The Vikings Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Vikings Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 21, 2017

Richard Fleischer's "The Vikings" (1958) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; exclusive new video with film historian Sheldon Hall; and archival featurette. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Richard Fleischer's The Vikings was initially released on Blu-ray in the United States by Kino Lorber. This recent Region-B release is sourced from the same MGM master that Kino Lorber accessed while preparing their release. To see the first review of the film by Brian Orndorf, please click here.

The Vikings Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Richard Fleischer's The Vikings arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.

The release is sourced from the same MGM master that Kino Lorber accessed when they prepared the North American release of The Vikings in 2016. It is an older one, but like the overwhelming majority of the MGM masters it is free of problematic digital 'enhancements'. What this means is that there are obvious signs that reveal the age of the master, but the entire film has a decent organic appearance.

Generally speaking, detail and clarity are rather good. Plenty of the wider panoramic shots also have pleasing depth. However, because this is a large format film there are a lot of different areas where it is also quite easy to tell that delineation and density are not optimal (see screencaptures #3 and 5). The darker footage also frequently conveys light crush that contributes to a very specific type of flatness that again reveals the age of the master. Trained eyes should also be able to see in different areas that edge definition can be somewhat problematic (see screencapture #19). Colors are natural, but there are some scattered pulsations and ideally saturation and especially nuances should be a lot better. (For reference, this release is actually encoded with proper gamma levels). Image stability is good, but there is room for some minor optimizations. Finally, while viewing the film I noticed quite a few tiny white flecks and even a few rather big scratches popping up here and there. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Vikings Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The audio has decent depth and clarity is quite nice. However, if and when the film is fully restored I am certain that the audio will be fully remastered and minor pops and/or background hiss will be carefully removed. Indeed, while there is nothing overly distracting here, there are some minor imperfections in different parts of the fim that make their presence felt. There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report.

The Vikings Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original theatrical trailer for The Vikings. In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

• A Tale of Norway - this archival featurette focuses on the production history of The Vikings and includes a long interview with director Richard Fleischer. In English, not subtitled. (29 min).

• Interview with Sheldon Hall - in this brand new video interview, film historian Sheldon Hall discusses the production history of The Vikings as well as the careers of its director and stars. The interview was conducted exclusively for Eureka Entertainment. In English, not subtitled. (33 min).

• Booklet - a booklet featuring the words of Richard Fleischer, a poster gallery, and rare archival imagery.

The Vikings Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This recent release of Richard Fleischer's The Vikings is sourced from the same MGM master that Kino Lorber worked with when they prepared their release of the film in 2016. The master is pretty good, with decent organic qualities, but this film really needs to be extensively restored so that it looks as it should. RECOMMENDED.