Alicia
I love this movie so much
Moustroll
Good movie but grossly overrated
ShangLuda
Admirable film.
Alan Baker
This 1964 effort from Jack Cardiff could (with some recasting) have been Monty Python and the Big Bell or Carry on Viking. Glum faced actors mouth woeful dialogue while the action scenes are so stagey and stilted they might as well have left the clapper board at the beginning of each one. All this is accompanied by the most discordant, ghastly "music" score by the justifiably obscure Dusan Radic. The golden bell manages to roll down a cliffside without a scratch or the slightest deformation while clanging all the way (gold is too soft to behave like this). All in all this falls into the category of "has to be seen to be believed".
Blueghost
Someone at Amazon already took the title line I wanted to use; "Viking ... where is the bell."I saw this film with a bunch of friends many many years ago, and it was one of the most memorable experiences I ever had. This film is nothing but pure fun the old fashioned way. The preamble mixes and contorts historical periods of all sorts, and makes no apologies for it.Richard Widmark, an interesting choice to play a Viking, plays Rolfe, the wayward Viking master in search of adventure and riches. He is not a hero by any means, but, in my opinion, the quintessential and original anti-hero of the silver screen.The costumes are terrific, the art direction is excellent, the script is nothing but adventure wrapped in old fashioned Hollywood film making. The dialog isn't bad, but it's memorable, again in a Golden-Era Hollywood kind of way. Feats of daring, obsession, religious fanaticism, collision of societies; the rugged boorish barbaric Norse bring their Nordic ways to the civilized and technologically advanced Moorish coast of North Africa.We go from the streets of Islam to the fjords of a thawed north, back to the sea, the beach and beyond.This is high adventure. One could call it "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" during the so called dark ages. Sword and steel, sail and sailors, guile and wit and military prowess, sprinkled in with wit and a desire on everyone's part to get the ultimate prize.And that's the real charm of the film. Everyone wants one thing. They're obsessed with it, and will stop at nothing to gain it. In the meantime we're with Rolfe as he dares one escape to the next.The sets are impressive, as are the overall production values. This is grand film making at its absolute classic best.Again, no deep messages. No angst ridden characters. No one is hiding any secrets here. Oh sure, they play fast and loose with the rules when dealing with one another. They fight, they drink, they have let their spirits soar as they challenge one another, fight, laugh and play.There's not much more to say about this film. It truly is my favorite. Watch it and have fun as you revel in classic commercial film making :)Enjoy!
Spikeopath
Out of Columbia Pictures comes this Viking/Moors adventure very loosely based on the Swedish novel of the same name written by Frans G. Bengtsson. Produced by Irving Allen, it's directed by Jack Cardiff and stars Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier & Russ Tamblyn. It's a Technicolor/Technirma 70 production with cinematography from Christopher Challis, who shoots on location along the Yugoslavia coast. The plot follows the search and fights for a fabled golden bell known as The Mother of Voices. On one side is the Moor army led by king Aly Mansuh (Poitier), on the other is the Norsemen led by Rolfe (Widmark).Thought to be an attempt at cashing in on the success of Richard Fleischer's The Vikings and Anthony Mann's El Cid (in spite of there being a 6 and 3 year gap respectively?), The Long Ships is a messy film bogged down by confused intentions and a poor script from Beverley Cross & Berkely Mather. Things are also problematic within the cast as Widmark, sensing the turgid nature of the beast, plays it for laughs, while a disgruntled Poitier gives it the maximum effort trying to make it work. The rest of the cast are, it seems, just along for a meal ticket ride. Even Dusan Radic's score is boisterously out of place, loud and uneven with the action, it's a score that would be more at home with an Asterix The Gaul cartoon. However, and depending on if you can forgive the nonsense history and all round bad narrative, there's still some fun to be had. Be it intentional or not. The costuming is effective, while Challis' coastal photography is gorgeous and sparkles in Technicolor. The action sequences are competently staged by Cardiff {cinematographer on The Vikings funnily enough}, tho the site of an army being felled by weapons unseen is hilariously bad. With sea-storms, double-crosses and the evil Mare Of Steel execution device, there's enough to have made this something of a cult favourite with the adventure fan. So bad it's good? Well it's not quite in that category, but newcomers entering into it expecting anything other than a dumb downed costume adventure will be sorely disappointed. 5/10
jeduthun_solyma
I absolutely fell in love with this movie in 1964 at age 11. I saw it a dozen times in the 2 weeks it was at a local theater. The spectacle, action, humor, setting, characters totally absorbed me. I'm glad other viewers caught the humor. One of my all-time favorite movies. I have always had a fascination with Medieval History (Byzantium, North African Muslim, Spanish, Viking) and I think this movie contributed a lot to it. The setting in the vaguely North African "emirate" just did it totally for me. Richard Widmark was one of my first gay crushes (nice hairy chest) And I didn't realize until my 30's just how much I liked Colin Blakely. I wanted to be taken captive by a bunch of Vikings. I loved the scene where the Vikings took over the harem. Funny, very entertaining and just well choreographed.
