The Vikings

I saw this film as a jr. high schooler and thought it was great. It still is! Director Richard Fleischer and Kirk Douglas were a great combo (also another of my favorites, Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". The picture quality is superb showing off the beautiful Norweigian fjords and the DVD has a very comprehensive 'making of' bonus feature.

This film exhibits a curious blend of meticulous attention to detail in presenting historical accuracy and gross historical inaccuracies and anachronisms. According to the director commentory on my DVD, the Viking ships were constructed as authentically as possible. The horses were genuine fjordland horses, distinctively small to survive in that habitat.
The Viking village was built according to our information. The bounding from oar to oar as the ship entered home port was said to be a real Viking tradition.
Perhaps the most glaring anachronism to the casual viewer is that Norman-style castles, such as the restored fort La Latte, where the action takes place late in the film, didn't exist in Britain until after the Norman invasion, several centuries after this story takes place. No doubt, this anachronism was ignored because this Norman castle provided a visually much more dramatic structure and setting for the final confrontations than anything actually in Britian in this historical time frame.
The historical Vikings this story is based upon were from Denmark, not Norway. No doubt Norway was chosen because of the dramatic fjord scenery and because Americans tend to associate Vikings with Norway, ancestral home of Eric the Red and kin.
When Tony Curtis(Eric) was staked at the ocean shore to drown at high tide, he should have died of hypothermia long before drowning. A striking brunette, such as Elizabeth Taylor, would seem a more attractive prize princess than the blond Janet Leigh, to these Vikings, surrounded by blonds. The dramatic, if misogynistic, incident where Prince Einar cuts off, with thrown axes, the pigtails of a wife accused of adultery is (of course) pure historical hokum, if entertaining(especially since the audience knows that the womanizing Einar has been bedding this comely woman). The victorius Vikings are portrayed as spending most of their spare time in drunken orgies, in competition with some of the classic pirate films and the Roman orgies in some of the historical spectacles of this period. Nothing is shown of the farming, animal tending, fishing, and weapons and clothing making that occupied most Vikings when not on raids.
There is the question of why Einar held off killing Eric when Eric's sword broke during their duel. Only Einar knows for sure, but the obvious possibilites include 1)He was not clear if Eric was his half brother 2)He decided a hateful queen Morgana(Janet Leigh) was not worth killing Eric for 3)He was afraid of the sorceress's prophesy that he who killed Eric would be cursed. Perhaps a blend of all these considerations caused Einar's fatal hesitation.
The script would appear to have pretentions of Shakesperian greatness, with one(Eric) of 3 rivals for the hand of Princess Morgana being a mere Viking slave, but unknowingly by birth, having a claim to the thrones of both the English principality of Northumbria and the Viking settlements ruled by Einar, after his father's death. The former rulers of each kingdom vanquished and his true heritage revealed, Eric now represents the potential amalgam between the various prior settlers of the British Isles and the encroaching Vikings, who not only loot the English, but also establish settlements and petty kingdoms, culminating in the Norman invasion of 1066. As I see it, the greatest failing of this film as an epic story is the failure to exploit this symbolism after the funerary rites for Einar. In the parting scene, Morgana appears to be wearing the same crown that the previous queen wore, suggesting she is queen and presumably Eric is king of Northumbria. If so, this change is status happened unbelievably quickly, before Einar's funeral! It would have been much more definitive if we had observed Eric's successful campaign to convince the powers that he was the rightful king of Northrumbria, if not also the Viking settlement he was a former slave in, and to witness his conversion to Christianity(if he was not already a Christian) to fit in better with his queen and English subjects and to symbolize the potential union of northmen and English. In the absence of this extension, this film is merely an elaborate swashbuckler tale.

This review refers to the 2002 DVD edition of "The Vikings". In addition to being a well crafted and engaging epic, the transfer of the movie to DVD is surprisingly good. This 1958 film looks fantastic! The picture is sharp and clear and the colors are vivid and accurate. The picture and sound viewed on my 46-inch Samsung high definition LCD television (played on a Toshiba 1080p HD DVD player) are simply stunning. The picture is nearly high-definition in quality. A nice surprise for a 50-year old movie! The format is anamorphic widescreen (and enhanced for 16x9 large screen TVs), so the image fills the entire screen. Highly recommended!

The whole plot revolves around two brothers who don't know they're brothers. As is with many movies of this sort, the plot has some real weaknesses to it (ex-slave becomes Viking commander!?) but the acting talent behind the film pulls it off... almost.

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.