A Restrained and Non-Mystical Retelling of Beowulf

Rating: Null/10 (24 October 2005)

I've been teaching Beowulf off and on for years and, generally speaking, seniors enjoy the good versus evil, blood-bathed poetic tribute to courage and virtue. I've been told again and again to see The 13th Warrior, and I finally did it this weekend. I was more than pleasantly surprised!
This is a nicely restrained retelling of the story, with Grendel gone, replaced by a tribe of horrific stone-aged warriors bent on destroying Hrothgar's peaceful kingdom. There is only implied mysticism here; no sign of a dragon, but men masquerading as monsters. The tension is built by John McTiernan's carefully cultivating the viewers concern for and affection for the warriors and their tribal brethren (and Antonio Banderas as an educated, imperfect Arab tagalong).
Sure, there's gore--skulls are pierced, heads are detached, and chests are ripped open--but at no time did I think, "Enough already!" McTiernan ably mixes bits of The Hunt for Red October, Quest for Fire, and Die Hard into his telling of mortal men fulfilling their noble obligation to protect the weak against an enemy that oozes savage barbarism.
My only two complaints are as follows: The sound recording of dialogue is infuriatingly muddled (I will have to watch the film again to pick up all the lost dialogue; the link between the characters and their names is not cemented in the viewer's mind because of the lack of sound quality) and I wish McTiernan had given the two female leads more to do (Hrothgar's queen, Diana Venora and the Swedish actress who treats Banderas' wounds--zowie!--are almost used enough, but not quite).
Now, my next step will be to read Michael Crichton's book The Eaters of the Dead on which the film was based. I have been a fan of Crichton since I read The Andromeda Strain in 7th grade. Maybe that's the way I can pick up what I missed from the Scandanavian mumbling in the film.