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Very disappointing...

There are women in the film, but none has anything you could call a personality.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

"The Viking" is a very old fashioned film, though at the time audiences must how been wowed since it was made using the Two-Strip Technicolor process. This created color...of a sort. These films tend to actually looks more green-orange because those are the two colors that are overlayed to create a sort of color look. However, while other studios were converting to sound, MGM chose to make this epic as a silent--which, along with the rest of the film, is pretty old fashioned in its view of Vikings.True Vikings did not wear the horned-helmets or hawk winged helmets you see throughout this movie. Their costumes also were far more practical than the silly outfits worn in "The Viking". What gives? Well, the costume designer actually was designing vikings according to how Wagnerian operas portrayed them. It was 100% wrong--but fit the image that Wagner was trying to create in his crazy operas. So, the film is sort of like a Wagner story without the music!As for the story, it's actually seemingly true in some ways. Eric the Red really did have a son named Leif who apparently was among the first white folks in North America. Interestingly, however, back in the 1920s. That's because the only 'proof' of this voyage were the Viking sagas--stories sung to celebrate the feats of the Vikings but have no real proof to them. This proof did not come until more recent years when Norwegian expeditions were able to find some artifacts in Canada that must have been brought by Vikings.So is the film any good? Well, the plot involving a captured slave who captures the heart of a Viking girl is pretty silly. The part about Ericsson and his voyage is a bit more exciting however, and makes up, a bit for the silly romance and dumb costumes.Overall I say you'd be much better off watching the 1958 film "The Vikings". It's more historically accurate, much more exciting and has just about everything you could want in such a film.

I enjoyed this fun movie and for the most part it was historically correct until the ending. SPOILER: The Vikings did NOT build the stone tower in Rhode Island which was built in 1700s. Proof of the Viking settlement came in 1960 (over 30 years after movie, 1928). Archaeological diggings of Vikings were found at northern tip of Newfoundland, Canada, at a now famous site called "L'Anse aux Meadows". Viking voyage to Newfoundland was in year 1,000 AD approx. After several years fighting with Indians and almost freezing to death, the Vikings gave up their North America venture. I saw Viking tools a few years ago on display in museum in St.John's in Newfoundland. SPOILER - there is no evidence that Vikings wore horns on their heads (although Helga makes a fashion statement with her head-dress). As Hitchcock famously said over a mistake an actor made - "it's only a movie".

The distinction of being the first all-Technicolor feature can't save this silent melodrama from being the tongue-in-cheek relic it now is, but of course there hasn't yet been a Viking saga made that was able to avoid the booby-trap of built-in silliness. Even so, this tempestuous (and ridiculous) Norse romance stretches credibility to the limit, boldly revising history to introduce Lucky Leif Eriksson as an early disciple of Christianity, defying his father's pagan beliefs and planting the cross of Jesus on the shores of a New World (said to be Rhode Island), where he promptly begins converting the natives to the One True Faith. Somehow the textbooks not only missed this fact, but also overlooked the passionate love quadrangle between Leif, a beautiful young Valkurie he secretly loves, a handsome young English slave, and a sinister sea captain. The novelty of color was not enough to turn audiences away from the far richer treasures of black and white film; like 3D in later decades, color was not, in the 1920s, something to be regarded seriously, and on the evidence of lively hooters like The Viking it's easy to see why.

"A thousand years ago, long before any white man set foot on the American shore, Viking sea rovers sailed out of the north and down the waterways of the world." "These were men of might, who laughed in the teeth of the tempest, and leaped into battle with a song." "Plundering - ravaging - they raided the coast of Europe - until the whole world trembled at the very name… "THE VIKINGS!" "Looking out upon the North Sea from the cliffs of England, stood the castle of young Lord Alwin, Earl of Northunbria." Here, good-looking young LeRoy Mason (as Alwin) and his subjects hope their Christian faith will protect them from Viking marauders - but the Lord has other plans for this group (and, you'll know what God has in mind when you see the placement of Christian crosses in North America). The looting and killing Vikings ravage Mr. Mason's English castle. Valuables are taken to Norway, where able-bodied men and women are sold into slavery. Mason is purchased, for three pieces of silver, by beautiful red-haired "sea rover" Pauline Starke (as Helga Nilsson). The comely Viking lass is obviously buying slave Mason with sexual pleasures in mind, and throws him some lusty looks. Mason proves to be too spirited and independent for Ms. Starke to control, and he is given to guardian Donald Crisp (as Leif Ericsson), the famed Viking leader. A courageous Christian-converted warrior, Mr. Crisp hopes to claim Starke as his bride. But, handsome Harry Lewis Woods (as Egil the Black) is also in love with Starke. This love quadrangle goes on Crisp's great seafaring adventure to discover, and claim, the "New World" for European conquerors - at the risk of falling off the edge of what they thought might be a very flat Earth. "The Viking" (it should have been titled "The Vikings") is briskly directed by R. William Neill, with moderate action throughout. Either he or Starke should be complimented (or condemned, if you will) for the movement of her character's legs, upon introduction; you don't see this often - and, it's… IN COLOR! Specifically, "Technicolor" - which is this film's mail calling card. While not perfect, the color is strikingly well-preserved. As a bonus, it was made during the "silent film" era, and survives with its original synchronized sound effects score. This level of coloring was painstakingly produced, and was quite expensive. "The Viking" represents a peak in the art of color filmmaking.******** The Viking (11/2/28) Roy William Neill ~ LeRoy Mason, Pauline Starke, Donald Crisp, Harry Woods