One of my favorite movies is the 13th Warrior, starring Antonio Banderas and (be still my beating heart) Vladimir Kulich. I would watch the movie for those two alone, but it's a rare movie that I can watch over and over and over again, and not grow tired of the story. It's the combination of real history and fiction, the historical fiction genre, that I love so much.
I'm one of those people that always reads the book before watching the movie, then complains about how inaccurate the movie was (I know, how annoying, right?). But I didn't even know this movie was based on a book at all! Apparently, it was based on Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead. Now, I know I should read the book, but it may be too late! I am really worried it will ruin the movie for me!
In the movie, the story of the "wendol" is never fully developed. They are menacing, true, but who were they? I assumed a tribe of humans that believed they were bears. Had I read the book , I would have known that they were intended to be a surviving band of Neanderthals. And you know, I heart Neanderthals.
The book itself was based on the epic poem, Beowulf, and the true accounts of Ahmad ibn Fadlan. The Beowulf part I figured out while watching the movie, since Vladimir "Heart-Skips-A-Beat" Kulich plays a king called "Buliwyf". So, yeah, obviously Beowulf, duh. But Ibn Fadlan's true stories of his travels in the 10th century are available in an English translation, as Ibn Fadlan's journey to Russia: a tenth-century traveler from Baghad to the Volga River. I feel like I'm following the White Rabbit down a trail of books.
I suppose I have just convinced myself that both Eaters of the Dead and Ibn Fadlan's Journey to Russia, must be added to my wishlist and consumed immediately. But they better not ruin the movie for me!
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