The Long Ships

When you talk about action movies that have high seas adventure, most of the time the action happens out on the water not on the land. But here the story is more of discovery than of adventure and with two strong actors in the leading roles, I'm surprised that this film is as obscure as it is. The two actors are Richard Widmark, the Viking sailor Rolf, and Sidney Poitier, the Moorish Prince El Mansuh, both play off of each other wonderfully and together they create two memorable characters.
The search for a mythical golden bell drives a crew of Viking sailors to the ends of the Earth where they must battle nature, a Moorish Prince and themselves in order to find their treasure. For 1964 this is a very good film, with a nice blend of drama, action and a little humor to help keep things light. At a time of film making when if you needed a ship you had one built, this movie has some very nice looking Viking and Moorish ships that, obvious from the title, play a major part in the story. When the end of the journey arrives you feel the mix of emotions that the characters are facing and you almost want to reach out and help them. Poitier is a shining star in this film and it's a true joy to see him in some thing other than those cop dramas.
I had never heard of this film, so when a friend of mine mentioned it I was curious to see what it was about and if it was as good as they said. I thought it was interesting to see a story that has Moorish characters and not tearing apart the western world. From a movie goers point of view, this film is a very good adaptation of the book by Frank Bengtsson, with all the adventure and sword play that goes on through out this is one of those movies that if you get the chance to see it, watch it and remember that here was voyage that started out by looking for a myth and came home with a legend.