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Erik the Viking

6.0

2,575

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Original title

Erik the Viking

Year

1989

Running time

106 min.

Country

United Kingdom

Director

Terry Jones

Screenwriter

Terry Jones

Cast

Music

Neil Innes

Cinematography

Ian Wilson

Producer

Co-production United Kingdom-Sweden;

Prominent Features, Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Genre

Comedy. Adventure. Fantasy | Vikings

Synopsis

Tim Robbins stars as Erik the Viking, a thoughtful man in a violent time who does not enjoy killing and raping like the rest of his people. When he accidentally kills a woman while defending her, he reevaluates his life and goes off in search of the Horn Resounding, which has the power to bring him to his true home--and end the Age of Ragnarok, bringing peace to the kingdom. To get there he has to lead a pathetic group of seasick sailors through the Gates of the World and into sunlight, on their way to Valhalla. But all threatens to come undone when the local blacksmith plots to sabotage the journey to protect his lucrative weapons business. The film includes wonderfully unexpected turns from Mickey Rooney and Eartha Kitt and an especially funny performance by John Cleese as a torturing warlord who enjoys having men killed in myriad creative ways. The film is more similar in tone to Terry Gilliam's JABBERWOCKY than to any of the Monty Python farces.

Critics' reviews

"The idea of telling the story of a Viking warrior who thought there must be more to life than rape and pillage is an amusing one, and for the most part Erik the Viking is an enjoyable film."

Variety Staff: Variety
"Doesn't measure up to the best of the Python films, but it consistently entertains"

Vincent Canby: The New York Times
"A stillborn comedy in which minutes sometimes mysteriously go by between even attempted gags, and in which virtually no comic scene works up to any kind of viable punch line or payoff."

Chris Willman: Los Angeles Times
"'Erik the Viking,' a Wagnerian slapstick fantasy, has the feel of a grown-up bedtime comedy, a gross, sillier 'Princess Bride'."

Rita Kempley: The Washington Post
"An utterly worthless exercise in waste and wretched excess, uninformed by the slightest spark of humor, wit or coherence."

Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times

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User history

Erik the Viking

1989

Terry Jones

6.0

(2,575)