6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In the 9th Century, two Viking children, separated since their early childhood with one raised by the British and the other by Vikings, meet after nearly 20 years as rivals as war breaks out between Britian and the Vikings for control of England.
Starring: Cameron Mitchell, Alice Kessler, Ellen Kessler, George Ardisson, Andrea ChecchiAdventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Italian: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A, B (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Mention the name of Mario Bava to most casual filmgoers and if they’ve heard of him at all they will probably tend to think only of Bava’s contributions to the giallo genre with such now iconic films as The Girl Who Knew Too Much and Blood and Black Lace. But even a cursory glance over Bava’s rather long and varied film career proves that he was no mere (one) genre stalwart, having either directed, co-directed or provided some sort of technical assist on a huge array of films in any number of idioms, with entries as varied as Caltiki, the Immortal Monster, Planet of the Vampires, Hercules Unchained, Diabolik and Roy Colt and Winchester Jack. While it’s true that Bava fairly regularly went to the science fiction and/or horror wells, there’s another intriguing subgenre, albeit relatively small and short lived, in Bava’s career: movies about Vikings. Bava received no official credit for 1961’s The Last of the Vikings, though scuttlebutt has long implied he had at least a hand in directing it, but he’s front and center, with appropriate billing in the credits, in another 1961 opus dealing with Vikings, Erik the Conqueror, released under a number of different titles including Gli invasori. As Bava expert Tim Lucas perhaps unnecessarily points out in his engaging commentary included on this Blu-ray, it doesn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to see parallels between this film and Richard Fleischer’s similar (some might say extremely similar) 1958 film The Vikings. Once again battles between the English and Vikings predominate, and also as with the previous film the plot hinges on siblings who may initially at least not be aware of their relationship.
Erik the Conqueror is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Arrow's typically informative insert booklet has the following information on the restoration:
Erik the Conqueror (Gli invasori) has been exclusively restored by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Italian and English mono audio.I frankly waffled a bit as to whether to score this with a 4.0 or 4.5, but opted for the higher score simply because, aside from some issues I'm about to mention, this transfer looks quite beautiful most of the time in motion. The color reproduction here is really quite glorious almost all of the time, with just a slight hint of blue or purple occasionally looking a bit too prominent. But a typically almost garish Bava-esque palette is on display here and looks excitingly vivid and extremely well saturated.
All restoration work was carried out at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 2K resolution on a pin- registered Arriscan and was graded on Digital vision's Nucoda Film Master. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, picture instability and other instances of film wear were repaired or removed through a combination of digital restoration tools and techniques.
The mono Italian language track was remastered from the optical sound track negatives. The English language track was sourced from the best master elements available. There are times in which audio synchronisation will appear loose against the picture, due to the fact that audio was fully recorded in post-production.
As can be gleaned from Arrow's statement regarding the soundtracks in the video section above, there's a noticeable difference between the Italian LPCM mono and English LPCM mono tracks. While there's nothing overtly horrible about the English track (with the possible exception of some of the voice acting), it sounds noticeably less forceful when toggling over to the Italian track, especially in terms of reproduction of effects and the kind of gloriously hyperbolic score from Roberto Nicolisi. No matter what language you choose, you're getting dubbed material, so along with the "loose" synchronization mentioned in Arrow's statement above, there's a certain disconnect at times between voice performances and what's going on in the frame. The Italian track has better if not superlative fidelity, along with a somewhat wider dynamic range than the English language track.
The final shot of Erik the Conqueror / Gli Invasori, showing Eron's funeral ship in flames at sea, is no longer attached to original camera negative, and, despite our best efforts, could not be located.The actual shot in question only shows up at around circa 00:59 of this supplement and then lasts for just a few seconds before the end title card.
Bava scholar Tim Lucas provided us with a copy of this missing shot, sourced from a UK VHS release.
Due to the distracting nature of the gulf in quality this and the otherwise pristine HD restoration, it was decided to omit from the main feature presentation and instead present it as a bonus feature.
You can't really get past the fact that Erik the Conqueror is kind of a big, silly quasi-sword and sandal "epic", but it's uniquely enjoyable nonetheless, sparked by a rather potent display of gorgeous cinematography and above average production design. It's "popcorn fare", to be sure, but in its own way, it achieves what it sets out to do more competently than many other, more high minded, historical epics have been able to do. Technical merits are generally strong, and Arrow has assembled some enjoyable supplements. Recommended.
I coltelli del vendicatore
1966
1958
1987
1983
Ulisse
1954
Hercules and the Conquest of Atlantis | Hercules Conquers Atlantis | Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide | Special Edition
1961
Blood at Sundown / Il ritorno di Ringo
1965
1978
1976
Ray Harryhausen Signature Collection
1963
1983
1985
1983
1943
1975
Standard Edition
1984
Zeburâman: Zebura Shiti no gyakushû
2010
Ator l'invincibile
1982
Collector's Edition
1985
1979