Erik the Viking Movie Review

First things first: Terry Jones' Erik the Viking is not a Monty Python film. In fact, only two Pythons appear in it at all.

The film is based on Jones' own children's stories, about vikings living in the dark, war-torn age of Ragnarok. Fed up with all the killing and looting, Erik (a not-so-famous Tim Robbins) leads his villagemates on a quest across the sea to find Valhalla, which involves a magical horn, the edge of the world, an island with no violence (which is a problem for vikings), and of course the usual pillager vandal types on their tale.

In its day, Erik the Viking wasn't much of a hit. The source material doesn't fit together all that well, resulting in a haphazard, rambling, and messy plot. For this DVD--the "director's son's cut" (which is true; Jones's son re-edited the film)--the original 100-minute version has been chopped down to 77. It doesn't make any more sense than before, but it does at least zip by at a breakneck pace, making the film more fun than ever.

While not a mainstream success, the movie was and remains a bit of a cult classic thanks to its Pythonish heritage. It isn't a classic by any means, but a collectiton of great one-liners ("Scary, scary, don't we look mean!") have really endured. I'd long forgotten that a number of lines I frequently quote to this day had actually originated in this film, nearly 20 years ago. Now that's staying power.

The new DVD includes a commentary track, a making-of featurette from '89, and a new featurette about the heavy re-editing the movie underwent for the 2008 release.