There's certainly no shortage of COWBOYS vs. Indians movies, but this is the only VIKINGS vs. Indians one that I know of. Interesting idea (and not without historical basis), and actually interesting story IMO, albeit admittedly weak on the execution. Lee Majors is a stolid (and arguably wooden) Viking prince ("Lord Thorwald") with a Texas accent ("Us Norse men . . . ) who leads an expedition of frat-boy Vikings in a search for an earlier expedition that went missing. (It turns out that they were blinded and enslaved by the locals when they started to get too close to the latter's women!) Veteran actors Cornel Wilde and Mel Ferrer are on hand, as Lord Thorwald's loyal second and enslaved king/father, respectively. And even young Eric the Red is along for the ride. (In actual history, Eric the Red WAS the son of Thorwald, but neither ever made it to the North American mainland; it was ERIC's son Leif who eventually did so.) And speaking of cowboys, veteran WESTERN actor Jack Elam plays the ship's resident mystic magician, who even has a pet hawk whose claws prove capable of doing some blinding when let loose. Meanwhile, post-Cher Sonny Bono squeeze Susie Coelho is no strain on the eyeballs as a rather fetching young Indian maid who is sympathetic to the Vikings. All in all a not unenjoyable film and one I'm rather fond of. Definitely one that would not make someone feel unfortunate if they encountered it on late-night TV.
Review of The Norseman
