Erik the Viking
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Erik the Viking |
| Original title | Erik the Viking |
| Country of production | UK |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1989 |
| length |
Cinema, US: 100 minutes cinema, Europe: 90 minutes Director's Son's Cut (2006): 75 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Terry Jones |
| script | Terry Jones |
| production | John Goldstone |
| music | Neil Innes |
| camera | Ian Wilson |
| cut | George Akers |
| occupation | |
| |
Erik the Viking is a comedy film directed by Terry Jones , a former member of the English comedy troupe Monty Python , from 1989. The film opened in German cinemas on November 9, 1989.
action
Erik the Viking lives in the Norwegian village of Ravensfjord and goes on raids - because that's what Vikings do. When he meets the beautiful Helga on a raid and accidentally kills her, he has doubts about what the Vikings are doing. The old seer Freyja confirms his fears: It is Ragnarök , the Fenriswolf has eaten the sun and shrouded the world in darkness; people have to fight because the gods have gone to sleep. Only King Arnulf's magic horn can wake them up. But first you have to get the miracle horn and then go on a trip to Walhalla , the seat of the gods. Erik and his men set themselves the task - but Loki, the assistant to the village blacksmith Keitel, has concerns: If the people no longer wage war, he will be unemployed. Loki incites Keitel to take part in Erik's expedition and secretly informs the local Prince Halbtyr the black. He begins to hunt Erik and the Vikings.
After an encounter with a dragon who almost sinks the ship, Erik and his men land on Atlantis West , the island of King Arnulf. People are always happy here, because the island is under a curse: If a drop of human blood were ever shed by the sword, it would sink into the sea. The happiness has left its mark, and King Arnulf and his subjects find the greatest pleasure in singing songs with meaningless lyrics (“Di-da, di-da, di-da ...”). Although the king jealously watches over her, Erik enters into a romance with Arnulf's daughter, Princess Aud. When Halbtyr's ship suddenly appears on the horizon, Erik and his followers attack Halbtyr at sea (so that not a drop of blood is spilled on the island) in order to save Atlantis West from ruin, and they succeed, albeit with losses to defeat the opponent. Halbtyr himself escapes, but one of his men turns out to be Loki, an assistant to the blacksmith, who claims he intended to sabotage Halbtyr.
Arnulf is now ready to let Erik take over the Wunderhorn, but first we have to celebrate. During the following night Loki steals the mouthpiece of the horn and forces Keitel to throw it into the sea. However, he is watched by one of the Vikings who is killed by Loki from behind. This fulfills the curse and Atlantis-West begins to sink, while King Arnulf steadfastly announces that everything is all right. Erik and his family save themselves, Princess Aud and the Wunderhorn on their ship, King Arnulf and his entourage go down singing.
Since Princess Aud has found the mouthpiece of the horn, it can now be blown: with the first sound, the Vikings land in Walhalla, the second wakes the gods. When Erik confronts them, however, he experiences a surprise: the gods are children and they declare that they cannot change the state of humanity. You couldn't make people love or hate one another. When Erik wants to go, they make him aware that he cannot go; the place is Walhalla, from which there is no turning back. Since he did not die in battle, however, his place in Hellfire is Hel . In the meantime, however, the Christian monk Harald, who is also part of Erik's crew, has returned to the ship - since he does not believe in Valhalla, its walls could not stop him. He blows the magic horn for the third time. This third tone brings the Vikings back home to their village at the last second.
However, this has now been attacked by Halbtyr. As he prepares to kill the villagers who have been taken hostage, the Viking ship with Harald on board falls from the sky and buries him and his men. And now, for the first time, the Vikings are seeing the effects of what they have achieved: the Fenris Wolf is chased away, the sun is rising.
background
The film is loosely based on the Nordic myths of gods around the Assir , although some mortal figures ( Freya , Loki ) have god names. Terry Jones had previously written a children's book for his son called Erik the Viking , but the film's credits indicate that this book and the film have almost nothing to do with each other, although Jones hopes the film will boost book sales .
A short comment that appears in the credits is an allusion to a sketch by Monty Python : “This film also does not involve SPAM . This will hurt Hormel 's sales. "(German for example:" This film does not contain any spam either . That will damage the sales of Hormel. ") This allusion refers to the spam sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus , which is also the origin of the use of the word spam for unsolicited mass advertising e-mails. The aforementioned company Hormel is the main producer of the food Spam.
Terry Jones' role as King Arnulf is very reminiscent of a role played by Jones in the second episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus : Here, too, he plays a king, who also watches jealously over his daughter and he too enjoys songs with meaningless things Text ("Ja-di-jakedi, Lum-jum-bu ...").
Versions
The original film was about 100 minutes long. In this version it was shown in cinemas in the USA. Director Jones, as he writes in the notes on the 2006 UK DVD re-release, was unhappy with what he thought was the slow pace of the film. However, he did not have sufficient time to recut before the US release date. For the British and European theatrical release he made a version shortened to 90 minutes, on which all available DVD publications are based. There are no longer any copies of the original 100-minute US theatrical version.
The German DVD version from Concorde-Entertainment contains both the German theatrical version (93 minutes) and the long version of 103 minutes.
Jones was also not satisfied with the 90-minute version, but due to the set release dates, no further cuts were possible before the cinema release.
Terry Jones was given the opportunity to shorten the film again by the DVD publisher for a new DVD edition by Erik the Viking , which had previously only been released on the British market . Ultimately, it was mainly his son (for whom he originally wrote the children's book Erik the Viking ) who worked on the new cut, which is therefore called Erik the Viking - The Director's Son's Cut . In contrast to almost all other “Director's Cut” recuts, this new version is considerably shorter than the theatrical version with only 75 minutes running time . The cut not only increased the pace - which Jones is delighted to see in the production notes - it also fixed minor logical errors by swapping the position of certain scenes.
synchronization
Peter Freund , who was head of the cinema department of the youth film distribution at the time, was primarily responsible for the German dubbed version of the film, which deviates significantly from the original. “I saw it as the only chance to get the rather unsuccessful and surprisingly pointless film, which is also in most countries, u. a. also in England and the USA, which had failed mercilessly, to help achieve success ”, he later explained. The idea turned out to be spot on: with well over a million cinema-goers, Germany was the only territory in the world where "Erik the Viking" was able to celebrate a cinematic success.
The German version of the film has been processed in a similar way to the film Die Ritter der Kokosnuss at the time , in that completely new gags were incorporated, which often had a strong connection to current politics. Freyja describes the age of Ragnarök as the age "in which soot falls from the sky, and Reagan, who blows the leaves of the bush, and that black cabbage would spread in this our country." (An allusion to the change in the Office of the American president, which went from Ronald Reagan to George Bush in the 1980s , as well as to the then Federal Chancellor and CDU politician Helmut Kohl ). King Arnulf's island is originally called Hy-Brazil , in the German version Atlantis-West (allusion to Berlin- West), the Wunderhorn is called His Master's Voice in German (original: "the Horn Resounding"). At another point it says: "The way you look, all of you are called Björn, except for that one back there, his name is Engholm !"
The other texts have also been changed and given even more gags, for example when the monk Harald who lives in the village says with a sigh that he has lived here for so long and has not yet converted anyone to the right faith. Schnorri, one of the Vikings, replies that Thor Abkehrson's wife had converted after all. Harald replies that she has converted to the Moon sect and is not a Christian, in response to Schnorri's comment “It's all the same!” He replies: “Unfortunately not for the church tax !” (In the original he simply says: “No, it is NOT ! ").
- Erik ( Tim Robbins ): Charles Rettinghaus
- Half-door of the black ( John Cleese ): Thomas Danneberg
- Loki ( Antony Sher ): Santiago Ziesmer
- Chief ( Mickey Rooney ): Gerd Duwner
- Harald ( Freddie Jones ): Wolfgang Völz
Reviews
“Entertaining fantasy spectacle with accurate situation comedy and weird, shrill humor typically British; some accents are set too roughly, the synchronization is more than tried. "
“Ex-Monty Python member Terry Jones shot this action spectacle with special effects that were well worth seeing, accurate punch lines and a dash of black humor. Unfortunately, the German dubbing is sometimes too thick and profane. "
literature
- Peter Lietzenburger : Erik the Viking. The novel about the film. Bastei-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1989, 237 pages, ISBN 3-404-13278-5 .
"Peter Lietzenburger" is a pseudonym of the writer Peter Freund , who later became widely known - u. a. through his fantasy book series about the adventures of the girl "Laura Leander", which not only achieved bestseller fame in Germany, but were also published in eighteen other countries around the world.
Individual evidence
- ↑ German synchronous files
- ↑ Erik the Viking. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Erik, the Viking. In: TV feature film . Retrieved November 10, 2017 .
Web links
- Erik the Viking in the Internet Movie Database (English)