Review #15 - WHITNAIL (29 juin 1999)
Source : Ain't It Cool News
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=3875

"Withnail here, over on the other side of the Atlantic in 'swinging London, baby'.
Tonight I managed to sneak into a screening of the finished version of the new John McTiernan actioner - THE 13TH WARRIOR.
I've been waiting for a long time to see if this unashamed battle flick could erase the memory of DIE HARD 3 and LAST ACTION HERO. And the answer is, yes it does, but it's not up there with DIE HARD, PREDATOR or THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. For more details, read on...

THE 13TH WARRIOR
Actions speak louder than words. Much louder, if the way that director John McTiernan handles this movie is anything to go by. This tale of Norse Action Heroes has only sparse dialogue, with the swords doing most of the talking.
Many films are eventually made into video games, but THE 13TH WARRIOR feels like a computer game that's been recreated shot, scene by scene on film. There's the opening set up where Antonio Banderas, helped by wise veteran Omar Sharif and bits of his own voiceover, is forced to join a band of Vikings who are travelling North to face a nameless enemy.
And from then on, the film breathlessly rushes from action set piece to action set piece. Each, seemingly, more bloody than the last. But like a video game, there's no real point to it all, apart from the need to beat the bad guys. The action sequences are broken up by odd clues that just allow you to get to the next big fight. And it doesn't have a beginning and an end, just a first battle and a last battle.
Banderas, sadly, doesn't have much to do apart from wave his sword around and be struck by a regular burst of inspiration that will lead them to the scene of their next big punch up. And as he¹s nowhere near as physically imposing as any of his co stars, he's not particularly believable. It would have worked much better with someone like Schwarzenegger in this role.
Where it fails narratively, though, it succeeds in terms of pure action. McTiernan, almost entirely using handheld cameras, creates some of the most impressive battle scenes ever put on celluloid. Much of it is also astonishingly violent, with a fair number of severed heads and disembowellings.
Visually, it's also a winner. From the opening shot of a bolt of lightning revealing Banderas and co. in storm tossed boat, to the closing image of a Viking ship sailing into the mist, it constantly stuns and amazes.
Peter Menzies Jr's photography is pretty fabulous too. Much of the film takes place at night, with the characters lit only by fires - and he pulls off this difficult feat with apparent ease.
It's a pity then that the story couldn't have been fleshed out more to give the whole thing more resonance. McTiernan fans, will still have much to cheer about though. It's a strong return to form for him, and there are a few nice references to his previous movies. At the start the Vikings are speaking in a foreign tongue, but with a slow zoom in and zoom out to one of them, they mix into speaking English - just like the Russians did in THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER.
He also borrows liberally from other stories. The first third is very reminiscent of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, and one section where Banderas and the Vikings discover their flesh eating enemies in a network of caves, looks eerily like an R rated version of INDIANA JONES & THE TEMPLE OF DOOM.
A testosterone filled treat then, but one which manages to bypass the brain."