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Great Film overall

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Blistering performances.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

In this Viking epic, Richard Widmark plays a Norseman with a talent for telling tall tales. There's a flaw in that plot description, however. Richard Widmark sounds like a cowboy, not a Viking, so how can he convincingly pull off his schemes? He can't. But, for some unknown reason, no one questions his supposed heritage; when he's captured by Prince Sidney Poitier's guards, he tells a tale of a giant golden bell, supposedly worth millions. Sidney agrees to spare his life if he helps him find the bell. Meanwhile, Sidney's wife, Rosanna Schiaffino, is more than frustrated with her husband's lack of intimate interest in her, and with another good-looking man in the picture, she might look elsewhere to get her needs met.While you're busy scratching your head wondering why anyone cast Dick Widmark in a period piece, you'll find out he's not the only unconvincing Viking in the movie. Russ Tamblyn plays his younger brother, who's in love with Bebe Loncar, and both of them are painfully contemporary. The Long Ships gives period pieces a bad name. It's full of expensive sets and costumes, action scenes and supposedly dramatic dialogue, but it's just too ridiculous to be taken seriously. Russ gets to demonstrate his famous acrobatic talents in some of the fight scenes, but you're better off watching Tom Thumb.The only realistic part of the film is actually quite disturbing. In the middle of the night, the Vikings break into the safety of palace. They see dozens of scantily-clad sleeping women and absolutely lose their minds and attack them. The women are screaming, and the men grab incessantly, pulling them offscreen, dragging them to the floor or wherever they can exert their force and have their way. Since the film was made in 1964, nothing besides forced kisses are shown, but it's an extremely upsetting scene since that's probably exactly what happened back then.Even though 1964 was a more liberated film-making era than the previous decade, certain restrictions were still in place. The women's costumes bared their bellybuttons—which was previously a no-no—but their torsos were covered with a flesh-colored mesh so as to not shock the audience. Actually, the men's costumes were much more risqué than the women's! The Vikings were clad in leather tunics, with extremely short shorts underneath. Russ and Dick seemed to be in constant competition as to who could show off their biceps more often and who could wear the shortest Speedo.The bottom line is yes, Richard Widmark is incredibly good-looking, but this is a pretty terrible movie. You don't need to watch it, unless you're having serious beefcake withdrawals.

Although Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier made several movies together in which their chemistry was absolutely great (e.g. "The Bedford Incident" and "No Way Out"), "The Long Ships" is not one of them. Their use of 1960's colloquial American phrases in the dialog just made it unbearable and the acting seemed second rate. Widmark seemed more like a Bronx hood than a viking and Poitier was an even worse prince of the Moors. While watching the movie, I kept wondering if there was really any point of the plot which start off half way decent and then degraded into silliness. I kept asking myself "How did that happen if this had happened?". For example, they had to pass through a maelstrom to get to their destination: this was an absolute must, there was no other way. However, on their return journey, all weighed down with booty, they did not have to pass back through the maelstrom. Why didn't they just go around it in the first place? Such mysteries of the universe we will never known, just has how anyone could rate this movie more than 1 out of 10 ;)

Someone at Amazon already took the title line I wanted to use; "Viking ... where is the bell."I saw this film with a bunch of friends many many years ago, and it was one of the most memorable experiences I ever had. This film is nothing but pure fun the old fashioned way. The preamble mixes and contorts historical periods of all sorts, and makes no apologies for it.Richard Widmark, an interesting choice to play a Viking, plays Rolfe, the wayward Viking master in search of adventure and riches. He is not a hero by any means, but, in my opinion, the quintessential and original anti-hero of the silver screen.The costumes are terrific, the art direction is excellent, the script is nothing but adventure wrapped in old fashioned Hollywood film making. The dialog isn't bad, but it's memorable, again in a Golden-Era Hollywood kind of way. Feats of daring, obsession, religious fanaticism, collision of societies; the rugged boorish barbaric Norse bring their Nordic ways to the civilized and technologically advanced Moorish coast of North Africa.We go from the streets of Islam to the fjords of a thawed north, back to the sea, the beach and beyond.This is high adventure. One could call it "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" during the so called dark ages. Sword and steel, sail and sailors, guile and wit and military prowess, sprinkled in with wit and a desire on everyone's part to get the ultimate prize.And that's the real charm of the film. Everyone wants one thing. They're obsessed with it, and will stop at nothing to gain it. In the meantime we're with Rolfe as he dares one escape to the next.The sets are impressive, as are the overall production values. This is grand film making at its absolute classic best.Again, no deep messages. No angst ridden characters. No one is hiding any secrets here. Oh sure, they play fast and loose with the rules when dealing with one another. They fight, they drink, they have let their spirits soar as they challenge one another, fight, laugh and play.There's not much more to say about this film. It truly is my favorite. Watch it and have fun as you revel in classic commercial film making :)Enjoy!

Although as 'old' as 20 when I saw this film I still was, still am, a sucker for action and adventure. I can forgive a lot and often find that re-watching old films, often made on wobbly budgets, continually enlightening. I find that films that I was dismissive of, on first viewing, now stand stronger in the light of more recent 'works'. I occasionally re-watch 'The Long Ships' in hope, as it should be the sort of film I love. It is not. I rate Cardiff as one of the top cinematographers, but not necessarily as a director. I like colour and light.(e.g. 'Tremors'rather than 'things' in two thirds darkness). There is colour and light in 'The Longships' so it is not that which turns me off. It does not have the excuse of a low budget. I enjoyed Widmark in The Alamo, Warlock and The Law and Jake Wade, Russ Tamblyn in Seven Brothers and West Side Story. I had not seen much of Sydney Potier as I recall, A Man Is Ten Feet Tall (Edge of a City). The cast were experienced, as a whole. The second unit and fight arranging are a bit wobbly but often were and are. Even Sidney Potier said "To say it was disastrous is a compliment" It works against the problem that I had read the book, something like 500 pages, from which The Longships takes a side story of about a page and a half and couple of incidents. The Film could be much shorter if it was just a 'romp'. The problem is that it is patched together, much like current UK Government policy, a few ostentatious high spots stuck together with 'spin'. They had the means and makings of a much better film, not just something that gets away with it because it is 'fun'. So why did they not make a better film. In the older 'Halliwells' film guides the late Leslie Halliwell frequently questioned the motives for making certain such films. These comments are now edited out of more recent editions since Halliwells untimely death.(Strangely the same has happened to details of other persons untimely deaths, removed from the pages of the 'Guides')Allen's (Warwick Avilla) films, like those produced by Lew Grade and Columbia often involved filming in the then Soviet bloc and featured casts of overtly 'Left Wing' affiliations (Why did Peter Finch 'just happen' to be on the set of The First Men on the Moon and play {uncredited) the 'Process Server'?). If you are a seeker of truth check some of these out. You may find it more fun than 'The DaVinci Code' or The Long Ships'.