"2016 Russian movie 'The Viking' short review" Topic

The Martian Crossing at Ashport Landing.

May 23, 1914. In the predawn hours the Martians launch their largest attack along the Mississippi front. Taking advantage of the night and fog the main attack falls on Memphis. Supporting attacks are launched north and south of Memphis. On such place is Ashport , Tennessee. Ashport was a small riverside collection of buildings on the Mississippi flood plain situated between two large forests to the north and south. The Corp of Engineers recognized the area as a natural crossing point and begin to fortify the area in late 1913 with trenches, gun emplacements, followed by Bixby Barricades, and more recently electrified barriers and search lights. The defensive belt is set back from the river to avoid Martian black dust attacks and to take advantage of the concealment of the wooded river bank.

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I have been curious to see this movie for a while:

YouTube link

I finally saw a version for sale on ebay with English subtitles so picked it up. It is a fairly historical telling of the life of Vladimir the Great, the Russian prince (958-1015) who converted from paganism to Christianity. Here is some info on the making of the movie (3rd most expensive Russian film) and info on Vladimir the Great:

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I loved the images in the preview, they looked just like what I pictured early Rus and pagan Vikings to look, and the battle scenes looked better than usual. Plus it has Byzantines, Pechenegs, berserkers, sieges, and an auroch hunting scene. Some of the images really caught my imagination like the mounted warriors bursting out of the snow-covered trees, the pagan priest worshiping the wooden totems, the battle between mounted steppe warriors and Rus on foot etc. Overall I thought the movie was worth it – some of the visuals are great, and it does follow the historical record (death of Fedor, how Vlad got his first wife, etc.) but the ending was a little anticlimactic (I was hoping for a big final battle scene but the ship thing was a little hard to believe – trying not to give anything away) – and the last quarter of the movie where Vlad converts to Christianity really slows the movie down. Also the subtitles were terrible – spelling errors, strange grammar, some flashed by so fast I had to rewind and play the scene over a couple times to read them. So overall I gave it a B- – great visuals but I had high hopes for this movie and I was a little let down.

I do want to find a 25mm figure of that pagan priest though.

auction

Bug.

Two great threads, though!

Doug

Thanks for the review. Was looking at this earlier this week and couldn't decide whether to get it or not. Have something more to think about now.

Yes, Vikings and Martians!

I forgot to mention that unless I missed something, not all the scenes in the previews are actually in the movie. And it would help if you are familiar with the history of Vladimir and Russia during that period of time before watching the movie, so you know who Vlad's brothers are, the rivalry between them, etc. After about the first 30 minutes, I stopped the movie to read up on the history and that helped a lot – the subtitles don't really give you the whole story.

Two good posts for the price of one!

Bargain city!