The Norseman (1978)

An 11th-century Viking prince sails to America to find his father, who on a previous voyage had been captured by Indians.

Director: Charles B. Pierce
Writer: Charles B. Pierce

Now I generally love me some Lee Majors.  He was definitely one of my favorite actors growing up.  I've recently been watching episodes of The Fall Guy (1981) on Hulu and they really hold up.  But, I have to say, The Norseman is a pretty big pile of crap.  Why does it seem no one knows how to make a good viking movie?  There are some decent ones out there, but most of them are poo.  The summary above is pretty much the whole story.  There's not a lot to it.

The whole thing starts because a viking tried to hit on a Native American girl.  So this is the rescue of the previous vikings to land here; which is supposed to be somewhere in Canada, but looks an awful lot like Florida to me.  There's not a whole lot of good I can say about this movie.  The story, while initially campy fun turns boring very quickly.  The armor and weapons are obviously plastic.  There's a black viking.  The Native Americans are mostly white actors.  The whole thing is pretty bad.

Again, while I love Lee Majors, this is definitely not the role for him.  He's not bad here, he just doesn't seem to fit; although he tries really hard.  The other actors are fine, not bad, just wrong.  The whole thing could have been better if they'd have made it more camp and less trying to be serious about it.  The native actors don't seem to do much and I'm really not sure what was going on in the cave with the initial vikings.

The action isn't horrible, they seem to try pretty hard.  It's just difficult to take it seriously when there is bright red paint on their plastic swords.  There's even some slo-mo action scenes for even greater dramatic effect.

This flick is rated PG, so there is no skin here. Though Susie Coelho is frankly gorgeous and very pleasant to look at.  A nice skinny dip in the lake scene would have made this film a whole heck of a lot better.

Verdict: Not recommended

The Cast

Lee Majors ... Thorvald

Cornel Wilde ... Ragnar

Jimmy Clem ... Olif

Jack Elam ... Death Dreamer

Denny Miller ... Rauric

Mel Ferrer ... King Eurich

Deacon Jones ... Thrall

Christopher Connelly ... Rolf ??

Susie Coelho ... Winetta

Kathleen Freeman ... Old Indian Woman

Chuck Pierce Jr. ... Young Eric