Tarkan vs the Vikings (1971)

Our heritage, the silly vikings, has been mauled, ridiculed and bashed for centuries. From those early Hollywood-movies, to italian Viking-peplums, the Lee Majors-"classic" The Norseman (I would love to see that on dvd!) to british comedies and strange big budget-adventures... but never, never has the vikings been so silly in Tarkan vs the Vikings, the amazing turk-action from 1971! No misunderstandings here, I love it. The vikings dosen't deserve any better, and this movie is the way to go. Never pretentious, never serious, more gory and more sleazy than anything else in the viking-genre.

Kartal Tibet is a charmig hero, Tarkan, with his faithful dog Kurt... who just lives ten minutes into the movie and get's replaced by it's son! The whole movie is about Tarkan getting revenge on the brutal vikings who killed his dog anyway. Wish more movies where like that (new idea: "a lonely samurai-hero is getting revenge on the indians that killed his parrot"). The opening massacre is quite violent, and blood and impalings is everyhwere. There's a lot of energy in the action and from now on it's never boring.

The vikings look like Astrix-characters with bad wigs, colorful clothes and always ready for a nasty rape. A perfect enemy to the almost perfect gentleman of Tarkan. They also has the most dead-looking octopus-monster since Bride of the monster, a floating gigant beast that sometimes movies with the help of it's victim or a guy standing underneath it moving the head.

But now it seems like I'm making fun of the movie! I am. But it's a wonderful, cheesy, funny movie that never bores you - which for me is the most important thing. It's just popcorn-entertainment with no meaning. Just entertainment, which we need now and then. I often needs it now. This is release together with The Deathless Devil, another great turkish classic, from Mondo Macabro. I recommend a purchase as soon as possible, because this is one of the movies that you should have in your collection.