The Long Ships (1964)

The Long Ships is a fun movie. Richard Widmarck's "Rolfe" could be a medieval ancestor of William H Macy's "Frank Gallagher." Having seen both this and the more serious The Vikings, I prefer The Long Ships. Neither is all that historically accurate, though The Vikings claims to be. The Vikings uses a standard Hollywood romantic subplot which is annoying. But The Long Ships exchanges The Vikings' sober pseudo-accuracy for a sharp sense of fun. While very un-PC, there is no doubt Rolfe and Portier's al Mansur did respect one another and in another time and place might have been great friends. Add a rousing score and great cinematography, and you have a winner--just don't take it too seriously..

Although Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier made several movies together in which their chemistry was absolutely great (e.g. "The Bedford Incident" and "No Way Out"), "The Long Ships" is not one of them. Their use of 1960's colloquial American phrases in the dialog just made it unbearable and the acting seemed second rate. Widmark seemed more like a Bronx hood than a viking and Poitier was an even worse prince of the Moors. While watching the movie, I kept wondering if there was really any point of the plot which start off half way decent and then degraded into silliness. I kept asking myself "How did that happen if this had happened?". For example, they had to pass through a maelstrom to get to their destination: this was an absolute must, there was no other way. However, on their return journey, all weighed down with booty, they did not have to pass back through the maelstrom. Why didn't they just go around it in the first place? Such mysteries of the universe we will never known, just has how anyone could rate this movie more than 1 out of 10 ;)

THE LONG SHIPS may not be the most historically accurate of films - but it sure is a whole lot of fun. The film sees Richard Widmark playing a Viking in search of a legendary golden bell, while Sidney Poitier stars against him as a Moorish prince equally intent on getting said bell for himself.What follows is an often rousing and entertaining adventure filled with all manner of seafaring, scrapes and beautiful women. Jack Cardiff's direction is assured, the music is splendid, and if it ends up as a load of old conkers at the end, then - so what? I found this was one of those film that gets better as it progresses. The opening scenes are a little slow and the characters difficult to get to like, but around the halfway mark things really pick up. Poitier puts his all into the rare bad guy role and Widmark enjoys hamming it with tongue firmly planted in cheek.Things reach a high with an implausible but visually spectacular torture device nicknamed the 'Mare of Steel' which wouldn't be out of place in CALIGULA. They eventually culminate in some splendid pitched battles, the outcome of which will surprise nobody but which scream entertainment value nonetheless.THE LONG SHIPS may not be a classic - but it certainly entertained this viewer.

Every Tale, fable, or legend has a basis in some small fact. In this film called " The Long Ships " we have a Viking reciting a legend which was once told to his people of a great bell which was as high as 'three tall men.' Said to have been created by the monks of Byzantium, in actuality, they had indeed cast one out of solid gold, but was small enough to be handed as a gift to the German emperor, for his personal chapel, during the middle ages. As with most 'fish' stories, the size of the bell grew with each retelling. For this movie, the seekers are Northmen, not Germanic knights as in the original tale. Still, the movie is entertaining enough due to the major stars in it. Here we have, Richard Widmark as Rolfe, a seafaring Viking who is captured by Aly Mansuh, the Moorish prince (Sidney Poitier) who threatens him with torture is he does not reveal its location. Then there is Russ Tamblyn as Orm, his very agile brother and then of course there is international star Oskar Homolka as Krok, who is their father. All in all, a good film, for an otherwise lazy afternoon. ****