A Viking Saga: The Darkest Day
A Viking Saga: The Darkest Day
R | 23 July 2013 (USA)
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Cast into a violent and bloody world of murder, Hereward, a novice monk, must deliver the Holy Gospel of Lindisfarne - a book of great beauty and power - to the safety of the Iona monastery, while being pursued by a Viking death squad hell- bent on its capture. On his way to the monastery, he meets a fierce and skilled swordsman who answers his prayers and dedicates his life to protecting Hereward while he delivers the book. In the midst of their journey, they are confronted by Vikings ready to kill in order to get what they want, leaving Hereward and his protector at their mercy.

Reviews
Fairaher

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

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Voxitype

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

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Calum Hutton

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

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Marva-nova

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

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cowboyerik

This title should be better that's it's under 5 rating. I think it's well done. Very well done. It deals with a narrow subject, in a narrow time, a savage time really. A small cast, and little no set production and only minimal costume design, this things are made up for with excellent photography, camera work, sound, acting and script, the hallmarks of talent and skill combined to make a low budget epic that will build it's own reputation and appreciated in time. It is worth seeing and is not terribly long. It's length is correct and could have been expanding upon with longer beginning and longer ending frankly. I think it was shortened for cinema.

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Antaine O'hAongusa

It may have been a low budget film but it would have cost nothing to get a few people around a table with the script before filming. Come on, how many film clichés do you have to put into one film. I nearly stopped watching at one point because it was getting so bad. After each scene (and there weren't that many) I found myself asking 'would this have actually happened?'. I answered each time, 'highly unlikely'. The ending was just too funny for words. The acting was OK but I would have preferred some attempt at a Norse/Danish accent from the Vikings. I was just grateful in the end that there weren't any Americans involved (nothing personal, but American actors should never be allowed near historical productions). Finally, Vikings wearing chain mail at that time period? I doubt it.

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ivorybishop

Solid acting performances and some riveting cinematography have gone under appreciated in this dark, gritty tale of medieval monks running for their lives.Paul Jibson gave a really good performance but, sadly, we get to see to little of him in my opinion. I think he should have been cast in a longer lasting role.Mark Lewis Jones gives a solid showing as the grizzled warrior trying his damnedest to save the monks from the vikings and their own stupidity.Marc Pickering plays the coming of age monk trying to live as the monk amidst the reality of viking assaults. He commands a solid understanding of his role and leaves you wanting more.Jibson, Jones, and Pickering really deliver and I look forward to seeing more of them in the future.This good movie, while not perfect, is worthy of a watch if you are into medieval pieces.

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siderite

I also have to express dismay at the low rating this film has on IMDb. It seemed a well done, decently acted movie with a story that is neither ridiculous nor simplistic. I honestly believe it is deserving of an above average rating. Probably what annoyed a lot of people is the poster, which has nothing to do with the movie at all. It is not a film about glorious deaths in violent battles.The Viking raid on Lindisfarne monastery is a real event that is considered by historians to be the beginning of the so called Viking Age. As with the TV show Vikings, the event is used to inspire the storyline in The Darkest Day, without much concern for historical accuracy, but this film has it a bit closer to reality.The plot is seen through the eyes of a young monk, one of two escaping from the Lindisfarne's raid and carrying the Lindisfarne's Gospels, a beautifully crafted book that holds "the word of God" and without which the monks believe the Angles country is lost. The book is a real artifact that you can read about. The monks run away from a bunch of Vikings that want the book, believing it holds "the power of the white Christ" and can be used to rule the land. Their escape shows you glimpses of the wild and poor way of living in those times (around 800 AD) in the British Isles. Helped by an old warrior, they meet Christian sectarians and a Pict woman they rescue from bondage and try to fend off the raiders.I've watched a few Viking related movies lately, something spurned by the TV show Vikings, and this is by far one of the best. It is a low budget English and Welsh film with almost completely unknown actors in a small cast, but they each play their roles well and the bleak and violent trek through ancient England feels realistic and raw. The name of the young monk, Hereward, is an ironic hint of the end of the movie. Again: a clearly above average film, especially if you are in a Viking mood.

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