Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

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!

thinker1691 Every Tale, fable, or legend has a basis in some small fact. In this film called " The Long Ships " we have a Viking reciting a legend which was once told to his people of a great bell which was as high as 'three tall men.' Said to have been created by the monks of Byzantium, in actuality, they had indeed cast one out of solid gold, but was small enough to be handed as a gift to the German emperor, for his personal chapel, during the middle ages. As with most 'fish' stories, the size of the bell grew with each retelling. For this movie, the seekers are Northmen, not Germanic knights as in the original tale. Still, the movie is entertaining enough due to the major stars in it. Here we have, Richard Widmark as Rolfe, a seafaring Viking who is captured by Aly Mansuh, the Moorish prince (Sidney Poitier) who threatens him with torture is he does not reveal its location. Then there is Russ Tamblyn as Orm, his very agile brother and then of course there is international star Oskar Homolka as Krok, who is their father. All in all, a good film, for an otherwise lazy afternoon. ****

Neil Welch I'm of an age where I was brought up on films which suffer by comparison to today's, so the fact that the effects were not really comparable (for instance) is not a factor in my comments.But this just wasn't very good. The story was weak, the acting was not so much bad as not really appropriate to the characters, the script was drivel, Poitier was truly dreadful, and the musical score simply didn't fit what was on screen. And never mind the miraculous bell.The best thing about it is the host of prominent British actors who you can't recognise through their beards, but you can have fun trying if you know beforehand that they're in it.On the whole, though, too poor to even be classed as fun, I'm afraid.

hogan-pj Although as 'old' as 20 when I saw this film I still was, still am, a sucker for action and adventure. I can forgive a lot and often find that re-watching old films, often made on wobbly budgets, continually enlightening. I find that films that I was dismissive of, on first viewing, now stand stronger in the light of more recent 'works'. I occasionally re-watch 'The Long Ships' in hope, as it should be the sort of film I love. It is not. I rate Cardiff as one of the top cinematographers, but not necessarily as a director. I like colour and light.(e.g. 'Tremors'rather than 'things' in two thirds darkness). There is colour and light in 'The Longships' so it is not that which turns me off. It does not have the excuse of a low budget. I enjoyed Widmark in The Alamo, Warlock and The Law and Jake Wade, Russ Tamblyn in Seven Brothers and West Side Story. I had not seen much of Sydney Potier as I recall, A Man Is Ten Feet Tall (Edge of a City). The cast were experienced, as a whole. The second unit and fight arranging are a bit wobbly but often were and are. Even Sidney Potier said "To say it was disastrous is a compliment" It works against the problem that I had read the book, something like 500 pages, from which The Longships takes a side story of about a page and a half and couple of incidents. The Film could be much shorter if it was just a 'romp'. The problem is that it is patched together, much like current UK Government policy, a few ostentatious high spots stuck together with 'spin'. They had the means and makings of a much better film, not just something that gets away with it because it is 'fun'. So why did they not make a better film. In the older 'Halliwells' film guides the late Leslie Halliwell frequently questioned the motives for making certain such films. These comments are now edited out of more recent editions since Halliwells untimely death.(Strangely the same has happened to details of other persons untimely deaths, removed from the pages of the 'Guides')Allen's (Warwick Avilla) films, like those produced by Lew Grade and Columbia often involved filming in the then Soviet bloc and featured casts of overtly 'Left Wing' affiliations (Why did Peter Finch 'just happen' to be on the set of The First Men on the Moon and play {uncredited) the 'Process Server'?). If you are a seeker of truth check some of these out. You may find it more fun than 'The DaVinci Code' or The Long Ships'.