The 13th Warrior (1999)

United States of America

Adventure, History, Action

Touchstone Pictures, Crichton/McTiernan Productions

Antonio Banderas, Diane Venora, Dennis Storhøi, Vladimir Kulich, Omar Sharif, Anders T. Andersen

John McTiernan

William Wisher, Warren Lewis

Taglines: Prey for the living.

witch, epic, mission, based on novel or book, kingdom, arabian, village, cave, horse, defence, scandinavia, viking, bagdad, deception, sword fight, historical fiction, barbarian, fictional war, demon, combat, cavalry, medieval, dark fantasy, norse mythology, warrior, sword and sorcery, 10th century

A Muslim ambassador exiled from his homeland, Ahmad ibn Fadlan 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.

Reviews:

Author: mooney240
**Overall: Ignore the reviews. The 13th Warrior is the best Viking epic of all time!** The greatest historical Viking battle epic you never heard of. Just like Jurassic Park and Westworld, The 13th Warrior is based on a Michael Crichton book and boasts an incredible action director, John McTiernan (Die Hard, Predator), Antonio Banderas as the leading man at the top of his career, excellent practical effects and beautiful sets and costumes. Yet, critics obliterated the film, and it failed at the box office, becoming one of the biggest box office flops of all time. I have no idea how this happened or why the reviews are so bad because this is an EXCELLENT movie. The battle scenes in The 13th Warrior are in league with other action epics like Braveheart, The Last Samurai, or Kingdom of Heaven. The story is similar to 300, where a small band of warriors face impossible odds and mixes a little horror with fantastic action and great character development. I’m not sure how The 13th Warrior ended up in the garbage can, but it belongs on the top shelf with the best action epics.