The Viking Sagas (1995)

[karsten]

Here's a film that I would love to get on blu-ray. It's practically unknown, but someone mentioned it in a Facebook group, and it sounded interesting, so I scouted round and did a blind buy for the DVD, and enjoyed it immensely.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Viking_Sagas

The visuals are spectacular. It was actually shot in Iceland and vividly shows off the epic majesty of the landscape. Apparently it was shot by a noted cinematographer, and the movie probably got made expressly because he wanted to photograph Iceland.

The sets are very convincing; archaic, rustic, and modest, no Hollywood glamourizing involved. The costumes seems period authentic too, for the most part (some of the hairstyles less so).

The casting is hit and miss (the gorgeous lead actress turns in a great performance; so-so work by the male lead; iffy efforts from everyone else).

Plot-wise, temper your expectations. The story, such as it is, is mostly an episodic collection of bits from various Norse sagas (as the title implies), so it's not much of a plot.

This is a movie that's all about the visuals, and might even be termed a two-hour visual showcase of Iceland, with some stray story bits randomly attached. If that sounds appealing to you, you'll enjoy the film; if not, avoid it.

But being that the cinematography is everything here, a blu-ray would be well worth the investment, were it to exist (as long as it would be free of any post-hoc revisioning sallow/green colour re-grading -- the natural looking colour timing on the DVD looks great).