Stephen Holden's opinion on The 13th Warrior seems to be split. He acknowledges the excitement and amusement to be had from this bloodbath of a movie, but also admits that it has a rather shallow plot. I agree with
his review at the New York Times on the whole, but I must give the movie more credit.
John McTiernan, the director, obviously did not pay much attention to the plot of the film nearly as much as he did to the sets, costumes, and props. The audience, as far asI can see, is merely meant to be shocked half the time and fascinated yet confused the other half. This prevents the audience from forming criticisms of the movie, as they are too caught up in the moment. The fascination is upheld by a rather fragile stereotype of Norse warriors and culture. Again, the audience is too caught up in the bloodbath to begin to criticize the plot. Stephen Holden does not realize this, however, and bashes the movie for its plot when the purpose of the movie is obviously not supposed to have a deeply intriguing mystery that forces the audience to question the basis of their existence. For this, he gives the movie a rank of 50%; very mediocre. This is because it did not excel in what he wanted it to excel, despite that it never intended to in the first place. He calls the movie bland and the intense gore and battles - the heart of the movie - too obnoxious to allow the plot to shine through:
"Beneath the roars and growls and surging fanfares, there's a tale to be told, although I dare you to piece it together given the monosyllabic screenplay, much of which is swallowed up by the engulfing noise."
Despite this rather shallow but amusing plot lie some rather clever and amusing bits of movie-making. For example, when Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan, played by Antonio Banderas, stays the first night with the Norse warriors, he does not understand their language. He sits to the side of their merrymaking, slowly learning their language and McTiernan shows this to us by halting the subtitles and making the Norse warriors' voices slowly turn to English. This scene is not from Ahmed's point of view, but we also grow to understand the language alongside him. A very interesting and clever sequence, and McTiernan should be given credit for it. However, Holden merely dismisses this as a bland sequence:
"In these early scenes, the movie makes much of the fact that Ahmed, who speaks English, can't understand the language of his fellow warriors. But once he masters it, presto: everyone suddenly speaks English, and Banderas, with his heavy Spanish accent, becomes the movie's least articulate character."
All in all, I don't consider The 13th Warrior to necessarily be an epic, stunningly well-made movie, but it does what it is meant to do. It shocks and intrigues the audience, captivating them, making them ignore the shallowness of the plot. Having some clever sequences and overall being a well-made movie, I would personally rate The 13th Warrior to be about a 75. Stephen Holden ignores the purpose of the movie, and that is why his review is unjustly critical.
