Product Details

• Actors: Benno Fürmann, Kristanna Loken, Alicia Witt, Julian Sands, Samuel West
• Directors: Uli Edel
• Writers: Uli Edel, Diane Duane, Peter Morwood
• Producers: Alan Latham, Andreas Grosch, Andreas Schmid, Andrew Somper
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: March 28, 2006
• Run Time: 184 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0007OCG5Q
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,276 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #20 in	Movies & TV > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
  #25 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > European Cinema > Germany

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King is a visually impressive historical adventure based on the same Germanic and Norse legends that inspired Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle operas and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Produced for German television (and shot in South Africa), the film stars Benno Furmann as Siegfried, a prince whose family is slaughtered by a pair of evil kings; raised by a blacksmith (Max Von Sydow, still commanding as ever), he meets and falls for Valkyrie queen Brunhild (Kristanna Loken from Terminator 3) and slays the dragon Fafnir for King Gunther (Samuel West), which in turn, involves him in treachery, war, and separation from his beloved Brunhild. Well directed by Uli Edel (Last Exit to Brooklyn>, The Mists of Avalon), Dark Kingdom occasionally suffers from exceedingly purple dialogue, but the performances, action, and special effects combine to make for a rousing fantasy-drama. Originally broadcast at three hours in length, the DVD presentation here is the U.S. cut, which comes in at just over two hours; a battery of five making-of featurettes are included in the disc's supplemental features. --Paul Gaita

Product Description
IN THE TRADITION OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS COMES A BRAND NEW EPIC FANTASY. A FANTASY-ADVENTURE STORY BASED ON NORDIC MYTHS OF THE RING OF THE NIBELUNGS ABOUT THE SON OF A SIMPLE SWORDSMITH WHO REPEATEDLY SAVES HIS COUNTRY, NOT KNOWING THAT HE IS HEIR TO A THRONE.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

116 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining -- but cut, March 12, 2006

By	tjk (Frankfurt, Germany) - See all my reviews

Compared to the region 2 DVD, where the film has 2 parts (as it was shown on European TV) and runs about 177 minutes in PAL (which equals 184 minutes in NTSC), this version was obviously cut by about 50 minutes. The title (UK: Ring of the Nibelungs) was also inexplicably changed, lest any U.S. viewers be put off by the similarity to the Wagner opera cycle. The fact is that the operas are based on the same source material, an ancient (about 800 year old) Germanic saga, similar to the British Beowulf legend and other myths. The "Nibelungenlied" has been filmed several times (there is even a silent movie version), but this latest TV adaptation has been updated to match the tastes of today's audiences. There is plenty of swordplay, some good special effects, and a fine story. Some younger viewers might be surprised that someone had ideas like that 750 years before Tolkien. Kristanna Loken is great to look at and quite adept at handling a sword. Since the cast is international (German, Swedish, America-Norwegian), there is a weird mix of accents, but apart from that, the movie is quite entertaining and deserves some recognition. The soundtrack is also good, and the DVD offers a decent 5.1 sound. The opening map places the action (as in the original saga) in Burgundy, a region that straddles today's border between France and Germany. The movie was shot in South Africa, although the landscapes are digitally made to resemble Scandinavian ones.

60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King, March 29, 2006

By	Dale Smith (Sterling Heights, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First off, let me say that if you like Norse myth you'll like Dark Kingdom. This is one of the stories that inspired Tolkien to write Lord of the Rings. Or should I say, one of three stories, because they combine three stories to make this film.

This is the story of Brunhild and Siegfried from Wagner's the ring cycle Brunhild is usually the fat lady. That's where the saying comes from, "The opera ain't over until the fat lady sings."

Brunhild was a match for any man, or God. This movie is a good movie, but if you saw it on the sci-fi channel. You saw a more complete movie, than you got on the special edition DVD.

1) first cut Saxons at the Smithy
2) Siegfried bringing the Dragon back to Bergen.
3) the lady saying she would be a pagan again just for tonight
4) Kremheld confessing her love for Siegfried to Hagen.

My question is, why did they make these cuts for the American version of the DVD. Also, why did they change the title from, ring of the nibelungs?

I believe the DVD is still worth having, but it only gets four stars because of the edits.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want the un-cut version..., June 25, 2006

By	Anthony Pw Smith - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

...and can view region 2/PAL, then it's available on amazon.co.de and is titled 'Die Nibelungen: Der Fluch Des Drachen'. Amazon.co.de will take your amazon.com password and settings and the page layout is the same - so even with minimal to non-existant German you should be able to get it.

Comes with both English and German sound tracks and is 177 minutes long.

There's no point in me reviewing the story as so many others have done so better than I could.

It's worth tackling the German as from the other reviews I gather a lot has been hacked out of the US release. (My rating is based on the German release).