Rating: 
Summary: Gotta love it!
Review: My family and I are great fans of 'old' historic epics like 'Cleopatra', 'Ben Hur', 'The Ten Commandments', 'Spartacus' and so many more. When I recently found 'The Vikings' I knew I had to add it to our collection.I was amazed at the beautiful scenery and the authenticity which was portrayed in this movie. They even used real Viking horses, for crying out loud! Yes, the story line is fairly predictable, but the action is superb, and the characters will win your heart in about a nano-second. Toward the end I told my kids, 'I honestly don't know which side to root for!' One of my daughters asked, 'Why don't they make this kind of movie today?' I told her they do, just generally speaking they aren't the kind that's fit for family viewing. 'The Vikings' is great for young and old alike. I am happy it's joined our collection.
Rating:
Summary: "Talk to me when you're more drunk or more sober"
Review: This flick is good fun. There is a real sense of Viking spirit in the mood of the movie. The actors are lively, the dialog is sharp and the action is full-hearted and fierce. Pretty much everything you would want from a classic Viking epic. Expect no realism here. The Vikings and the English speak with a variety of accents, mostly American with a smap of other's thrown in. While I have heard that the art direction is authentic, the battles themselves are heavy on the cheese, with rubber arrows and spears never quite hitting their targets, and mighty rocks flung from catapults bouncing merrily off of Viking heads and shields. The exception to this is the final duel between Einar and Eric, which is suspenseful and dangerous. A classic Hollywood duel. However, suspend your disbelief, put aside your cynicism, and "The Vikings" is a good time to be had. Lively music, on-location scenery and a cast of actors having a good time. There are times when one is in the mood for a flick like this, a 50's popcorn epic with swords, ladies and brawling adventure. "The Vikings" will not disappoint.
Rating: 
Summary: INCREDIBLE
Review: My mom bought this film for me even though I did not want to see it and I was blown away! Absolutely incredible! The picture quality has to be seen to be believed. The sound too. The location shootings are out of our world and back in time. The movie is acurate as can be! The music score is in terms of style right out of Wagner's "Die Walkure." Incredible. Very few movies have made me laugh giddy and this is one of them. Highly reccomended. Enjoy. If you'll excuse me, I am going to watch it again
Rating:
Summary: Great Fifties Vikings Tale!
Review: Ah, a personal wish fulfilled is the re-issuing of this film onto the DVD format. Although I have long had the older VHS version of this classic fifties romantic sword and sorcery trendsetter, I was recently amused to find it now listed in the DVD catalogue. Odin be praised! This was a formative film in my childhood, a monstrously popular box office hit that had all of us pre-adolescents entertaining ourselves for months clashing in back yards using make-shift stick swords and purloined garbage-can covers for shields as we fought out our own imagined action sequences. Indeed, everything about this film is attractive and appealing; the wonderfully photographed sequences along the fjords, the jaunty and majestic music, and the quite authentic long ships and settings. The cast adds to the fun with a star-packed line-up. Kirk Douglas looks appropriately Nordic (neat trick for the son of Russian Jewish immigrants), and more than acts out the part of the Viking prince, Einar, the eldest son and heir to the barbarian legacy of his outrageously roguish father, Ragnar, played masterfully by a full-bearded Ernest Borgnine. Tony Curtis adds a little blue-eyed soul to the cast as the star-crossed illegitimate heir to the English throne, and the quite lovely Janet Leigh (who at the time was Mrs. Tony Curtis) is the prized after English princess both the male principals have the urge to merge with. The scenes inside the Viking lodges are hilarious; the sequences in which a drunken Douglas has to successfully cut off a lover's braids from twenty yards with a battle axe without decapitating the lady in question to prove she wasn't unfaithful is spell-binding to experience. Terrific vicarious excitement for all of us overgrown kids in the audience. The bottom line is that although none of it makes a whole lot of sense, just remember; we're talking serious action-adventure here! It is deliciously exciting fun and gives full disclosure of all the rowdy Viking boys having a rousing good time raiding, raping and pillaging, robbing and sinking other ships and finally storming a castle. And we find ourselves going along for the ride. Why not? The cinematography is superb, as is the musical score. Although not terribly accurate historically, the film does give us an intriguing look at primitive lifestyles in terms of different cultures cohabiting not so peacefully in the north Atlantic long ago, circa the fourteenth century or so. It is a great way to spend a couple of hours being entertained by some real Hollywood masters of the genre. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: A Classic Action Adventure Film
Review: It's hard to believe that this film was made in 1958, particularly when viewing the beautiful DVD. The film was shot on location in Norway and the cinematography is simply spectacular. The sweeping vistas, the recreation of a Viking village and the magnificent long ships all add to the rich fabric of this film. The acting is a little bit "pushed", but that was typical for its day. Simply a great classic MGM film with classic actors.
Rating:
Summary: Goofy but beautifully photographed-good entertainment
Review: Kirk Douglas never looked so virile, running the oars, kissing and grabbing up all the girls, tearing around on horseback, flinging axes and all with such gusto; Hamming it up way over the top! And the threat of rape is constant for any woman in proximity (especially Janet Leigh)as Kirk is fairly well ready to explode with libido. Douglas is supposed to be the son of Viking leader Ernie Borgnine who probably wasn't any older than Kirk (who looks like a 45 year-old playing a 20 year-old), but the grey beard contrasts nicely with Kirk's blonde wig. Tony Curtis never looked so sullen as the slave who's really a king, getting taunted, threatened and pushed around by Douglas until the last act. This was probably not his favorite role. Janet Leigh doesn't have much to do except look good and kiss Tony Curtis. Her scenes with him are awkward to say the least-mostly because of the unintentionally funny dialogue. The whole story is totally preposterous, but the action-packed, music filled, color saturated presentation is quite spectacular. BIG bucks were spent here and it shows. Jack Cardiff, who recently won a lifetime achievement award from the AFI, has never been better, with so many awesome shots and sweeping vistas; filling the screen with great images. The picture quality of the DVD is remarkable. The soundtrack is only in mono but very clear. You'll laugh and scratch your head in disbelief at some of the goofy stuff in this movie, but its all very entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Vikings with American accents
Review: I first saw this movie on the big screen when it first came out. The tune that plays in the background and on the large Viking horn stuck with me for years. Since this as a young lad this has always been my first impression of Vikings.
As the story unfolds you get the impression that the Vikings are the civilized people and the English are the barbarians. The Vikings sound American and the English sound, well English. The story contains all the elements of a tragic play. Relatives that do not know they are and rivalry for beauty (Janet Leigh). Pay close attention to the fact that there is only one scene with blood in it and that is when a hawk attacks Einar. There is absolutely no more blood so don't look for it. There are plenty of scary moments and magic and "stay in the car" type scenes. All in all you will be impressed. The DVD, being economical, you would not expect any DVD goodies (Extras); However there is a Photo gallery with audio commentary by Director Richard Fleischer. That makes the movie more enjoyable. He explains some thing about the technical end of the movie and the actors' lives during the movie. Most of all he tried to make the Vikings themselves look as authentic as possible.
Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous Fun
Review: It was hard choosing between four and five stars, because while this isn't a perfect movie, it's absolutely perfect for what it is: a glorious Saturday matinee experience that's as much fun now as it was when it inspired all the neighborhood kids to play Vikings. It's a movie that feeds the imagination, whether you're a child imagining you're dancing on the oars, or an adult imagining... well, it's still a very sexy movie, from an era that didn't show all but definitely knew the meaning of the word "lusty." (Einar may not be politically correct, but... wow!) The characters are larger than life; the cinematography brilliant (capturing not just the gorgeous shots of the fjords, but the eery menace of Viking ships emerging from the fog, the moonlit tidal pool, and a funeral to die for); and the music so heart-stoppingly beautiful I have never forgotten it. And the silliness (not to mention Janet Leigh's bodice) is just part of the fun, so don't worry about the 13th-century castle. (What would that climactic duel have been atop a mere wooden palisade?) Just sit back and enjoy it to the hilt!
Rating:
Summary: The Vikings-A Triumphant Return
Review: This movie was out of circulation for years. As an Academy Award winner it is replete with gorgeous nordic scenery that in my mind makes it ideal for DVD. My only disappointment is that the audio is not in DD 5.1.
Rating:
Summary: forget the latest flicks, stick to goodies-oldies
Review: This movie helped me to cancel awful aftertaste left by most recent "swashbuckling blockbusters" aka latest lousy Hollywood flicks. This one is one of the most historically accurate, authentic films known to me. No blue screen, no small pool in Southern Cali playing the whole Pacific Ocean, no gaping errors in details. Shot in true Nordic fjords, and the whole crew endured all hardships of working in the middle of nowhere. Great team. Actors eager to deliver the best they could (Mr. Douglas actually did the ore-running routing himself, fell into the freezing water and laughed at it), the camerawork left me speechless then in 60s and again now. Every single frame looks like a complete classical oil painting worth to be put in a museum. Eve-ry sin-gle frame, that's right, and thanks to the DVD technology so you can actually stop the frame now and enjoy its fullest. Frame-by frame also reveals beautiful, from the depth of the heart quality acting, can't hide that with the DVD. Good storyline, crisp, clear, engaging, no jumping bull subplots. Great music. Watch this and try some Gladiator or something right after. Not. It may make you nauseous. I am boycotting the movie theatres until them folks in Hollywood shed off their laziness and start making movies like Vikings again.
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