Drinker's Extra Shots - The 13th Warrior

it's always fun when movies throw you a bit of a curveball starting out on one path only to switch things up and head in a completely different direction by the ends like predator which starts out as a big burly action movie only to morph into a gory sci-fi horror film or from dusk till dawn a crime keeper road trip about a pair of criminals fleeing to the mexican border only to detour into a [ __ ] vampire movie or black widow which starts out as an intriguing espionage thriller with genuine stakes and intrigue only to turn itself into a goofy ridiculous cartoon disaster actually forget about that one but another movie that pulls a similar trick is the 13th warrior which begins as a fairly bog standard historical adventure set in the middle ages only to gradually reveal itself as a fantasy horror action film with a heavy emphasis on norse mythology and it also happens to be [ __ ] great fun the movie's told from the point of view of ahmad fadlan a real-life arabian traveler and diplomat whose journeys across europe and asia became almost legendary anyway in this case he's a member of the royal court in baghdad living the high life until he gets a bit up close and personal with another man's wife which earns him a shitty diplomatic posting to the ass end of nowhere we've all been there mate except my diplomatic posting was a trip to the accident and emergency ward anyway after a few misadventures ahmad ends up making contact with a band of vikings that have traveled south on business of their own soon however the group gets word that one of their allies in the north is under siege by some kind of mysterious ancient evil that kills everything in its path then this mad old bat decides the 12 men in the group have to go and kill it but their mission will only succeed if they take one more man along for the ride a 13th warrior if you will because i would totally base my tactical decisions on [ __ ] like this not a great plan so ahmad basically gets conscripted into the group and taken north to seek out the enemy that they've started referring to as the window an ancient monster that comes in the night and eats men alive yeah [ __ ] that noise i'd be out of there before you could say past the drinking horn oh laugh ahmad doesn't really believe in monsters and demons at first but soon enough he comes face to face with the wendell himself and it becomes clear that whatever the [ __ ] they are they're definitely real one by one the viking warriors succumb to ambushes and nighttime raids until the dwindling group of survivors decide to take the fight to their enemies and get some [ __ ] payback by assassinating their leader but will they succeed or will they just provoke their enemies into an all-out attack and more importantly will any of them actually live to tell the tale the 13th warrior had a difficult production history that really hampered its chances of success creative differences between director john mctiernan and writer michael crichton caused a lot of friction on set and studio interference only added to the problems resulting in extensive reshoots that caused the budget to balloon to well over 100 million dollars wary of throwing good money after bad the studio pulled most of their marketing budget and as a result the film flopped harder than a fat positivity activist trying to do a triple somersault off the high boards and it's a shame because the 13th warrior is a really [ __ ] solid movie it's got the grand feel of an epic adventure stretching from the scorching deserts and lush palaces of iraq to the frozen wilderness of the far north it liberally borrows elements from norse legend but weaves them into a narrative that's more grounded and believable well as believable as a lost army of cannibalistic cavemen dressed as bears can be what's interesting about this film is that ahmad is actually more of an observer than the real hero of the story i mean don't get me wrong he's a great character with lots of personality who proves to be a lot tougher and more resourceful than he seems and i love the slowly evolving dynamic between him and the rest of the group as he fights alongside them gradually earning their respects but obviously the hero of the movie is king beowulf who has to lead his people against an enemy he doesn't understand fight against insurmountable odds and finally slay the monster to bring peace back to his land even if it's at the cost of his own life it's a neat way of explaining the origins of the beowulf legend and i enjoyed the scenes between him and ahmad they're both intelligent and capable men in their own way they just happen to come from vastly different cultures and a lot of the movie is about slowly bridging the gap between them arabs and vikings joining forces to take on an army of cannibals isn't something you'd normally think to throw together but somehow it just works here it's a john mctiernan movie so needless to say the cinematography and action scenes are all well staged the rest of the viking group are distinct enough that you can tell who's who though you soon get a sense of which characters are going to be more important than others and i love how they use humor to break the tension in the most dire of situations like they'll be trapped deep in the enemy lair and facing certain death and they're still having a good old laugh to themselves [ __ ] legends the only thing that's missing is any real insight into the mindset of the antagonists they can't communicate in any meaningful way so we don't get much understanding of their motivations apart from a vague suggestion that they're protecting their territory their origins and overall objectives are mostly left up to the audience to decide i mean they seem to be carrying around these weird venus figurines with them which as far as i know date all the way back to the stone age maybe there's some crazy lost tribe of cavemen who got left behind when the rest of humanity started developing cities and technology or maybe they just appropriated this stuff without really understanding what it meant i don't [ __ ] know and to be honest i don't particularly need to either way though it shouldn't take away from the fact that the 13th warrior is a fun engaging and gripping adventure and a unique little spin on a classic story that delivers when it counts it might not exactly be high art that rocks your world but i certainly came away from it feeling like it was 103 minutes well spent and i'm pretty sure you will too anyway that's all i've got for today go away now

Channel: Critical Drinker After Hours

Views: 406,471

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Id: soA7dj_lJuE

Length: 6min 5sec (365 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 21 2021