This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Purely Joyful Movie!

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This movie, which is based upon a dramatic true story, takes place in Norway about 150 years after the end of the Viking era. Norway has become Christian by this time although, apparently, not too Christian. That is to say, they haven't become too Christian to go around committing murder, or even regicide.To those not familiar with medieval Norwegian history the politics in this movie may be a bit murky. It would definitely help to read up on it beforehand. Nevertheless, the gist of the story is simple enough. The orphaned infant son of the newly-murdered King is in danger of being murdered by his late father's political rivals. An army of armored knights are out to kill the tiny heir to the throne. Two guys are entrusted with the task of saving the baby King from his pursuers. The situation looks pretty hopeless for the two heroes and their tiny charge. However, they do have one thing going for them. It is the dead of winter and, while the two heroes do not have access to horses, they do have skis. As anybody who has ever watched the Winter Olympics knows, nobody in the world can catch Norwegians on cross-country skis. Nevertheless, the director does a great job of maintaining the suspense as they fight and ski their way through one hair-breath escape after another.Most of this movie is like one long game of British Rugby Football, only played in the snow, on skis, and using a live baby as the ball. The object for one team is to score a goal. For the other team, the object of the game is simply to kill the ball. As for the rules, well, there are no rules. Come to think of it, that sounds like a great idea for a new Winter Olympic sport, one that ought to be a real crowd-pleaser. They could call it, "Norwegian Rugby". The acting is excellent and the production values are world-class. Although the movie is in Norwegian with English subtitles, the dialogue is not difficult to follow. Besides, one really does not require subtitles to understand, "AAAAAARGH!"

Anyone who likes medieval action movie or historical re-enactment will enjoy this film. It's not a memorable film unfortunately. Sure there's dynamic double axe battles, Nordic landscapes to admire and history but it lacks that special touch masterpieces have.Two men carry and protect the baby son of the dead king of Norwegia across the mountains from Lilhammer. They are Norwegian Ski Infantry (Birkebeiner).The Church wants this baby dead in order to take control of the other half of the country. Inspired by true events, these heroic stories changed Norwegian history forever. Modern Birkebeiner racers also re-enact the famous ski tour, this time around going in the opposite direction. They are all required to bear a backpack weighing at least 3.5 kilos, meant to represent the pack containing the royal infant.

I watched the English dubbed version of Birkebeinerne. I wished it would have been in Norvegian though because dubbed versions most of the time are just no good enough. You lose the feel of reality. And with this one it wasn't good either. The voices just sounded fake to the story. It made the actors look like amateurs. I'm sure they're not but they're also not the greatest actors ever. Even not with their original voices. The story is to weak to be entertaining. In fact the only thing that I thought was good were the skiing shots and the beautiful snowy scenery's. But the story was just not great, even if it was based on a true story. It looked all made by amateurs. The singing and praying didn't do any good either to the story. I really doubt that in that time there were a lot of Catholics in those regions. More heathens so the praying scenes made it look unreal. So to me the only good thing about this movie was the skiing. At least there was a lot of it in Birkebeinerne.

I always enjoy historical-type movies. This one is no exception. I did stream with English 5.1 instead of subtitles, but it really didn't take away from the movie. The film depicted this era of Norway as quite brutal. I'm sure it was. Kings & heirs, civil war, brutality. It was all here. I don't judge acting so I really didn't notice if it was not perfect. I liked the plot & the movie flowed smoothly enough to follow without questioning what was happening. The scenery, well, when it wasn't overcast or snowing, was great. Lots of ski action too. Some of the scenes caught me off guard but I won't say which ones. There may have been a few hiccups, but overall I found it to be a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.