After recently seen SPARTACUS I was reminded of THE VIKINGS a movie I re watched several weeks earlier and they're both movies that have a lot in common . In fact I saw them both for the first time on television within days of each other circa 1974 . There's other more obvious and impersonal connections like they both star Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis where a sword fight takes place between their characters , everyone seems to speak in either British or American accents no matter where their character is supposed to be from and there's a fight between the good guys and bad guys at the end
Having said all that SPARTACUS is by far the better movie because it's got a better story , production values and cast . Not only that but Kubrick's movie has better imagery . There's two scenes that stuck out from THE VIKINGS in my childhood , one of them featuring a hawk and someone's face and a pack of dogs and someone's live body but apart from that there's little I could recall . It should also be pointed out that the differing accents in SPARTACUS is hardly if at all noticeable whereas here it's somewhat intrusive . But to be fair THE VIKINGS does feature an impressive battle scene at the end where the Norsemen attack the English castle and perhaps if I hadn't seen SPARTACUS recently I would have enjoyed THE VIKINGS much more
Having said all that SPARTACUS is by far the better movie because it's got a better story , production values and cast . Not only that but Kubrick's movie has better imagery . There's two scenes that stuck out from THE VIKINGS in my childhood , one of them featuring a hawk and someone's face and a pack of dogs and someone's live body but apart from that there's little I could recall . It should also be pointed out that the differing accents in SPARTACUS is hardly if at all noticeable whereas here it's somewhat intrusive . But to be fair THE VIKINGS does feature an impressive battle scene at the end where the Norsemen attack the English castle and perhaps if I hadn't seen SPARTACUS recently I would have enjoyed THE VIKINGS much more