The Warlord (1965) |  | Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Actors: Charlton Heston, Richard Boone, Rosemary Forsyth
Studio: Classicline
Category: DVD
This item is no longer available
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 101282
Format: Import, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 0
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 121 Minutes
EAN: 7898366211627
ASIN: B000F62UGG
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| Customer Reviews:
 Gone But Not Forgotten February 12, 2009
Michael J. Kraska (Pueblo,Colorado)
I would love to give a review,but it is somewhat difficult since this DVD has still not arrived.According to an email I received it shipped from Brazil(no less) on January 15th.I have been watching the news to see if a ship sunk there recently or that maybe the Somali pirates had expanded their range of activities.The only other logical explation is that it was absorbed by a black hole.
 "I took that sword. I've lived twenty years with that cold wife." December 30, 2007
Trevor Willsmer (London, England)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A flop on its initial release and rarely revived since, The War Lord is one of the most interesting Sixties historical pictures. Dealing with the doomed love affair of a Norman knight and one of his vassals, Charlton Heston spent several years trying to get the picture into production (even approaching such unlikely potential directors as David Lean, Laurence Olivier, Carol Reed and Peter Ustinov) only to see it hacked down to two hours from final choice Franklin J. Schaffner's 171-minute rough cut to make it more of an action picture and highlight the siege finale.
There are obvious holes in the narrative, which may or may not be due to the cutting: it is never made clear why the dwarf turns against Chrysagon, while Rosemary Forsyth disappears for much of the last third of the picture while the battles rage. Budgetary limitations also make themselves felt in the unconvincing back projection. Similarly, while he maintains an imposing physical presence, Richard Boone gives the impression of having walked onto the wrong set by mistake every time he opens his mouth, but the rest of the cast fit their roles well, although the clash of accents makes itself felt on more than one occasion (Niall MacGinnis' Shire tones are wildly at odds with 'son' James Farentino's American, but thankfully no-one attempts a French accent). Yet these can forgiven in light of many of the film's achievements.
Although by no means at his best, Heston gradually impresses as the pauper knight who loses what he has fought his whole life to regain, ending his family line in the process over the only thing he has ever wanted for himself. Heston is well countered by Guy Stockwell, who mostly manages to prevent his role as his discontented brother spill over into cardboard villainy, while Joe Canutt's action scenes are well-staged.
Jerome Moross' superb, vividly romantic score is one of the best of the Sixties and the visual design of the film is particularly impressive and intriguing. Not only do his Scope compositions make the most of the Norman arches of the castle keep to contain the drama, but Schaffner imaginatively separates the lovers by foreground obstacles - a tree, a beam -in the early scenes, while in a later scene, as the war lord foregoes duty for love Heston is reduced to a silhouette, a shadow of his former authority and nobless oblige, while Forsyth remains perfectly lit.
While a full restoration is at best unlikely, with its for the most part successful attempt to recreate a past world largely ignored by Hollywood (though one of the film's central plot devices was reused in Braveheart) the film retains an uncommon flavour and texture of its own that separates it from its contemporaries. It may not be the masterpiece it wants to be, but The War Lord is an admirable and unique piece of work.
One of the best medieval love and war movies August 31, 2006
D. Mark
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The painstakingly accurate historical drama The War Lord is predicated on the old practice of le droit du seigneur. Norman knight Charlton Heston, in charge of an 11th century Druid community, exercises his right to claim bride Rosemary Forsyth on the night of her wedding to James Farentino. Forsyth becomes enamored of her abductor, refusing to leave his side. Seeking vengeance, Farentino, the son of Druidic leader Niall McGinniss, foments an all-out war between Heston and Heston's covetous brother Guy Stockwell. Despite the impressive scope of the battle scenes, The War Lord, based on a stage play by Leslie Stevens, is essentially an intimate human drama (in contrast, look what "droit du seigneur" sparked in the 1995 epic Braveheart). The surehanded direction of Franklyn Schaffner and the credible performances of Heston et. al. are brilliantly complemented by Jerome Morross' Stravinsky-like musical score.
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