the storyline suffers horribly.
Speaking of sad, I remember seeing a Viking movie in the theater with Lee Majors, THE NORSEMEN, and I remember in this movie that the action scenes all were in slow motion. Even as a kid or early teen (I don't remember when it came out) just laughing out loud and spewing "ch ch ch ch ch ch" every time the guys would run in that 6 million dollar man slow mo.
Just as bad but a couple of decades earlier was THE LONG SHIPS with Sidney Poitier and Kaiju gaijin Russ Tamblyn. This was on TV last year and I was excited to watch it but couldn't make it all the way through the flick because it was like the worst of the cliched "50s style" movies. Just couldn't get all the way through it.
I think I've yet to see Kirk Douglas's THE VIKINGS or if I have I don't remember it.
Viking movies I would like to see would be Hrafn Gunnlaugsson's movies THE RAVEN FLIES (known here as REVENGE OF THE BARBARIANS, what a horrible title), SHADOW OF THE RAVEN and THE WHITE VIKING. Unfortunately they seem to be impossible to find anywhere.
Also would be curious to see the first feature length two-strip technicolor film THE VIKING which is based on the book The Thrall of Leif the Lucky by Ottilie A. Liljencrantz. Though it's in color, it was filmed in 1928 and is silent. If anyone knows of a way to get ahold of that, let me know (as long as it doesn't cost an arm and a leg).
I bring this up because of a couple of things. First off, that I just watched BEOWULF & GRENDEL, a newish Canadian-produced movie filmed in Iceland. The story has been changed quite a bit in certain key details. The central point of change is that Gendel is seen as a very sympathetic character who fights only when he has been wronged. Which of course is not like the original epic poem where Grendel and his Ma are the epitomes of evil in the flesh.
There is also a secondary focus on the spread of Christianity which is not present in the poem, at least not as far as I can remember. I haven't read the poem in oh, 20 sump'n years.
Outside of that it seems to be a pretty good attempt at adapting the poem to the screen in a faithful manner. The changes that are made do not bother me much, though I think a truly malevolent Gendel would be interesting to see. The spread of Christianity was written into the tale in a very interesting way so I found it fascinting that it was in there.
The only thing that really stuck in my craw was that there is a witch in the movie played by Sarah Polley, who makes absolutely no attempt at any sort of accent, unless American/Canadian is supposed to the accent. Since all the other actors had various heavy European/Asiatic accents that at least sort of melded together, her new world accent was extreeeemly out of place.
I'm not sure if I like it better than Crichton's take on Beowulf with THE 13TH WARRIOR, but it was an entertaining Viking movie.
So watching this made me think about other Viking movies I've and enjoyed, such as THE 13TH WARRIOR. Well I've seen several, but really enjoyed only a few. Probably the best to date is Nils Gaup's PATHFINDER, (Ofelas) which is based on a Scandinavian folktale. There's no big hairy Conan looking muscle guys waving massive swords or wearing horned helmets in this, but it is a really well told story and really well filmed and is definately more of an Art House type movie.
The sad thing is that in 2007 a Hollywood remake of PATHFINDER will be coming out, but with the setting being North America, with Indians as the protagonists. From the trailers and early reviews it sounds very glitzy and MTV-like and that the storyline suffers horribly.
Speaking of sad, I remember seeing a Viking movie in the theater with Lee Majors, THE NORSEMEN, and I remember in this movie that the action scenes all were in slow motion. Even as a kid or early teen (I don't remember when it came out) just laughing out loud and spewing "ch ch ch ch ch ch" every time the guys would run in that 6 million dollar man slow mo.
Just as bad but a couple of decades earlier was THE LONG SHIPS with Sidney Poitier and Kaiju gaijin Russ Tamblyn. This was on TV last year and I was excited to watch it but couldn't make it all the way through the flick because it was like the worst of the cliched "50s style" movies. Just couldn't get all the way through it.
I think I've yet to see Kirk Douglas's THE VIKINGS or if I have I don't remember it.
Viking movies I would like to see would be Hrafn Gunnlaugsson's movies THE RAVEN FLIES (known here as REVENGE OF THE BARBARIANS, what a horrible title), SHADOW OF THE RAVEN and THE WHITE VIKING. Unfortunately they seem to be impossible to find anywhere.
Also would be curious to see the first feature length two-strip technicolor film THE VIKING which is based on the book The Thrall of Leif the Lucky by Ottilie A. Liljencrantz. Though it's in color, it was filmed in 1928 and is silent. If anyone knows of a way to get ahold of that, let me know (as long as it doesn't cost an arm and a leg).
