One thing I thought was always great was that they showed the Northmen to be very tactical. You pointed out how they entered the scene of the farmhouse that was attacked, but also later, after hearing the story of some attacks, they made a show of throwing a party, but not drinking, and that night after the speech about not living one instant longer, you realize that Ahmed is the only one that actually fell asleep. The others were only pretending, as to lure out the enemy. I think it's another reason why they earn Ahmed's respect, because obviously, early on he clearly though they were barely about savages, but comes to, maybe not fully understand them, but understand enough to see them as just being different from the culture he was used to. And that they were a good group of people, who truly cared for each other, and even himself.
"Lo, there do I see my father. 'Lo, there do I see my mother, and my sisters, and my brothers. Lo, there do I see the line of my people back to the beginning. Lo, they do call to me. They bid me take my place among them. In the halls of Valhalla. Where the brave may live ...Forever." Although I am a Christian, that Viking prayer is badass. Fun Fact: The historic Ahmed Ibn Fadlan traveled as an emissary to the land of the Volga Bulgars to convert them to Islam. On his way he encountered Turks in Central Asia and Russian and Varangians (Volga Vikings). He returned in 923, and no record after this date refers to him.The 13th Warrior (1999) Bonus Fact: The source novel "Eaters Of The Dead" has become part of one of the most notorious hoaxes in Librarianship Circles. The Ahmad Tusi Manuscript, which the bibliography says is the novel's source, is completely made up. The name of the translator, Fraus Dolus, is two Latin words meaning both hoax and fraud. Since the novel was published in 1976, the University of Oslo, where this manuscript is supposed to be kept, has sent out letters telling enquirers that they have been the victim of a hoax.
The movie version is incomplete. "Lo, There do I see my Father Lo, There do I see my Mother and My Brothers and my Sisters Lo, There do I see the line of my people back to the begining Lo, They do call to me They bid me take my place among them in the halls of Valhalla Where thine enemies have been vanquished Where the brave shall live Forever Nor shall we mourn but rejoice for those that have died the glorious death."
Varangians is also Russians, in Russian hystoric sources lots of vikings served under Knyaz and stayed there forming families, halfnorse halfslavic were called Varangians.
Technically, adaptation was made by Michael Crichton in "Eaters of the Dead". Mind you, the book is written as a medieval account by Ibn Fahdlan. Edit: commenters are an impatient breed.
Michael Crichton mimicked the style of an actual fragment of a Arab ambassador's report and attempted to write a story that could beleavably be what time and retellings would to into Beowulf
I've been worried for almost a month now that I had thoughtlessly ruined one of my favorite action movies for someone that I thought might like it. I agree that the language switch is the best I've seen in any movie. Also, if spoiling movies means additional history lectures, that might not be the threat you think it is.
Finally someone's reacting to this movie! And what a wonderful surprise that you know so much about the source material as well! I really enjoyed your commentary. I love how grounded this story is, as you can imagine as what happened to inspire the story that we're familiar with. The dragon is in the movie, but like the rest, it's represented in a more grounded way. It's the fire-worm led by the leader which Buliwyf kills at the end.
A piece that seems to be missing here is Ibn Fadlan's T'he Land of Darkness' which much of the film is based on (as is the novel). The blend of Beowulf and the Fadlan document go together quite well. The best Dungeons & Dragons movie ever made that isn't based on D&D 🙂
@@Cybrludite Yes that is one thing that annoyed me about this movie. Some of the armor I can accept the armor that dated back to before the "viking age" that could have been taken as spoils after a battle and passed down through generations but i agree that did annoy me about the movie.
@@kingwacky184 I actually like this part. For example, I imagined the one Viking wearing the cassis crista helmet to have come across it somewhere in Bizantium during his travels. Maybe sold as an antique in a bazaar or stole it in a raid where it was kept as decoration on some castle, or the home of a wealthy local nobility.
Hi Alexa, I interpreted it as the procession of torches through the mist winding down the mountain like a snake was supposed to be the dragon. Oh and I like the long format of this video 🤩
Agreed. Also few people probably survived these attacks and the ones that did would most likely be so traumatized that they would have suffered from delusions. Making them think they had been attacked by something supernatural.
The rabbit hole goes deeper. This is a movie based on a book about a fictional book cropped from the book/story Beowulf. Cricton wrote this book mostly on a dare. Worked out very well. The movie didn't miss much from the book but did a lot of glossing over. The book is a short read and worth picking up and checking out.
Its kinda based on Beowulf and Seven Samurai with a pinch of real history thrown in. Ahmad ibn Fadlan was a real person, he was a traveler and trader who wrote accounts of the people he met. Most of the first section, until the child messenger, is taken from his meeting with the Kiev Rus, a norse people who are the origin of Russia's name. Its somewhat sanitized from the original.
Is it wrong that while the North men may be thinking Beowulf I have always thought that they are fighting 'the Neanderthal' and its a jazzed up account of Ahmad ibn Fadlan interaction with the Volga Viking's. The jazz up being being swept away on an adventure which will involve war with a different section of humanity. .
Loved your intro and reading before the reaction! As I was watching this with you again I noticed one of the warriors in '13th Warrior' is also in another film I really enjoy called 'Dragonslayer'. It was one of Disney's first attempts under a different studio name to branch out from their known 'G' rated brand of movies. It's not academy award material but I thought the story was solid. The Dragons name is awesome, 'Vermithrax Pejorative', It was ILMs first time being used for another movie other than Lucasfilm and the dragon is considered one of the best practical effects dragons put on film by myself and a few popular directors like George R.R. Martin and Guillermo del Toro. The music is also great!
didn't the same team do the dragon(s) from Game of Thrones....i think i was reading about that at the time. Another great practical dragon - although partial - was the one from Jim Henson's :Monster Maker - episode from Jim Henson'e Hour ??? series Also the one from Knightmare (uk 80's fantasy show) on certain episodes involving the dragon .......ok i'm being humorous.
So I randomly found this reaction because I love this movie and straight off the bat you impressed me with your history lesson/rant. I shall now go and explore your channel.
Great watch! I really enjoyed it. When I first saw it I didn't know initially it was Beowulf and when it clicked I thought that's really clever. Rather than think of it as a retelling of Beowulf instead imagine this is the actual story that was retold as Beowulf. All the points of the story are there the attack on the hall where Grendel loses his arm, Grendel's mother in the cave and the Dragon was the whole tribe with torches but these moments were given a supernatural element as the story was passed down. So it's fairly realistic(ish) based and then turned to mythology as the retelling occurs.
In Crichton's book, the Wendol were meant to have been Neanderthals. He read about obscure theories that Neanderthals didn't go extinct but survived until relatively modern times.
That seems a terribly and deliberately chauvinistic view of Neanderthals, then. Crichton appears to have knowingly taken the "monster" view of said human sub-species that was popular far earlier in the 20th century (and largely influenced by the then-still-credited hoax of "Piltdown Man") over the much more "human" view that was prevalent (and far more credibly supported) at his time of writing. The latter view, incidentally, is even more prevalent and well-supported today. Perhaps the violent and irrational dislike of science that didn't confirm Crichton's pre-existing beliefs, a dislike made very clear in his execrable final works, has deeper roots than might have first been assumed.
John McTiernan is great at the language transition. He did something similar in "The Hunt for Red October." I like every one of his films at some level, even the cheesy ones.
Well, the Goddess worshippers are supposed to be a remnant of a primeval nation. The figurine and the huge statues in the cave are based on the "Venus" figurine, I think.
About the snake symbolism, I think is deliberate: they used a "Mal´ta Venus" as their "mother", to resemble a paleolitic cult. The snakes are present in shamanistic rituals and myths, so I think it was an obvious pick. Great video! Cheers!
Wow, you pick the best movies to react to. I really like this movie, especially when I was a younger person. I've also enjoyed learning about these poems and tales. Its got me interested now that I've seen how it ties into other movies and thus into our modern times.
Why did Michael Crichton write Eaters of the Dead? In His Own Words. The story behind this novel appears in an essay in the paperback edition. The short version is, I wrote Eaters of the Dead on a bet that I could make an entertaining story out of Beowulf. It's an unusual book.
"They were really into 'fate' back then...We're much more into 'free will' now." Who is the happier, I wonder? The person that must constantly strive against death, as the worst outcome, or the one that accepts the inevitable, and takes the moments presented in life as things to be experienced fully, knowing they cannot last?
Oh, I missed this the first time - you say at the beginning it has a Mummy feel to it. Well, the composer was Jerry Goldsmith who did both movies. And the musical themes are quite similar in places.
A great reaction video! And I very much enjoyed your delve into Beowulf at the beginning. It was filmed primarily in British Columbia, which is indeed a beautiful place! I liked the more rustic look everything had. The movie is also pretty close to the book. Some scenes not in the movie include: - The crew stopping at Buliwyf's ancestral home on the way to Hrothgar, finding it destroyed by the Wendol, to retrieve his two-handed sword of legend. - They received daggers from the old woman specifically for fighting the mother. - The mother Wendol is described as an old corpulent woman; but Michael Crichton (who took over as director when the initial cut wasn't received well) redid the scene with a young woman. - After the last battle, Herger and Ahmed kill Prince Wiglif and his minions, when they make a disparaging comment about Buliwyf. - The slave girl that treats Ahmed's wounds and sleeps with him is the sacrifice at Buliwyf's funeral. This entire sequence was removed due to negative audience reaction. I think what I liked the most about this film was they did try and portray viking culture in a more realistic fashion. I know historians can nitpick things here and there, but at least they weren't in horned helmets! Of note, Vladimir Kulich who portrayed Buliwyf had a small part in the Vikings TV series, and does voicework in Skyrim.
Some further thoughts/musings: Michael Crichton wrote the novel in response to a friend who claimed that the "great bores" of English literature, including Beowulf, had no value in modern learning. The idea of neanderthals in the Viking era was based on a paper he read where it was theorized that some scattered tribes may have remained through antiquity, leading to all the myths about monsters, before dying out. The one survivor mentions it as "a hate from old times", which ties into the whole Cain idea, the rejected ones. (I was not aware of the Ham/Cain swap, that's interesting!)
Definitely makes my list of Top Ten Most Underrated and Misunderstood Movies Ever list (never read "Beowulf' or any related books, so that's not a factor). It was refreshing and excellent because it wasn't just another dragons-and-sorcery tale. That's been done to death. Its grounded vibe made everything seem more real and textured, instead of fantastical and focused on spectacle. Nature was the visual backdrop, with mist and smoke and clouds setting the mood or providing warnings that trouble was coming. If I want a dragon, I'll watch the Hobbit movies (I know there are other dragon movies, but I lean toward Greek mythology in my monster tastes). Not really the public's fault for the film flopping. The trailer that the studio put out suggested a monster movie, so they blew it.
As a Pagan, i wasn't offended by this, i just accepted it for what it is. Entertainment. There are areas i wished were closer to being period accurate and i hoped that Omar Sharif would have had a bigger role in first act or at least have him brought back for the final act. I'm glad that the slave girl sacrifice was cut. In my personal head canon, i prefer to think she had a better ending.
"Lo there do i see a spoiler!"....Lo there do i see someone who struggles to recognise that there WAS a dragon in this movie!...Lo there do i see Alexa being chosen to accompany the Dead king to Valhalla!! Lo there these are just jokes so try not to be too offended!...lmao
ok i don't know if you watch or talk about westerns BUT one of the Best early 70's one i say would be a GREAT REVIEW is "My Name is Nobody" cause i think younger people/youtube reviews would get it the Comic side and the Drama side and how well they world to talk about even in todays world. i own it on DVD and watched anytime it came on TV as a kid in the 80's or teen in the 90's... give it a look..i say it's worth your time :)
I remember this movie. Yes, thumbs up on location! Also, when they were fortifing the village, you notice the fresh tree stumps? The thing that was making me nutz, was trying to figure out where it started. I guessed some where in what would be later called Turkey. When they mentioned the Tartar's coming after the caravan. Then the open sea and the storm. Maybe the Black Sea. Next the river. The Volga or the Danube. Knowing the Vikings founded Ukraine and they had some kind of system of out posts or colonies along every major river from the Volga to the Thames. Still, the part to me that hit home, was to each man, his final thoughts. Preparing to cross the vail of mystries. The Arab, very thoughtful in his regrets in life. Then the Vikings. In their honesty with fate and the "0" chance of survival, only spoke of the line of people all the way back to the beginning. "In the halls of Vallhalha, were the brave may live forever!". When the time will come, each of us will quietly make our peace. My compliment in your poetry reading. My blood is of many. Very sturring and personaly profound.
From what I remember. This whole thing came about because a friend of the author of Jurrasic Park dared said author to write a historical and scientifically grounded version of Beowolf. So in the Eaters of the Dead/13th warrior. Instead of apneas/orcneas we got beowulf fighting a group of Neanderthals who managed to evade extinction in Northern/eastern Europe. The Neanderthal/Grendol appearance was based off the Art of Frank Frazetta. So yeah, so this all came about because the guy behind Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain and ER was given a dare by his friend 🤣
@alexachipman. I loved the film because it took more from Ahmad Ibn Fadlan's book rather than being a Beowulf adaptation. It is one of the rare occasions Western entertainment looks favourably on Islam. Whilst Ibn Fadlan's book is a discussion of his trade expedition, many of his experiences get into the film. He is disgusted that the Varangians blow their nose and spit in the same bowl they wash in and then share the bowl. He does identify them as perfect physical specimens who are blue eyed and blonde haired. What is interesting is what you pointed out about Snakes. You are right; for the rest of the world they weren't necessarily evil unless you were Christian. Northmen however identified Niddhogg as the embodiment of Evil who gnawed on the world tree so it makes sense with Vikings seeing snakes as evil. Ibn Fadlan would also have come into contact with Slavic devotion to a god called Veles, who is a dragon or snake that guards the underworld. The evil tribe are described as part of the Veles and so this is strangely accurate
It might be pretty ... but it is also a really harsh lifestyle, because the landscape doesnt really allow any agriculture on a scale that would be necessary to "have an easy life in winter".
The first section of the film is based on Ibn Fadlan's journey to the Bulgar people as an envoy/ambassador. Micheal Crighteon's book, Eaters of the Dead, uses the ibn Faldan story. It's a good mix.
This concept of the Wendol being extant Neanderthals is something that really revs my engine. I always felt that the Norse concept of trolls living in hills was an institutional memory of the ancestors of the Norse trying to make sense of relations with the last few remaining groups of Neanderthalensis, and recognizing a bit of...prototypical Uncanny Valley in them that wasn't there with animals. Humans have a tendency to anthropomorphize animals, and with primates it's even more jarring at times.
Exactly. Crichton made a great choice in making the Wendol to be Neanderthals (or some other archaic human species) that had survived until the first millennia.
When you started singing about the Misty Mountains it was a split second after it started in my head... for future reference I don't appreciate you reading my mind here and now from a past moment in time.
Michael Crichton wrote the book on a dare. Parting from the premise that every legend is based on real events, that a the core of each legend there is a grain of truth, he was asked by a colleague what "real event" could have been behind Beowulf. So he came up with this, _The Eaters of the Dead._ So no dragon, just the Wendol with torches. But in the book the Wendol are a relict population of Neanderthals or some other archaic human species. I kind of wish the movie had kept this aspect instead of just some savage humans. I love how Crichton incorporated the Ahmad ibn Fadlan's actual account of meeting the Volga Vikings. As for the Wendol's worship aspects, they're a completely unrelated people to the Vikings or anyone else in Europe. So who's to say what and how they worship or find sacred.
The snake or serpent had dual importance in many of the old sagas. As evidenced by both the mother of the Wen, and the fireworm/dragon. This may be a commentary on a clash of civilizations. The Wen worship the mother and attack as a fire wyrm. Which the nordic characters seem to understand. And the Muslim character is scared shitless.
Beowulf and Grendel with Gerald Butler is fun, if you wanted to do more Beowulf adaptations. It's very much not faithful, like this movie it's a subversion of the supernatural aspects and tries to explain everything "rationally". But it's shot in beautiful locations (Iceland, I think) and the costumes are actually rather good and accurate (there are a few bad bits, but it's far, far better than most viking movies). And it's an odd movie, very un-blockbuster like, which makes it interesting.
This is by far the best adaptation of a Crichton novel given Hollywood tends to butcher Crichton's work {yes including Jurassic Park}, even if only because Eaters of the Dead is outright unreadable and I say this as a lover of Fantasy and Historical Fiction.
@@alexachipman No apologies. A lot of it is guy humor. "I cannot lift this." (sword) "Grow stronger." No? Not even, "When you die, can I give that to me daughter?"
Crichton's book is a curiousity. He takes time to document his sources -- which are bogus. But it is a good tale about the "real" events behind the old poem. The movie rearranges things and gets further away from "Beowulf" than Crichton's story did. Uh... you have a mail shirt? Will we ever see it?
I could be wrong about this but I always thought that when they saw the fire coming down the hills at ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e2-dEoV-X4k.html, they called it a dragon like you did. You mentioned 'Outlander' in your reaction, I'm not sure if you were talking about the series or the movie. If you have not seen 'Outlander' the movie, with Jim Caviezel, you might want to add it to your list, I thought it was a decent movie with an interesting storyline. (I do not want to say anymore as I found it fun to go into the movie not knowing anything about it). Great review as usual, love the movies you choose to watch!
And the Wendol used the mist or fog to create the glowing fire vvorm effect to instill greater fear and terror on the attack. To me it looked like lava the first time I saw the film.
ROFL, your 'punishment' of history lectures is only painful to the unworthy. Also, when this came out, and even in the film, the Stephen King novel, 'Eaters of the Dead' is referenced as the source. But, I always did feel like it was Beowulf inspired.
I've just discovered your Channel . A Reactor with some knowledge for a change , interesting . You deserve a thumbs up and now i'll go and check the rest of your content :)
kindof a guilty pleasure movie from my late teens. based on an actual arabic scholar and itinerant traveler / representatives of the sultanate. even watching it back then, i did wonder about the presentation of the mountain clan. let's start by saying i am no kind of archeologist or anything similar. as far as i understand, deification of the female was more common in pre-agricultural revolution cultures - where there also would have (theoretically) been a lot more gender equality. there certainly have been a number of cultural groups that engaged in cannibalism, and, in the viking age, if there were older cultures that survived with more primal technologies and cultures, they likely would have been #1 reclusive, & #2 brutal enough to survive the demise of many other similar cultures. so, not evil, but different. and, in that time, a high class arab (from one of the most technologically advanced cultures of the time, and a quite patriarchal one to boot) might well have seen this culture as alien, barbaric, and evil. that being said, the movie misses an opportunity to truly explore one of these old cultures. this clan, like the horror-tribe in "Bone Tomahawk" is remarkably asocial. no chatting, no singing, no making pottery, just hunched in the dark like bears in a cave. as far as i know, humans don't make cultures that completely devoid of socialization. that, it seems to me, is what really bleeds the realism out of this enemy. horrible violence - eh, that's normal human stuff. living in caves? yeah, we've done a lot of that. dressing like bears and draping snakes over people, weird make-up, scary rituals - yep. we still do some of that stuff. but, nobody talking? no starting rumors, telling tall tales, hitting on people, telling jokes, relating, teaching? nah, not realistic. i guess (like Bone Tomahawk) that is the most effective way to demonize a cultural group.
Will (or have) you reacted to Beowulf And Grendel? The movie had a torturous production but they play into the whole "Grendel was a Neanderthalensis" concept.
