Antonio Banderas' Gripping Historical Action Flop Is Finally Finding An Audience On Tubi

Based strictly on box office, it would not be accurate to call Antonio Banderas one of the biggest movie stars of the 1990s, but once I laid eyes on the striking Spaniard in Pedro Almódovar's "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down," I wanted to him to be in everything. In terms of scintillating, dead sexy screen presence, only Denzel Washington could match him. He became a mainstream American sensation when Madonna failed to seduce him in her "Blonde Ambition" tour documentary "Madonna: Truth or Dare." Banderas was primed for superstardom. And Hollywood promptly fumbled the ball.

Banderas delivered the smoldering goods in Arne Glimcher's lively historical drama "The Mambo Kings," but Warner Bros. had no idea how to sell a movie about Cuban music to American moviegoers, so it stiffed commercially in 1992. Banderas subsequently got lost in the star-studded shuffle of Bille August's flat-footed adaptation of Isabel Allende's "The House of the Spirits," and was way too much actor for the small role of Tom Hanks' boyfriend in Jonathan Demme's "Philadelphia." His next opportunity at a Hollywood breakthrough arrived in 1995, when he appeared in a whopping six movies. Something surely had to hit, and something did in the form of Robert Rodriguez's "Desperado." But the film that finally put him over the top was Martin Campbell's old-school blockbuster "The Mask of Zorro," which we published an oral history about.

Sony wound up squandering Zorro's franchise potential, but they weren't alone in failing Banderas. Prior to the turn of the millennium, he kept getting stranded in cast-off projects that had probably been turned down by a litany of movie stars who possessed a tenth of his charisma. Even more frustrating, the best film of this bunch, which he made immediately after "The Mask of Zorro," fell prey to behind-the-scenes meddling. 26 years after its release, it still ranks as one of the biggest box office bombs of all time. This movie deserved a much better outcome, but by the time Disney got to unloading it in 1999, they just wanted it off their books. Amazingly, decades later, it's finally finding an appreciative audience on Tubi.

"Eaters of the Dead" is one of author Michael Crichton's strangest undertakings. It's a retelling of the "Beowulf" myth partially from the perspective of the Baghdad traveller Ahmad ibn Fadlan. It's not terribly compelling reading, but it had Crichton's name on it, which meant the studio could proclaim it was "from the author of 'Jurassic Park.'" Considering no American filmmaker had attempted a big budget "Beowulf" before, it seemed like prime narrative real estate.

When Disney brought John McTiernan on to direct the film, they could also boast on the poster it was "from the director of 'Die Hard.'" With this pedigree, they were in a position to court major stars. McTiernan initially wanted Michael Keaton as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, but they wound up going with the red-hot Banderas. Once they had him on board, they avoided stars in favor of actors who fit the Viking type (e.g. Vladimir Kulich, Diane Venora, and Dennis Storhøi).

/Film's Ryan Scott did a terrific job of explaining what went wrong budget-wise on what was eventually titled "The 13th Warrior," so I won't rehash that debacle here. All you need to know is that Crichton hated McTiernan's cut (which tested poorly), and re-edited it. Curiously, McTiernan says the author made very few changes from his cut. Once you get past the fact that the film's release was delayed for a full calendar year and made $61 million worldwide on a budget that might've hit $160 million (an insanely high number in 1999), all that matters is that "The 13th Warrior" is a rip-roaring adventure.

I'm a fan of Robert Zemeckis' "Beowulf," but I would much rather watch McTiernan's movie, which is a muscular epic that draws you in with breathtaking practical stunts and striking British Columbian locations. At the center of the movie is Banderas, who suppresses his high-wattage sex appeal and gives a unique kind of heroic performance. At a surprisingly brisk 103 minutes, I'm not surprised Tubi viewers have made it the third most popular film on the service right now. It's not a classic, but it's an enthralling adventure that might just find its way onto your personal rewatchable list.