Very well executed

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

To say that this is one of my favorite movies is an understatement. I have watched this movie more times than I can remember. Each time is a wonderful experience. The movie is backwards and forwards everything I want in a movie. A sweeping epic tale of warriors, danger, the unknown, battles, fear, pain, sadness, victory, death, happiness, different cultures, love, hopelessness, beauty and everything that makes a person human. A simple man from a completely different way of life is thrust into what would become his worst nightmare. Antonio Banderas might not pass for an Eastern-born character but he plays his part masterfully. He is taken from his life of care-free luxury and transplanted into a world of war and death. The legendary Viking warriors have little time for someone who is not a fighter. They scoff at Ahmed and see him as no more than a child in their world. His transformation from an outcast to a warrior at the end is no less than breathtaking. Through hardship and trial Ahmed proves himself as capable as any of Buliwyf's fellow Vikings. The cinematography is equally stunning as are all the performances in this film. It shows a brutal landscape with equally brutal people living in them. The score for the film is fantastic as well. Jerry Goldsmith masterfully weaves epic battles into moments of unease and then to triumph. It is a sad thing that the production of this movie failed it so completely. The director and the writer both could not come together as to what story they wanted to make and combined with the advertisement and setbacks it undid whatever success this movie could have achieved. I for one love this movie and am grateful to be able to experience it each and every time.

I always loved this film - there are so many levels to enjoy it on, from the most simplistic 'grab a sword and cut up the bad dude', to the very subtle and complex shifts of politics, personality and EVERYONE'S personal growth through cultural collision.I really love the scenes where he picks up the language over a long journey - simply through having a trained poet's and scholar's ear. And the scene directly afterward where Vladimir memorizes Antonio's writing - through his natural intelligence.And plenty of other scenes, both witty and entertaining for those with an eye for sub-text.I am also fond of bold men in bloody battles, and want to snatch up a sword myself in this fight - you can almost smell the blood and guts.Really very under-rated and one I watch at least once a year.

The 13th Warrior is a conflicted film of jaw dropping set pieces, profound detail, & stunning cinematography, which has a "lets fight the savages" story & a "Don't talk; fight" narrative. The men are too tough for tears, the women too scarce for encouragement & strength, the children are just props & the meaning is lost upon the project as though any soul would dirty the film. I can't believe so much money would be ploughed into a film without a solid script first! So much effort was clearly & painstakingly put into every frame of these frenetic battle sequences. And yet the shots are kept deliberately low which creates an even more uninspired experience than that purloined from the script itself! There is an appreciation to realism not found in Hollywood or any surviving studios who may have the kind of money to make films of this disappearing & under-appreciated genre, which makes it all the more disappointing. If only this demonstrated the level of love both men & women had for each other, it may translate to the passions adverse to love on the battlefield.Little effort is made to define the geography of this battleground either. I presume they are Greeks? As they were speaking the Greek tongue at the start of the film, but then what origins are the natives from? To make things worse, the Arab isn't even played … BY AN ARAB!! I hate how there is always an absence of darker skinned cast members in film. Bruce Lee had a vision where peoples of ALL cultural background worked together, but this seems to be lost upon both studios & audiences now. It's so embarrassing to have to watch hour after hour.. film after film of passive racist predilection.Anyway, it has moments of strategy but don't expect much more. This came & went like the weather seemed to do so in this flick! A wasted opportunity!

A nice, high-echelon, young Arab (Banderas) is sent as an emissary to the Bulgars in 922 AD. At the time, the Middle East was the center of civilization. While Europeans were living on a flat earth, the people of Egypt were measuring its circumference. They invented soap. They also invented algebra, for which may God forgive them.Banderas is more or less shanghaied into joining a band of Norsemen returning to their home to protect it against the people of the mist, the Wendlos. I don't know if the Wendlos existed or not but they do in this movie.Banderas is revolted by the slovenliness of the Vikings. And who can blame him. They pass around a bowl to wash their faces in, but they also spit in it and one guy blows his nose into it using the one-nostril side slip method. But, like a good cultural anthropologist, he adapts to the ways of his hosts without trying to convert them to his religion or his customs.I was watching this on YouTube and at this point, Disney blocked the middle third of the film because of some copyright dispute. Therefore, it appears, I missed Diane Venora, which is a damned shame. Although, come to think of it, they could have used Mia Maestro because they look so much alike. I wonder if they are one and the same person. Has anyone ever seen Venora and Maestro together in the same room at the same time? No? I thought not.The ending is a sword-slinging bash in the rain and the mud. The Wendlos are all bundled up in bear costumes and whatnot so it's hard to tell whether they're supposed to be human or not. Someone has suggested they were Neanderthals but that's out of the question. It's out of date by some 50,000 years for one thing.Guess who wins the slogging match? RIGHT, the Norsemen and Banderas, fighting the enemy together, drenched in blood. The Vikings were pretty destructive when you get right down to it but they left us a few souvenirs -- "skiff", "shirt," "Thursday", "Friday," and so on.