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The Long Ships (1963)

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Average Rating: 4.9/10
Reviews Counted: 12
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 6

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: 3.1/5
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Movie Info

In this elaborately mounted seafaring adventure, Rolfe (Richard Widmark) is a Viking leader with the cunning and devious mind of a pirate. Rolfe tells others sailors of "The Mother of Voices," a mammoth bell made of gold and as tall as three men, but he adds enough incorrect details to throw them off the proper trail. However, Aly Mansuh (Sidney Poitier), the leader of a group of ambitious Moors, sees through Rolfe's story, and soon the two are in a breakneck race to be the first to capture the

Unrated, 2 hr. 6 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure, Art House & International, Classics

Directed By: Jack Cardiff

Written By: Beverly Cross, Berkeley Mather

In Theaters: Jun 24, 1964 Wide

On DVD: Jun 24, 2003

Cast

Critic Reviews for The Long Ships

All Critics (12) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (6) | Rotten (6) | DVD (5)

Any attempt to put this into the epic class falls down because of a hodge-podge of a storyline, a mixture of styles and insufficient development of characterization.

April 23, 2011 Full Review Source: Variety

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Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

Has impossible acting, a preposterous script, some eminently seeworthy ship reconstructions, and more enjoyable bloody foolishness than many an epic costing three times as much.

April 23, 2011 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine

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TIME Magazine

Top Critic

A hollow movie and a loud one - but it moves.

May 10, 2005 Full Review Source: New York Times

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Howard Thompson

New York Times

Top Critic

The press books announced "Sidney Poitier in his first non-Negro role!" Poitier put it most elegantly: "To say it was disastrous is a compliment."

April 23, 2011 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

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TV Guide's Movie Guide

Treats history as if it were a tale fit for a romper room.

March 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

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Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Awful international Technirama hodge-podge, adapted from a novel by Frank G Bengtsson, in which the Vikings wrestle with the Moors to lay hands on the legendary Golden Bell of St James (rather an anti-climax when it finally appears).

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

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Trevor Johnston

Time Out

This is pure rubbish, but thoroughly enjoyable rubbish.

May 24, 2003 Full Review Source: Film4

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Film4

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Audience Reviews for The Long Ships

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Okay, so this film is unrealistic, silly, historically inaccurate, and a tad racist and misogynistic, but it's fun. Good, schlocky, entertaining fun. This story of Vikings on a quest to find a legendary bell made of solid gold in many ways feels like a precursor to stuff like Indiana Jones, or Pirates of the

October 3, 2011