Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Guy Stockwell nailed the Norman knight characterization, and should have won nominations for it. Eleventh-century knighthood was not of the 'shining armor' sort. They were extra sons, trained for war but with plenty to do between battles. Basically, they were aristocratic bikers, arrogant and exceptional, often despoiling the countryside. Draco as an 'I want it now' bully perfectly captures this mentality. His character reflects that of an actual younger brother who really screwed up things. In 1066 Tosti Godwinson convinced the King of Norway, a 7' Viking, to attack England. He did and lost to King Harold, but Harold then lost to the Normans exemplified by Draco far more than Crysagon.

It is very difficult to make a film set during the feudal era. After all, studios do want to make money and the lack of flash involving a story of common folk is a hard sell. Now it IS possible to make an exciting film about Medieval life--"The Vikings" (1958) is a great example as are pageantry films like "Ivanhoe" and "Robin Hood". But in general, the life of most during this period in history was pretty ordinary. There are no explosions, colors are muted and haircuts pretty bad (just look at Charlton Heston in this film)--and it takes real creativity to make an exciting film about this era--especially when "The War Lord" lacks the wild story elements of these other films. So, I had relatively low expectations for "The War Lord"--as making an engaging story would be an uphill battle.The film begins with Heston playing a favored knight working for a Duke in Norman Europe (modern day northwestern France). Heston's job as the new lord is to go into a godforsaken part of the kingdom and set to rebuilding its castle and restoring the Duke's authority. It seems that the old knight in charge of the region was remiss in his duties and the land fell into ruin. By saying 'remiss', I mean the guy was more interested in despoiling the local maidens and not much else and let the locals practice their old pagan ways! As for Heston's men, they, too, seem mostly interested in raping the local lasses. As for Heston, he's an enigma. Although he condemns such activities, when he meets up with a local lady about to be ravished, he's not exactly chaste--as he stands there staring at her nudity. And, through the course of the film, he seems almost 'bewitched' by this woman--though she doesn't seem to encourage him. The main theme of the film seems to be the clash between traditional values--paganism versus Christianity. Although the folks say they are good Christians, they retain many old ways. And, Heston is not exactly a bastion of Christian goodness, as through the course of the film he loses his moral compass. Eventually, he seems bent on exercising the feudal right of a lord to sleep with a virgin on her wedding night ("droit du seigneur"). I did some research on this right and apparently there really isn't any historical proof that such a privilege ever existed--especially since it would be hard to reconcile this with the teachings of the Church (of course, MANY behaviors by the nobles violated Biblical teaching during this time period--the whole 'thou shalt not kill' thing was pretty much ignored). The film might irritate some, as when Heston does exercise this probably fictional right, the fair lass was quite willing. This might tend to promote the old rape myth--the one that says women protest but they WANT to be ravished by a man who won't take no for an answer. It irritated me more for it promoting bad history (in regard to the supposed right) but in some other ways it was excellent history. Knights did pretty much bully the serfs and Heston's men wanting to do as they pleased to the poor folk was very possible. And, although the film was a bit slow, it did show life for the lower ranks of the nobility--a group pretty much ignored in other films. But I couldn't look past that the film was not particularly enjoyable or interesting--thank goodness at least it had a battle near the end to add some excitement. And, I am sure, at the time the film wasn't much of a success because of this.Some low-lights of the film would include Maurice Evans' character. This priest was VERY confusing--very pagan AND very Christian at the same time! He just didn't make much sense. Nor, now that I think about it, did the actions of Heston, the hot lady (Rosemary Forsyth) or many of the other characters.The highlights, at least for me, included a nearly naked Heston fighting against the evil Frisians--and shoving fire in the guy's face! It was cool...and a bit funny. And, seeing the boiling oil tossed on the Frisians near the end was pretty exciting...in a low-brow sort of way.As for me, I still prefer "The Vikings" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". In fact, repeatedly through the latter portion of the film I kept expecting to see the Trojan Rabbit or hear Heston tell his men "fetchez the vache".

I was a little kid seeing this in the theatres for the first time and I remember that before the credits ran Heston and Forsyth did a little introductory summary about the middle ages speaking directly to the audience. I can't remember exactly, but I think they also addressed the issue of the violence in the movie - which by today's standards is pretty mellow. It seems to me they talked about it as adding credibility to the film in terms of historical content. When does that happen anymore? I don't know if it's included in the DVD but it would be cool. I also think Franklin Shaffner was a wonderful director. No slop. No unnecessary scenes. And as good as Heston is, the performance that blew me away was given by Guy Stockwell. Oh my god. How was his brother Dean more visible in the industry? I don't know. And of course Richard Boone was terrific - especially in his last tender scene comforting Heston - the son he never had. I usually hesitate watching movies that I saw as a child because I don't want to lose the special feeling they gave me as a child, but this one certainly retains the romanticism and excitement found in a few other movies such as Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Samson and Delilah, and Demetrius and the Gladiators. Definitely an "A".

About the film, in my opinion is the better medieval film ever done. Original film track was long about three hours, but Universal has deleted a lot of scenes, part of them replacing with battle's scenes filmed by another Film Director. If film was long three hours, suck as "Ben Hur", can be better famous. The war lord tower was build with very accuracy, matching true Norman's epocal towers. I'm want tell about the warlord tower. Many people ignore than the War Lord tower do not longer exists. Was shut down in 2001 and replaced by HUGLE, TERRIFIC AND STUPID water-rocket for kids. It's a very horrible end story of a great medieval tower, replaced by plastic insignificant object.