Hacker Cinema
The 13th Warrior
1999 · Film · 103 min
Directed by John McTiernan
A Muslim ambassador exiled from his homeland joins a group of Vikings, initially offended by their behavior but growing to respect them. As they travel together, they learn of a legendary evil closing in and must unite to confront this formidable force.
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16 comments on Hacker News
>If the actions and beliefs of a group are fundamentally morally repugnant to me,
sure, although if tribal differences are always experienced as fundamentally morally repugnant one might think the moral calibration is screwed a bit too tight.
>I think that it is reasonable to not expect me to be able to find "something positive" in it.
Sure, I do think it is possible that some groups are so morally repugnant that they have absolutely nothing to offer whatsoever. For example that tribe of cave dwelling cannibals in the film The 13th Warrior, man those guys sucked! But the comment seemed more to be about how it is weird that when you find some group does some things that you find morally repugnant then they have nothing they do that can ever be good.
I have lived in places in which I find much of the surrounding culture to have behaviors that I found morally repugnant, or intellectually repugnant for that matter, but even at my most contemptuous of a culture and a people I will at times be forced to admit, honestly, that they have behaviors that can also be considered admirable (in many cultures the repugnant bits are so tightly bound to the admirable bits though I can see how it is difficult not to condemn everything)
There was even a movie with Antonio Banderas about it! (The 13th Warrior)
13th warrior is a fantastic film with an undeserved reputation. It's the best version of Beowulf on film and full of memorable lines.
That scene is one of my faves.
13th Warrior usually makes the top list of any “movies that Rotten Tomatoes has done dirty”.
It depends I think on whether the Big Trouble in Little China fans are still asleep.
It's so cool that John McTiernan did it again in The 13th Warrior. A worse movie (not as bad as people say), but I think that one scene is extraordinary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVVURiaVgG8
Also related are Ahmad ibn Fadlan's writings, a 10th century traveler from Baghdad who described the Varangians, Swedish vikings who traveled to modern-day Ukraine and Russia, who also ended up in the Byzantine army (or something like that, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians). Eaters of the Dead, a book by Michael Crighton combines those writings plus the story of Beowulf into a book, which was later turned into a film, The 13th Warrior.
I believe that provided the background for the excellent movie "The 13th Warrior":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_13th_Warrior
The 13th warrior was the first time I remember seeing Viking culture reflected in a "big" movie where I could actually understand what the native vikings were saying.
And I've always enjoyed the transition from when he goes to understanding them and all of a sudden they all speak english.
"I've learned by listening to your filthy mouth.." or however that line goes
As a Scandinavian I think about this scene a lot. I don't know why haha.
That's a cute sentiment but there is no evidence that merely being exposed to a foreign language necessarily allows you to learn that language. I think you're confusing the movie 13th Warrior for reality.
I have friends who religiously watch subtitled anime only and they are no closer to learning Japanese in any real sense of the word than a person who would watch the dubs, except for picking up a stray random word here or there, but knowing that kawaii means "cute" doesn't give you even a superficial understanding of Japanese. For that, you need to at least pick up hiragana and katakana.
Learning a language requires deliberate work. There is no shortcut.
Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaters_of_the_Dead or the movie adaptation, "The 13th Warrior" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120657/)
i love the adaptation "The 13th Warrior"... is somewhat a B movie with some superb performances by Banderas and Vladimir Kulich
cannot imagine Buliwyf without thinking on Kulich
Anybody else thought of the movie "The 13th Warrior" after reading the article?
This makes me think of the movie the 13th warrior[0] where a warrior from Baghdad fights along side Vikings
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_13th_Warrior
Have you seen the movie "13th Warrior" with Antonio Banderas?. In the movie he keeps trying to understand what the other warriors are saying and concentrating until one Day he started talking just like them.
To be fair this method doesn't work for everyone. Just like learning a programming language, some people find it easier to follow a course while others just start coding for a small project.
You do need to have at least the basics of the language and grammar. But no more than that. I remember when I learned English 7 years ago, I started by watching the TV show "24". In the first season I couldn't understand anything Jack Bauer was saying. I remember saying to myself: "what the hell does he mean by saying "copy that". I only understood what the show was about. Then in the second season I started subconsciously memorizing sentences and understanding their meaning. Just like a baby would learn a language without using a dictionary. Similarly I started not only understanding English but also talking and writing in it.
I used this technique for French, German and English. Not sure how complicated Japanese is though.
Edit: Just to add, that with this method you need to watch a lot and I mean a lot of TV shows/Movies/Radio/Youtube to get the full benefit.
There's a (fictional) film version of this that combines his story with the Beowulf saga[1].
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_13th_Warrior
Not a big Crichton fan (most of his books spend the first half explaining how smart everyone is, and the second half is always those smart people making terribly stupid decisions) BUT, Crichton did write Eaters of the Dead, a book that is about exactly what this article talks about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaters_of_the_Dead
The story follows a Muslim who is sent as an emissary to the Vikings, and all the craziness that follows. It was also a movie: the 13th Warrior. It's a great story, not terribly well executed. The culture clash is the most interesting part, particularly when the Muslim lead is asked to "draw words," because his people have a system of writing, and the Vikings don't.
I read somewhere the Crichton was basing this on some 10th century writings from some fellow who actually made this journey, but I can find no more references to it online....