Hey gang, For the Viking movie fans out there, here's a review of a movie you probably never heard of. It's no surprise that Norway has made a few of them (more so than the Swedes), although they are not always very good. I'd say, rarely are they any good. The upcoming Danish movie Valhalla Rising will probably be the first international-quality Viking film made in ages (The Swedish Arn movies dont count, they are medieval epics, not Viking era films). Dragens Fange (Trees Grow on the Stones Too) Norway / Russia, 1985 Directed by Knut Andersen & Stanislav Rostotsky What westerns are for America, Viking films are for Norway. Part of our heritage, one could say. Not that the Vikings did so many cool and wonderful things, but neither did the cowboys and bandits of the wild west. The story starts with a Viking raid in Gardarike (Gardaland), which would later become Russia. A Viking chief and his crew kidnaps a young man, and believe he brings them luck, so they let him live and adopts him as one of their own. When they return to Norway, he falls in love with the local beauty, but she has already been promised to someone else. The whole Viking concept only adds slightly to the entertainment value of this movie. It is so bad in many aspects that you must either be a Viking fan or have a special interest in Norwegian movies to see it. The story is very boring, the actors stiff and woody (except in their physical appearance - quite realistic) and the dialogue is incredibly bad. Some of the words I am sure weren't even used back in the Viking age! I don't really blame the actors - you can't do that with Norwegian films, because their stiffness is a result of the system we have here, with actors from the stage being hired for movies, and both them and the directors often have little film experience. Neither directors on this film had little experience, but as the movie was produced at the end of an era in the Norwegian film industry where social commentary dominated, it seems they couldn't let the movie loose properly; it had to have a political correctness about it. To be fair, the action scenes are not so bad. The sword fights have clever choreography, at least for a movie of this scale. But there isn't enough action to make up for long, dull sequences that could only have been saved by better directing. In the good department, the photography has some nice moments too, with spectacular views of Norwegian fjords, but other than that the movie looks small-scale and cheap. I will keep this movie in my collection, but only because the set design, the longship and the rough ways of the Vikings save a movie that cinematically needs a much better _script_. Rated 2 of 6 Greetings from Glenn Folkvord Chief editor
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