Film
makers have always taken liberties with historical accuracy - cutting
corners to save money or simply make their films more action packed.
Most of the time, these errors could be overlooked, and in the case of
the Vikings, there were several enjoyable films made during the 1960s
featuring Norsemen, that took huge liberties with history. However, it
was after such films as The Norsemen (1978), with The Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors as a Viking warrior, that the Icelandic film maker Hrafn Gunnlaugsson shot the first of his trilogy of Viking films Hrafninn Flýgur
(1984) in Iceland itself, with authentic dialogue and settings.
Unfortunately, although popular, the films were never widely
distributed. Fortunately however, in 1995 the American cinematographer Michael Chapman decided to shoot his own Viking story, taking advantage of authentic Icelandic locations and actors...
With
the death of his father at the hands of Ketil, Kjartan (Ralf Moeller)
finds himself to be the last chieftan left to fight against this
menace. He escapes from his execution and finds himself at the house
of Magnus, the country's
lawgiver
(Chief Justice). Magnus has the gift of foresight, and has forseen that
the man who washes up by his house would be the one to save all
Iceland. Kjartan was never trained to be warrior, and his father has
encouraged him to meet up with the legendary but recently outlawed
warrior Gunnar (Sven-Ole Thorsen). Although encouraged to simply wait
it out at Magnus' farm until the warrior next arrives, Kjartan
falls for the lawgiver's beautiful daughter Gudrun (Ingibjörg
Stefánsdóttir) and when he discovers that she is bound to marry a
horrible man, he takes it upon himself to challenge the man to a
duel - thus revealing his identity, and bringing Ketil's
forces upon him, with deadly consequences.
The story
was the invention of director Michael Chapman and comes off as a cross
between the authentic day-to-day conflicts that would have dominated
Viking Iceland - feuds over women, land and power, and revenge for
murders - and the embellished tales of the storytellers who would have
told these sagas. Accordingly the film uses framing scenes of a
storyteller telling this tale to an avid audience, and Chapman makes
good use of this man's narration to keep the film flowing and explain
the storyline without need for exposition from the characters. At times
the film does appear very remniscent of the
Sword and Scorcery boom of the 1980s, with the idea of a magical sword,
unsettled ghosts and prophecy - but any real supernatural elements are
kept to a minimum, and can simply be explained by the exaggerations and
poetic license of a storyteller. The film moves along at a pretty quick
pace, leaving good time for characterisation but certainly never
dragging, and it builds to a suitably dramatic (although not
unpredictable) climax.
Director
Michael Chapman is best known for his amazing cinematography on films like Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull
(1980) and does some great work on the film here - boosted of course by
the amazing Icelandic scenery. Unfortunately the quick pacing means
that he never quite exploits the lonely and beautiful landscape to its
full, as one might expect from a Werner Herzog film (see Aguirre
(1972)). The costumes, weapons, and buildings, even the choice of
horses all have a real sense of
authenticity to them, showing some good research and attention to
detail (except for Kjartan's small metal shield that he sports late in
the film, that seems noticably out of place). The film does feature a
variety of lost limbs that all look particularly realistic and quite
graphic, while the special effects in generally look very good -
and although not particularly original, the musical score does a very good
job of building tension and atmosphere.
German
actor Ralf Moeller takes the lead role - usually an action movie star
(who gained most of his early experience in Jean-Claude Van Damme
films), he certainly looks the part as a sword-wielding hero and with
his distinct accent is often remniscent of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and
although a better actor than the big Austrian, is certainly no Oscar
winner (incidentally, he would be cast in Schwarzenegger's iconic
Conan role in the 1998 television series
Conan the Adventurer). The former body-builder and very widely travelled actor/stuntman Sven-Ole Thorsen (who has starred in films from
Predator (1982) to
Gladiator
(2000)) plays the outlaw Gunnar and again looks the part, but never
quite meets the emotional requirements of the role. The beautiful
Icelandic singer Ingibjörg Stefánsdóttir, who performed at the
Eurovision Song Contest in 1993, is the focal Gudrun, and gives
probably the best performance in the film. The rest of the cast are
mostly Icelandic character actors who give decent performances.
Boasting
a well written script and highly authentic atmosphere with some
beautiful locations and women, it does suffer from some rather poor
acting, and misses the potential to make more of Iceland's truely epic
landscapes. Ultimately
The Viking Sagas
is a very enjoyable film for action movie fans (who don't mind a good
helping of storyline), and anyone interested in Viking history, and
comes highly recommended. My only caution would be against anyone
planning to use the film educationally - the abundance of bloody fight
scenes makes this certainly unsuitable for young viewers.
