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Warriors of Heaven and Earth
Sony Pictures Classics


7.6

based on 15 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 3 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for violence

Starring Jiang Wen, Kiichi Nakai, Wang Xueqi, Zhao Wei, Hasi Bagen, He Tao, Harrison Liu, and Wang Deshun

In the tradition of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Warriors of Heaven and Earth weaves a thread of battle, comradeship and honor. Set in the ferocious Gobi desert, the story follows two first-class warriors and master swordsmen. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Adventure \| Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	He Ping Zhang Rui
DIRECTED BY:	He Ping
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 7, 2004 Theatrical: September 3, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	114 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	China / Hong Kong
LANGUAGE(S):	Mandarin (with English subtitles)

Original title "Tian di ying xiong"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

The Hollywood Reporter Andrew Sun

A not particularly satisfying ending that involves silly CG effects. On the other hand, the acting is uniformly compelling, the fight sequences are energetic, and, as character drama, the material is especially enthralling.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

May be a period piece but there's nothing antiquated about it except an overly populated, initially hard-to-follow plot.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The film plays like a Hollywood-influenced Japanese samurai movie, though nothing as subtle as Kurosawa's best, and with white subtitles that often are hard to read against the white of the Gobi.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

More of a sand-and-noodles western set in the Far East.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The spaghetti western may be dead, but the noodle eastern looks to be alive and well.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Falters when it gets involved with supernatural gobbledygook.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A magnificent looking and occasionally very silly Chinese Western.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Thoroughly old-fashioned entertainment.

The New York Times Ned Martel

The best case for Warriors is its cinematic time travels and its peek into the natural wildness of a long-closed countryside.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

In spite of the unavoidable disappointment that comes from raised expectations (and lowered elevations), it's clumsy storytelling that ultimately keeps Warriors grounded.

San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson

Eminently watchable, with enough majestic vistas and heroic derring-do to get by. It could have been so much more.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Impressively filmed but not dramatic enough to justify its length.

Variety Derek Elley

A handsome although dramatically muddled Noodle Western.

Village Voice Mark Holcomb

Comfortably familiar. It lacks the tension between grandeur and intimacy that characterizes the films it apes.

LA Weekly David Chute

The buildup is so compelling in this "Chinese Western" by He Ping (Swordsman in Double Flag Town) that its thunderous anticlimax of an ending can almost be forgiven. Almost.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

M(ichael) B. gave it a7:
Sure, Director He Ping borrows liberally from John Ford, Howard Hwks, Akira Kurosawa, and Steven Spielberb, but the setting, the mostly barren middle stretch of the Silk Road, is magnificent. The story is rather predictable, but done with great style, except the ending, which feels truncated. I was fascinated by the political subtext: the crime of "Lie the Butcher" is essentially the same as that of Zhao Ziyang (the recently deceased former head of the Communist Party who became an outcast when he opposed the massacre in Tien An Min Square), yet, after many years, Li manages to demonstrate his loyalty and his worth.

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Warriors of Heaven and Earth Sony Pictures Classics

Warriors of Heaven and Earth
Sony Pictures Classics