THE LONG SHIPS

US, 1964, 126 minutes, Colour.
Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino, Oskar Homolka, Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries, Gordon Jackson, Colin Blakely.
Directed by Jack Cardiff.

The Long Ships is in the tradition of such films as The Vikings. This time it is Richard Widmark who is the Viking who tells the legend of a bell, gets the interest of the Moorish prince, played in stately manner by Sidney Poitier, escapes from him and gets a ship to recover the bell, being involved in action adventures. The film has a mainly British supporting cast although American Russ Tamblyn is on board as well as Italian Rosanna Schiaffino.

The film is well paced and exciting, was written by Beverley Cross who had a particular interest in myths and legends, writing the screenplays for such films as Genghis Khan, Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad and The Eye of the Tiger and Clash of the Titans.

The film was directed by award-winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus) who directed only a few films which include Sons and Lovers, The Girl on a Motorcycle and Young Cassidy.

1. A good action adventure film? For whom was it made? How was this indicated?

2. The film's settings and its atmosphere, fairy-tale heroes and situations, myths and the background of myths? Audience response and liking of this kind of mythic storytelling and of fairytales?

3. Audience response to stories of Vikings? How were these expectations fulfilled?

4. The use of colour, wide screen, action with ships, battles, spectacle?

5. How interesting a hero was Rolfe? his telling stories about the bell, as a hero with vigour, how sympathetic? His sense of zeal for a quest? His encountering dangers, his taking the ship? His encounter with Ali Mansuh and his wife? The superstitions and his confronting them with his fellow Vikings? The exercise of leadership? The finding of the bell and its effect on him? How much characterization? How much comic-book hero?

6. Ali Mansuh and Sidney Poitier's style? As a Moor, leader, greedy for the bell, interested in the quest, jealous of his wife? The inevitability of his death?

7. The picture of the Vikings: Sven and his scepticism, the kings and their rivalry? Orm as a hero and his loved one? The men who were afraid, their fighting, their attacks on the Moors, their response to the bell, life and death?

8. The humour and the picture of the harem? Aziz? The contrast of the Moors and the Vikings?

9. The presentation of ships, storms, fogs. sands and desert, mountainous islands, the fighting, the strategy of getting the bell and its effect, its falling, into the sea etc.?

10. What was the significance and symbolism of the bell? Was this communicated well, or did it remain on the comic-book adventure?