I attended a screening of THE VIKING last evening at the Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Yes, the 2-strip Technicolor is lovely, and I agree with one of the other reviewers here who stated that the muted colors serve to emphasize the film's setting in the distant past. However, if you're expecting any degree of historical authenticity, forget about it.
Anyone who knows something about Viking history, including the figures of King Olaf of Norway, Leif Ericsson, and Eric the Red, will have to work hard to suspend disbelief. The story is preposterous, the costumes straight out of 19th-century productions of Wagner's RING cycle, and the synchronized soundtrack also depends heavily on Wagner's music for many of the film's themes. In this sense, the film is very much a product of 1928 and the way the Viking era was envisioned in the popular imagination and by film-makers of the time.
The standout performer here is Pauline Starke as Helga, who with her flowing blonde hair, perfectly chiseled cheekbones and Nordic facial characteristics, is the living personification of Arthur Rackham's drawings of Brunnhilde and the other Valkyries. She of course is accompanied by Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" on the soundtrack every time she approaches a horse. Helga finds herself in a love quandary as the object of desire of not two but three men. Starke is a compelling performer, steely-eyed and fierce as nails, but also soft and ravishing.
This is a film that I am hard-pressed to recommend, because I can't get past the absurdity of its story. Yet for those who can accept it on its own terms, it is indeed a lovely film, and even oddly fascinating in the sort of way that bad films can sometimes become cult classics.
Anyone who knows something about Viking history, including the figures of King Olaf of Norway, Leif Ericsson, and Eric the Red, will have to work hard to suspend disbelief. The story is preposterous, the costumes straight out of 19th-century productions of Wagner's RING cycle, and the synchronized soundtrack also depends heavily on Wagner's music for many of the film's themes. In this sense, the film is very much a product of 1928 and the way the Viking era was envisioned in the popular imagination and by film-makers of the time.
The standout performer here is Pauline Starke as Helga, who with her flowing blonde hair, perfectly chiseled cheekbones and Nordic facial characteristics, is the living personification of Arthur Rackham's drawings of Brunnhilde and the other Valkyries. She of course is accompanied by Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" on the soundtrack every time she approaches a horse. Helga finds herself in a love quandary as the object of desire of not two but three men. Starke is a compelling performer, steely-eyed and fierce as nails, but also soft and ravishing.
This is a film that I am hard-pressed to recommend, because I can't get past the absurdity of its story. Yet for those who can accept it on its own terms, it is indeed a lovely film, and even oddly fascinating in the sort of way that bad films can sometimes become cult classics.