Hit & Miss!

Rating: 4/10 (14 November 2016)

The 13th Warrior is a conflicted film of jaw dropping set pieces, profound detail, & stunning cinematography, which has a "lets fight the savages" story & a "Don't talk; fight" narrative. The men are too tough for tears, the women too scarce for encouragement & strength, the children are just props & the meaning is lost upon the project as though any soul would dirty the film. I can't believe so much money would be ploughed into a film without a solid script first! So much effort was clearly & painstakingly put into every frame of these frenetic battle sequences. And yet the shots are kept deliberately low which creates an even more uninspired experience than that purloined from the script itself! There is an appreciation to realism not found in Hollywood or any surviving studios who may have the kind of money to make films of this disappearing & under-appreciated genre, which makes it all the more disappointing. If only this demonstrated the level of love both men & women had for each other, it may translate to the passions adverse to love on the battlefield.
Little effort is made to define the geography of this battleground either. I presume they are Greeks? As they were speaking the Greek tongue at the start of the film, but then what origins are the natives from? To make things worse, the Arab isn't even played  BY AN ARAB!! I hate how there is always an absence of darker skinned cast members in film. Bruce Lee had a vision where peoples of ALL cultural background worked together, but this seems to be lost upon both studios & audiences now. It's so embarrassing to have to watch hour after hour.. film after film of passive racist predilection.
Anyway, it has moments of strategy but don't expect much more. This came & went like the weather seemed to do so in this flick! A wasted opportunity!