A totally different actioner than anything you have seen before....

Rating: Null/10 (13 September 1999)

The Thirteenth Warrior - (Antonio Banderas, Diane Venora, and many, many others you never heard of)
A very creative and unusual movie and quite well done. However, it is very, very bloody so be forewarned. However, the camera does not linger on any of the gore so it is not too bad.
The movie is a little slow getting started and a little hard to follow at first. Banderas is Ahmed Ibn Fahdian, an arab who is caught with the wife of an important citizen. Ahmed is more or less banished when he is assigned by the pasha to some outlying province in some obscure position. Some kind of ambassador I think. In traveling by horseback to the outlying areas he falls in with a group of Viking warriors. They speak a completely different language and he doesn't understand a word, although he has an interpreter.

A young emissary arrives in camp via boat and says that his father's fortress is being invaded and he has been sent to get help. It is determined by an old crone who is some kind of seer that it will require 13 warriors to save the village. Twelve of the Vikings step forward and the crone says that the 13th warrior cannot be from the north country but must be from the south. Since Ahmed is the only person there from the south he is enlisted into the band despite his protestations.
They travel by ship and then by horse and finally arrive at the "fortress" which turns out to be a large wooden structure on top of a hill with no fortifications whatsoever. The king, who is a little dotty, describes the invading warriors as some kind of monsters who actually eat their captives.

The scenery is fantastic. While supposedly in Scandanavia, the film was actually shot in British Columbia in Canada and the scenery is breathtaking. Once the group arrive at the village, the action accelerates at a rapid pace. The village is almost immediately invaded by the monsters and although you cannot at this point get a good look at them, they appear to be something other than human. I cannot go into any more detail without giving too much away but you instantly bond with this group of fierce Viking warriors.
Interestingly enough, although Banderas has a central role, most of the heroics are performed by the other warriors. Banderas' character, a very quick study, becomes a proficient warrior in no time and holds his own in the many bloody battles they fight with the invaders.
I found the movie a major departure from other movies of this type. Extremely creative and very unusual and a movie that holds your interest very, very closely. The movie is based on a book called Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton who is also co-director with the talented John McTiernan.
I think The Thirteenth Warrior deserves at least an 8.