A Classic

Rating: Null/10 (9 December 2002)

It was only by accident that I purchased the video of The 13th Warrior, and I had to force myself to watch it. But by the end of the first 30 minutes, I was hooked, and to date have replayed it five times. Even after six viewings in total, I am still noticing new minor but significant details.
I have no doubt that The 13th Warrior will one day be considered as one of the best films of the 20th century, ranking alongside The Seven Samurai, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Great Escape (to name just three movies that share some of its characteristics) as a cinematic landmark action/adventure. Michael Crichton has served a long apprenticeship as an author, and is renowned for the detail and accuracy with which he fills his books. In The 13th Warrior, he borrows on the directional skills of luminaries as diverse and notable as John Ford, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick and George Lucas to design a film that fully utilises the visual medium. The 13th Warrior is so heavily packed with visual and verbal detail that the viewer cannot afford to be distracted for even a moment.
This movie is not one that will appeal to everyone, and is definitely unsuitable for anyone who will not give it the undivided attention it needs to be fully understood. Banderas is perfectly cast as the exiled Arab diplomat, Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan, experienced in verbal skills and subtle but complex political intrigues. He performs well in his role as the counterpoint to the Viking warriors, typified by the Viking leader Buliwyf (played by Vladimir Kulich), complementing their skills understanding the visual and the simply obvious. This complementary difference is probably best explained by Ahmed when he explains how he learned his companions' Norse language: "I listened!"; Buliwyf responds by explaining how he could write a complicated Arabic phrase after seeing it just once, weeks earlier: "I watched!"
The basic plot of the movie is simple: Banderas is chosen as the non-Norseman member of a mystical party of 13 warriors who are needed to combat an invasion by a mystery horde of flesheating invaders, the Wendol (who seem to be modelled on the ancient Picts). It is his different viewpoint that helps the small group to victory, and along the way this soft Arab diplomat suffers his rite of passage to manhood. The starkly realistic depiction of the harsh Norseman lifestyle, juxtaposed with the civilised culture Ahmed prefers, is portrayed without the cinematic excesses we have come to associate with action movies, and the total package of excellent acting, characterisation and cinematography easily earns a 9 out of 10 from me.