The War Lord (1965)

Director:

Franklin J. Schaffner

Writers:

John Collier (screenplay) &
Millard Kaufman (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

17 November 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Tagline:

He Battled Two Empires For The Love Of One Woman.

Plot:

A knight in the service of a duke goes to a coastal villiage where an earlier attempt to build a defensive castle has failed...

Plot Keywords:

Castle | Norman | Bare Chested Male | Virgin | 10th Century

Cast

Charlton Heston	...	Chrysagon
Richard Boone	...	Bors
Rosemary Forsyth	...	Bronwyn
Maurice Evans	...	Priest
Guy Stockwell	...	Draco
Niall MacGinnis	...	Odins
James Farentino	...	Marc
Henry Wilcoxon	...	Frisian Prince
Sammy Ross	...	Volc
Woodrow Parfrey	...	Piet
John Alderson	...	Holbracht
Allen Jaffe	...	Tybald
Michael Conrad	...	Rainault
Dal Jenkins	...	Dirck
Johnny Jensen	...	Boy Prince
Forrest Wood	...	Chrysagon Man
Belle Mitchell	...	Old Woman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Paul Frees	...	Narrator (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Franklin J. Schaffner		(as Franklin S. Schaffner)

Writing credits
John Collier		(screenplay) &
Millard Kaufman		(screenplay)
Leslie Stevens		(play "The Lovers")

Produced by
Walter Seltzer	....	producer

Original Music by
Jerome Moross
Hans J. Salter

Cinematography by
Russell Metty

Film Editing by
Folmar Blangsted

Art Direction by
Henry Bumstead
Alexander Golitzen

Set Decoration by
Oliver Emert
John McCarthy Jr.

Costume Design by
Vittorio Nino Novarese

Makeup Department
Larry Germain	....	hair stylist
Bud Westmore	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Norman Deming	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Joe Canutt	....	action sequences director
Douglas Green	....	assistant director

Art Department
Jim Danforth	....	prop maker (uncredited)

Sound Department
William Russell	....	sound
Waldon O. Watson	....	sound

Visual Effects by
Albert Whitlock	....	matte supervisor
Jim Danforth	....	model maker (uncredited)

Stunts
Joe Canutt	....	stunt coordinator
Joe Canutt	....	stunts
Hal Needham	....	stunts
Jerry Brown	....	stunts (uncredited)
Tap Canutt	....	stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Courtney	....	stunts (uncredited)
John Epper	....	stunts (uncredited)
Stephanie Epper	....	stunts (uncredited)
Tony Epper	....	stunts (uncredited)
Richard Farnsworth	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Herron	....	stunts (uncredited)
George Orrison	....	stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Roberson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Ronnie Rondell Jr.	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bill Shannon	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jim Sheppard	....	stunts (uncredited)
Buddy Van Horn	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack Williams	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Gary Kent	....	electrician (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Eliot Elisofon	....	color consultant

Music Department
Joseph Gershenson	....	music supervisor

Transportation Department
Frank Khoury	....	driver (uncredited)

Other crew
Ray Berwick	....	bird trainer
Vittorio Nino Novarese	....	technical advisor
Kenny Williams	....	choreographer: fertiltiy routine

Production Companies

• Court Productions
• Fraser Productions
• Universal Pictures

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1965) (USA) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1965) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1970) (USA) (TV)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (1994) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• GoodTimes Home Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• GoodTimes Home Video (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Universal (1966) (France) (theatrical) (as Universal Film Inc.)
• Koch Media (2011) (Germany) (DVD)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (????) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

France:122 min | USA:123 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

USA:Approved | Finland:K-16 | West Germany:16 (nf)

Filming Locations:

Colusa County, California, USA

Company:

Court Productions

Trivia:

According to Charlton Heston's published diaries, "Charlton Heston: The Actor's Life; Journals 1956-1976" he wanted Julie Christie to be his co-star, but she was vetoed by the studio.

Quotes:

Draco:Did I say it was a turning world?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in American Grindhouse (2010)

Charlton Heston goes for poetry instead of bombast, romance instead of heroism

If you want a movie about long ago and far away, this one is highly recommendable, unless of course you need light sabers or all-powerful rings to hold your attention.

Costume pictures often reek of Classics Illustrated comic books. This is among the few whose script as filmed is not an insult.

Director Franklin Schaffner obviously loves the material. He later returned to the period with "Lionheart: the Children's Crusade," after "Planet of the Apes," "Patton," and his other famous epics.

The film's atmosphere is incredibly strong - I was absolutely sure that this was shot on location in Europe until I recognized the Universal hillside towards the end. Rarely does a Hollywood movie hide its back lot origins so thoroughly.

Minor drawbacks must be acknowledged. The girl suffers well silently but can't deliver her few lines. Maurice Evans is an awful ham, showing once again why he was Orson Welles' least favorite actor. There's a handful of clumsy process shots, and Paul Frees not only delivers the opening narration but voices both Sammy Ross and Michael Conrad, later familiar from "Hill Street Blues." Someone in the Universal sound department thought that Frees' voice was undetectable; and it isn't. (It gets worse: you can hear Frees as four separate characters in "Spartacus.")

None of these quibbles matter. The "War Lord" is romantic, poetic, mildly gritty (by today's standards), and the production design, cinematography and music are all gorgeous. The tumultuous siege of the tower is solid in the way things were before computers, and features what seems to be every stuntman in Hollywood, including Joe Canutt, Hal Needham, Richard Farnsworth and Buddy Van Horn.

I wish Universal could figure out a way to keep the DVD in print. Remastering might help. If you have a multi-system, multi-region player, at this writing a far superior widescreen Danish transfer is available from both UK and German Amazon.

IMDb lists at least 250,000 worse ways to spend two hours than "The War Lord." Make yourself comfortable and enjoy.