Although Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier made several movies together in which their chemistry was absolutely great (e.g. "The Bedford Incident" and "No Way Out"), "The Long Ships" is not one of them. Their use of 1960's colloquial American phrases in the dialog just made it unbearable and the acting seemed second rate. Widmark seemed more like a Bronx hood than a viking and Poitier was an even worse prince of the Moors. While watching the movie, I kept wondering if there was really any point of the plot which start off half way decent and then degraded into silliness. I kept asking myself "How did that happen if this had happened?". For example, they had to pass through a maelstrom to get to their destination: this was an absolute must, there was no other way. However, on their return journey, all weighed down with booty, they did not have to pass back through the maelstrom. Why didn't they just go around it in the first place? Such mysteries of the universe we will never known, just has how anyone could rate this movie more than 1 out of 10 ;)
Review of The Long Ships
