'Erik the Viking'

Publish date: 2024-08-07
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‘Erik the Viking’

By Rita Kempley
Washington Post Staff Writer
October 28, 1989
 


Director:
Terry Jones
Cast:
Tim Robbins;
Mickey Rooney;
Eartha Kitt;
Terry Jones;
Imogen Stubbs;
John Cleese;
Antony Sher
PG-13
Children under 13 should be accompanied by a parent

"Erik the Viking," a Wagnerian slapstick fantasy, has the feel of a grown-up bedtime comedy, a gross, sillier "Princess Bride." Writer-director Terry Jones did, in fact, base this bit of swords and sorcery on stories he invented for his 7-year-old son that bear the unmistakable style of the Monty Python crowd.

After vomiting all over himself, a seasick Viking is comforted by a fellow sailor: "Many of the courageous sailors were pukers. Puke. Puke. Puke." These are but two of a quarrelsome band under the command of Erik, the first of the sensitive Vikings. It all begins when the hero is unable to go through with the rape of a pillaged villager, whom the smitten warrior then accidentally sends to Valhalla.

Tim Robbins, the rookie pitcher of "Bull Durham," is appealing even as baby-faced Erik, the Poppin' Fresh of frozen Ravensfiord. Haunted by the girl and weary of war, Erik seeks guidance from a wizard (Eartha Kitt) who advises him to journey to the peaceful island of Hy-Brasil, where he must find and blow the Horn Resounding, wake the gods and thereby end the Great Winter that has settled over the world.

Other notables in the cast include director Jones as the fey ruler of Hy-Brasil; John Cleese as Erik's nemesis, a sadistic neighboring chieftain; Mickey Rooney as Erik's gruff little grandpappy; and Freddie Jones as a Christian missionary. Stand-up comedian Tsutomu Sekine is an entertaining curiosity as the whip-wielding Slavemaster in charge of the ship's oarsmen. "Row, you incomprehensible, horizontal-eyed, Western trouser-wetters. How I despise your milk drinking, your lack of subtlety and joined-up writing!"

Of course, the last place you'd look for subtlety would be in a movie by a former Python. Jones, who directed "Life of Brian" and "The Meaning of Life," finds hilarity in losing bits of oneself, nausea, cross-dressing and heavy bleeding. As expected, this Scandinavian sea-roving satire is heavier than Thor's hammer and broader than Brunhild's behind.

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