''The 13th Warrior'' is a 1999 American

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

based on

Michael Crichton John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author, screenwriter and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavil ...

's 1976 novel ''

Eaters of the Dead ''Eaters of the Dead: The Manuscript of Ibn Fadlan Relating His Experiences with the Northmen in AD 922'' (later republished as ''The 13th Warrior'' to correspond with the film adaptation of the novel) is a 1976 novel by Michael Crichton, the f ...

'', which is a loose adaptation of the tale of ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

'' combined with

Ahmad ibn Fadlan Ahmad ibn Fadlan ibn al-Abbas al-Baghdadi () or simply known as Ibn Fadlan, was a 10th-century traveler from Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate, famous for his account of his travels as a member of an embassy of the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir to the king ...

's historical account of the

Volga Vikings The Varangians ( ; ; ; , or )Varangian
," Online Etymology Dictionary were

Antonio Banderas José Antonio Domínguez Bandera (born 10 August 1960), known professionally as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish actor. Known for his work in films of several genres, he has received numerous accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award ...

, as well as

Diane Venora Diane Venora is an American stage, television and film actress. She graduated from the Juilliard School in 1977 and made her film debut in 1981 opposite Albert Finney in ''Wolfen (film), Wolfen''. She won the New York Film Critics Circle Award fo ...

and

Omar Sharif Omar Sharif (, ; born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub ; 10 April 1932 – 10 July 2015) was an Egyptian actor, generally regarded as one of his country's greatest male film stars. He began his career in his native country in the 1950s. He is bes ...

. It was directed by

John McTiernan John Campbell McTiernan Jr. (born January 8, 1951) is an American former filmmaker best known for his action films. His work as director includes ''Predator (film), Predator'' (1987), ''Die Hard'' (1988), and ''The Hunt for Red October (film), ...

; Crichton directed some uncredited reshoots. The film was produced by McTiernan, Crichton, and Ned Dowd, with Andrew G. Vajna, James Biggam and Ethan Dubrow as executive producers. Production and marketing costs reportedly ranged from $100–$160 million, but it grossed $61 million at the box office worldwide, becoming the biggest box-office bomb of 1999, with losses of up to $129 million. Despite its critical and box office failure, the film has since cultivated a devoted

cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...

, and is credited with pioneering a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

hero in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

blockbusters.

Plot

is a court poet of the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

Caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

Al-Muqtadir Abū’l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Al-Mu'tadid, Aḥmad ibn Al-Muwaffaq, Ṭalḥa ibn Al-Mutawakkil, Jaʿfar ibn al-Mu'tasim, Muḥammad ibn Harun al-Rashid, Hārūn Al-Muqtadir bi'Llāh () (895 – 31 October 932 AD), better known by his regnal name a ...

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

until his amorous encounter with the wife of an influential noble gets him exiled as an "ambassador" to the

Volga Bulgars Volga Bulgaria or Volga–Kama Bulgaria (sometimes referred to as the Volga Bulgar Emirate) was a historical Bulgar state that existed between the 9th and 13th centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama River, in what is now Europea ...

. Traveling with his father's old friend, Melchisidek, his caravan is saved from

Tatar Tatar may refer to: Peoples * Tatars, an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" * Volga Tatars, a people from the Volga-Ural region of western Russia * Crimean Tatars, a people from the Crimea peninsula by the B ...

raiders by the appearance of

Norsemen The Norsemen (or Northmen) were a cultural group in the Early Middle Ages, originating among speakers of Old Norse in Scandinavia. During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on a Viking expansion, large-scale expansion in all direc ...

. He takes refuge at their settlement on the

Volga River The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

, and communications are established through Melchisidek and Herger, one of the Norsemen, who happens to speak

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. From Herger, both learn that the celebration being held by the Norsemen is in fact the precursor to a funeral for their recently deceased king. Herger also introduces them to one of the king's sons, Buliwyf. Ahmad and Melchisidek witness a fight in which Buliwyf kills his brother in self-defense, which establishes Buliwyf as

heir apparent An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...

. That is followed by the funeral of the dead king, who is traditionally cremated on a

Viking ship Viking ships were marine vessels of unique structure, used in Scandinavia throughout the Middle Ages. The boat-types were quite varied, depending on what the ship was intended for, but they were generally characterized as being slender and flexi ...

, set adrift with a female slave who offers to sacrifice herself and accompany him to

Valhalla In Norse mythology, Valhalla ( , ; , )Orchard (1997:171–172) is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. There were five possible realms the soul could travel to after death. The first was Fólkvang ...

, the Norse

afterlife The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their ...

(or "

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

"). The next day, the young Prince Wulfgar enters the camp to request Buliwyf's aid; his father, King Hrothgar, has asked for assistance, as his lands in the far north are under attack from an ancient evil so frightening that even the bravest warriors dare not name it. The "angel of death", a

völva In Germanic paganism, a seeress is a woman said to have the ability to foretell future events and perform sorcery. They are also referred to with many other names meaning "prophetess", "staff bearer" and "sorceress", and they are frequently calle ...

(wisewoman), says that the mission will be successful but only if thirteen warriors face this danger, and the thirteenth must not be a Norseman. Ahmad is automatically and unwillingly recruited. Ahmad is initially treated indifferently by the Norsemen, but they mock his smaller

Arabian horse The Arabian or Arab horse ( , DIN 31635, DMG ''al-ḥiṣān al-ʿarabī'') is a horse breed, breed of horse with historic roots on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easi ...

. However, he earns a measure of respect by quickly learning their language as he starts mentally translating it into Arabic, demonstration of horsemanship, and his ability to write. Buliwyf, already himself a

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

, asks Ahmad to teach him the

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

, which cements their mutual goodwill. Buliwyf sees Ahmad's analytic ways as an asset to their quest. Reaching Hrothgar's kingdom, they confirm that their foe is indeed the ancient " Wendol", fiends who come with the mist to kill and take human heads. While the group searches through a raided cabin, they find a

Venus figurine A Venus figurine is any Upper Palaeolithic statue portraying a woman, usually carved in the round.Fagan, Brian M., Beck, Charlotte, "Venus Figurines", beliefs '' The Oxford Companion to Archaeology'', 1996, Oxford University Press, pp. 740–7 ...

, which is said to represent the " Mother of the Wendol". On the first night, the warriors Hyglak and Ragnar die. After a string of clashes, Buliwyf's band determine that the Wendol are human

cannibal Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecology, ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well ...

s, who are clad to appear like bears, live like

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

s, and think of themselves as bears. The warriors' numbers dwindling, having also lost Skeld, Halga, Roneth, and Rethel, and their positions all but indefensible, they consult another völva of the village. She tells them to track the Wendol to their lair and destroy their leaders, specifically the " Mother of the Wendol", and their warlord, who wears "the horns of power". Buliwyf and the remaining warriors infiltrate the Wendol caves and kill the Mother but not before Buliwyf is scratched deeply across the shoulder by a claw attached to her hand, dipped in poison. Ahmad and the last of the Norse warriors escape the caves but without the injured Helfdane, who opts to stay behind and fight. They return to the village to prepare for a

last stand A last stand, or final stand, is a military situation in which a body of troops holds a defensive position in the face of overwhelming and virtually insurmountable odds. Troops may make a last stand due to a sense of duty; because they are d ...

. Buliwyf staggers outside before the battle and inspires the warriors with a Viking prayer for the honored dead who will enter

. Buliwyf succeeds in killing the Wendol warlord, defeats them, and succumbs to the poison. Ahmad witnesses Buliwyf's royal funeral alongside the four surviving members of the 13 (Herger, Weath, Edgtho, and Haltaf) before returning to his

homeland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

, grateful to the Norsemen for helping him to "become a man and a useful servant of God".

Cast

Production

Originally titled ''Eaters of the Dead'', production began in the summer of 1997, but the film went through several re-edits after test audiences had not reacted well to the initial cut. Crichton took over as director himself because of the poor test audience reception, causing the release date to be pushed back over a year. The film was recut, and a new ending along with a new score was added.

Graeme Revell Graeme Revell (born 23 October 1955) is a New Zealand musician and composer. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the leader of the industrial rock/ electronic rock group SPK. Since the 1990s he has worked primarily as a film score composer. ...

was replaced by

Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer, conductor and orchestrator with a career in film and television scoring that spanned nearly 50 years and over 200 productions, between 1954 and 2003. He was consid ...

as composer. The title was changed to ''The 13th Warrior''. McTiernan has since gone on record as defending the film, stating the finished product was not entirely different from what he shot along with stating that he had originally wanted to do the film with

Michael Keaton Michael John Douglas (born September 5, 1951), known professionally as Michael Keaton, is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for an Aca ...

in mind for the lead role. The budget, which was originally around $85 million, reportedly soared to $100 million before principal photography concluded. With all of the re-shoots and promotional expenses, the total cost of the film was rumored to be as high as $160 million, which, given its lackluster box office take (earning US$61.7 million worldwide), made for a loss of $70–130 million.

Release

The film was pre-sold internationally by Buena Vista Film Sales.

Reception

The film debuted at No. 2 on its opening weekend behind ''

The Sixth Sense ''The Sixth Sense'' is a 1999 American psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It stars Bruce Willis as a child psychologist whose patient ( Haley Joel Osment) claims he can see and talk to the dead. Released ...

''. ''The 13th Warrior'' holds a 33% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

based on 88 reviews. The consensus is: "Atmospheric, great sets and costumes, but thin plot."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film one and a half stars out of four, remarking that it "lumber from one expensive set-piece to the next without taking the time to tell a story that might make us care." Conversely,

James Berardinelli James Berardinelli (born September 25, 1967) is an American film critic. His reviews are mainly published on his blog ''ReelViews.'' Approved as a critic by the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, he has published two collections of reviews of movies on ...

gave ''The 13th Warrior'' three stars out of four, calling it "a solid offering" that "delivers an exhilarating 100 minutes".

Lisa Schwarzbaum Lisa Schwarzbaum (born July 5, 1952) is an American film critic. She joined ''Entertainment Weekly'' as a senior writer in 1991, working as a film critic for the magazine alongside Owen Gleiberman from 1995 to 2013. Early life Lisa Schwarzbaum w ...

of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' rated it A− and called it "the most unexpectedly audacious, exhilarating, and wildly creative adventure thriller I have seen in ages". The outcome of the film's production disappointed

so much that he temporarily retired from film acting, not taking a role in another major film until 2003's '' Monsieur Ibrahim'': :"After my small role in ''The 13th Warrior'', I said to myself, 'Let us stop this nonsense, these meal tickets that we do because it pays well.' I thought, 'Unless I find a stupendous film that I love and that makes me want to leave home to do, I will stop.' Bad pictures are very humiliating, I was really sick. It is terrifying to have to do the dialogue from bad scripts, to face a director who does not know what he is doing, in a film so bad that it is not even worth exploring."

Soundtrack

The original soundtrack was composed by

and featured the

Dead Can Dance Dead Can Dance are a British-Australian band founded in Melbourne in 1981 by Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard, before relocating to London the following year. The Australian music historian Ian McFarlane described Dead Can Dance's style as "const ...

singer

Lisa Gerrard Lisa Germaine Gerrard ( ; born 12 April 1961) is an Australian musician, singer and composer and member of the group Dead Can Dance with music partner Brendan Perry. She is known for her unique singing style technique (glossolalia). She has a ...

. The score was rejected by Michael Crichton and was replaced by one composed by Crichton's usual collaborator,

References

External links

* * *
Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:13th Warrior, The Viking fantasy 1990s action adventure films 1990s American films 1990s English-language films 1990s fantasy adventure films 1990s historical films 1999 films American action adventure films American fantasy adventure films English-language action adventure films Films about cannibalism Films based on Beowulf Films based on European myths and legends Films based on Norse mythology Films based on works by Michael Crichton Films directed by John McTiernan Films produced by John McTiernan Films scored by Jerry Goldsmith Films set in Baghdad Films set in Russia Films set in 10th-century Abbasid Caliphate Films set in the Viking Age Films shot in British Columbia Films with screenplays by William Wisher Jr. Touchstone Pictures films English-language fantasy adventure films English-language historical films