Review of Erik The Viking (Special Edition)

Introduction

It is the age of Ragnarok. It`s a bit dark and a bit gloomy, so the Vikings do what they do best; rape, pillage and plunder. This works really well for years, until Erik The Viking (Tim Robbins) comes across the nagging but beautiful Helga (Samantha Bond) who he really likes but doesn`t really feel like raping. Instead he tries to engage her in intellectual conversation, which ends tragically when he kills her. Ouch.

Back in the fjords, not doubt after pining for them, Erik is more depressed when all his fellow Vikings do is eat, drink and fight amongst themselves. This depression comes to a head when his friends Thorfin Skullsplitter (Richard Ridings) and Sven the Beserk (Tim McInnery) decide to fight to the death when Thorfin accuses Sven`s grandfather of dying of old age.

Erik seeks guidance from old witch type person Freya (Eartha Kitt) who persuades Erik to lead an expedition to find the Horn Resounding at a mythical place called Hy-Brasil. Erik must find the Horn Resounding and blow into it three times. The first note will take his expedition to Asgard, the Hall of the Gods. The second will awaken the Gods. The third note will return them home.

Seeking to stop Erik in his quest is Halfdan The Black (John Cleese), a local warlord who insists on killing anyone unable to pay tax, egged on by assistant blacksmith Loki (Anthony Sher) who sees the end of the age of Ragnarok as bad business for blacksmiths.

After some minor escapades with dragons and such, the band of Vikings make it to Hy-Brasil, where Erik meets Aud (Imogen Stubbs). Aud is the daughter of King Arnulf (Terry Jones), leader of a non-melodious people who are all incredibly nice to each other. Not that they have a choice. One drop of blood shed by a sword will cause their land to sink into the sea.

Oh, and here comes Halfdan again…

Video

Picture is in pretty good shape, but the FX do look a little dated. Not that impressed with the Dragon of the North some 17 years on, and some of the blue screen stuff looks badly done now and the road leading to the Hall of the Gods looks naff, quite frankly.

Audio

Nothing that will test your speaker setup to the max, but the main feature is subtitled.

Features

Interview with Terry and Bill Jones - short interview on making the `Director`s Sons Cut` (as Terry refers to it…) with father and son interviewed separately for some reason even though they`re in the same room.

Picture Gallery - automated stills from the film.

Original UK Version - yep, the full version is here on Disc 2.

Commentary - available for both films, listened to some of one - didn`t see the point of listening to another commentary on a film that, let`s face it, isn`t that different…

Making Of - nice featurette that lasts a good half hour and is a period piece rather than one made now looking back.

Featurettes - On disc 2, but seems Arrow Films really ran out of ideas for this disc for although there are about 6 featurettes to watch, they`re just cut directly from the Making Of. Got bored after the 2nd one, watched the last one to see if there was anything different - there wasn`t.

Extended interviews - elongated interviews with John Cleese, Terry Jones, etc from the Making Of featurette. This footage wasn`t included in the Making Of but only lasts about a minute per interviewee anyway, and the Cleese interview only bangs on more about whether the Python team will ever work together as a whole again. *yawn*

Conclusion

I remember watching this in my early twenties and laughing my head off (I think), so I was looking forward to watching this again. Something, however, has changed. It`s fair to say I came away this time suitably disappointed and unimpressed by the whole thing. Not really sure what caused this, other than maybe I`ve grown up a bit in the meantime. But it must be more than that as there are still things that I find childishly funny (see my last review Better Off Dead for instance).

The only thing I really remembered before watching this was the opening discussion between Tim Robbins and Samantha Bond, but I`d forgotten what an awful nagging voice Bond used. My only surprise was that he killed her accidently. How did he fall in love with her? I really like Samantha Bond, but this role is a million miles away from the sophisticated roles I`m more used to seeing her in.

I just found the whole thing quite rushed, and good ideas not expanded upon. On top of that I found the attempts at pythonesque humour in the script a little forced and Terry Jones comedy voice to just be more irritating than normal. It`s all about context I think. The whole thing now just feels disjointed and I think I`d rather fondly remember this in some blinkered rose-tinted glasses than have my memories tarnished by this fresh chance to look at it again.

I`m really not sure if I should pick up Time Bandits now as I don`t think I could handle another crushing disappointment…