Susan Granger’s review of “The 13th Warrior” (Touchstone Pictures)
For more than two years, this clich?-ridden action adventure has gathered dust on the shelf at Disney’s Buena Vista Pictures. No one knew quite when to release it or how to market its blood ‘n’ guts content to the public. Antonio Banderas (“The Mask of Zorro”) plays Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan, an urbane Muslim poet-diplomat banished from his Egyptian homeland during the 10th century, along with elderly Omar Sharif, who acts as his translator. Fleeing from Baghdad in a caravan after Banderas has indulged in a foolish sexual liaison, they join up with some growling, swaggering, blond Nordic warriors with names like Helfdane the Large (Clive Russell), Skeld the Superstitious (Richard Bremmer), and Herger the Joyous (Dennis Storhoi), among others. They’re led by Buliwyf (Vladimir Kulich) on a quest to liberate a kingdom across the sea from a mysterious, marauding tribe of bear-like savages who have been terrorizing everyone – at least when it gets foggy. (They filmed it in British Columbia where the mists obviously rise on cue.) Based on Michael Crichton’s 1976 novel, “Eaters of the Dead,” it combines rowdy, swashbuckling brutality with a hint of the supernatural as they pursue the ferocious “terror that must not be named.” Director John McTiernan did this long before “The Hunt for Red October” and he would be wise to leave it off his resume. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The 13th Warrior” is a ridiculously bloodthirsty 3, proving grisly gore has no limits.
