Oh dear , take a look at the production values in the opening scene of THE WAR LORD . We see location long shots of the characters with their backs to camera so we can`t see their faces then cut to a medium shot of Charlton Heston and co standing against back projection . This happens throughout the movie with shots of characters in long shot ( And who are obvious stand ins for the big name actors ) to jarring cuts of Chuck and company standing in front of studio sets or back projection or indeed stock footage of wild life. It`s very annoying and oh so obvious
There`s several things that don`t go together . One is Arabs and nuclear reactors , another is Steven Seagal and celluloid , but perhaps the two things that should never combine is American accents and ye olde world dialogue . Richard Boone especially is totally unconvincing as an 11th century warrior while Chuck is ... well he`s Charlton Heston , a man who shouts and has a strange looking hairstyle . I don`t believe people looked or spoke like this in Normandy
But what the hell , this is a Hollywood movie and Hollywood shows us what it`s been doing best for decades : ignoring historical facts , giving us good guys and bad guys , a bit of romance and most of all - action . Despite the rather pondering nature of the script and the patchey production values the last third of the movie is taken up with some very impressive battle scenes as the bad guys try to storm the good guys castle . Okay we`ve been spoiled rotten recently by Peter Jackson`s LORD OF THE RINGS and THE WAR LORD battle scenes might not seem that good in comparison but please remember this was made in 1965 have must have seemed quite breath taking at the time . Did anyone else feel watching the Vikings trying to burn down the doors that it gave Peter Jackson some inspiration for the battle of Helm`s Deep ? As a footnote to the fight scenes I remember as a young child watching a movie that featured Vikings running about engulfed in flames after attacking a castle . It wasn`t until last week at the grand old age of 37 that I realised while watching it again that the movie that impressed me all those distant years ago was THE WAR LORD , and I wasn`t disappointed seeing the battle sequences again
There`s several things that don`t go together . One is Arabs and nuclear reactors , another is Steven Seagal and celluloid , but perhaps the two things that should never combine is American accents and ye olde world dialogue . Richard Boone especially is totally unconvincing as an 11th century warrior while Chuck is ... well he`s Charlton Heston , a man who shouts and has a strange looking hairstyle . I don`t believe people looked or spoke like this in Normandy
But what the hell , this is a Hollywood movie and Hollywood shows us what it`s been doing best for decades : ignoring historical facts , giving us good guys and bad guys , a bit of romance and most of all - action . Despite the rather pondering nature of the script and the patchey production values the last third of the movie is taken up with some very impressive battle scenes as the bad guys try to storm the good guys castle . Okay we`ve been spoiled rotten recently by Peter Jackson`s LORD OF THE RINGS and THE WAR LORD battle scenes might not seem that good in comparison but please remember this was made in 1965 have must have seemed quite breath taking at the time . Did anyone else feel watching the Vikings trying to burn down the doors that it gave Peter Jackson some inspiration for the battle of Helm`s Deep ? As a footnote to the fight scenes I remember as a young child watching a movie that featured Vikings running about engulfed in flames after attacking a castle . It wasn`t until last week at the grand old age of 37 that I realised while watching it again that the movie that impressed me all those distant years ago was THE WAR LORD , and I wasn`t disappointed seeing the battle sequences again