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Plot:
One of Ridley Scott's most wrong-headed films, this one (like all of his movies) looks fabulous and sounds utterly ridiculous, almost from the beginning. His first mistake was casting the wonderful Ge...( read more 
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:May 19, 2008Bad acting and a weak development makes this perhaps the biggest disappointment of the year, since I was expecting more from Mr. Scott. Not that bad though.
75/100 -
MCT:May 11, 2008
I was kinda expecting more from this film considering that it was directed by Ridley Scott. The cinematography is gorgeous and the Vangelis score is amazing but the storyline defiantly leaves something to be desired. Gerard Depardieu plays a very french Columbus, a passionate explorer who picks fights with the clergy and makes coy remarks to Queen Isabella of Spain. Dont get me wrong, the acting is descent, its just awkward and unrealistic. The climax of the film is the voyage and discovery of the new world (covered in about 20 minutes) followed by a petty conflict with a cardboard villain ending in the predictable slaughter of the natives. All in all, it lacks the epic quality that its trying to get across. Interesting but ultimately forgettable.
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MCT:April 19, 2008The story is incoherent and hardly developed, the dialogue is very cheesy and most actors vary very inconvincing. The actual historical story is a really interesting, has the potential to be made into a great movie, but this one is just horrible. I never want to see this movie again.
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MCT:March 4, 2008
Interesting movie of this "very sad" event. Never understood why the catholics felt it so necessary to rule over people with different religions and certainly never understood the human nature of claiming or stealing other peoples' belongings, in this case gold (which they couldn't find of course).
I hated watching this movie and I am not sure that the real Columbus' intentions were so pure as the ones showed in the movie by Gérard Depardieu who I did not always understand, because his pronounciation of the English language is not the best. However this movie should not have been made in English but in either Spanish or Italian, as Christopher Columbus was Italian after all. All in all this movie could have had a better quality. Maybe Mel Gibson would have been a better choice for directing it? -
MCT:January 6, 2008Criminally under-rated, looks gorgeous and the Vangelis score is even better! Good performances throughout from Depardieu and Wincott.
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MCT:September 27, 2007
I was in doubt as how to rate this movie. If I rated it only for its technical aspects and my own enjoyment of it, I'd certainly rate it lower. Sure, the soundtrack is awesome, but everything else is unsettling: cliched characters, contrived lines, a strange mix of languages and accents, an irregular pacing and historical revisionism. But it is effective as a thought-provoking piece about human nature and the mistakes of the past, and for this small but important reason I think this movie is underrated.
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MCT:August 24, 2007An all-around good film with an excellent soundtrack by Vangelis (especially the individual song on it carrying the same name as the film).
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MCT:August 9, 2007I tried to watch it twice - I fell asleep both times (once in the theater).
Something tells me that it's pretty boring. -
MCT:July 23, 2007I just loved this Movie. It was one of the Best Colombus Movies ever made, or maybe Gérard Depardieu played a a better Colombus.
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MCT:July 10, 2007
As 1492 reaches its climax, land is sighted by a sailor on the Pinta: the mist parts to reveal the New World to Columbus, who wades ashore where his European boots set foot on the soil. Unfortunately this is about 30 minutes into the running time of this 154 minute film, which kills the momentum - the rest of the film plods along.
Gérard Depardieu plays Christopher Columbus, with a mumbling French accent. (I care not to much about the "accuracy" of accents, but had difficulty discerning the dialogue.) Unlike the man of history who was through the native peoples he discovered would make fine Christian converts and never gave up believing he had landed in Asia, this Chris has 20th century sensibilities. He is sympathetic to the natives' pantheistic beliefs, explaining these to the Spanish Court, and has high hopes that the New World will be better than the Old. His dashed idealism is at the film's core, but this strong theme jives poorly with well-known history.
The bulk of 1492 concerns Columbus's governing of La Isabela settlement on Hispaniola. This was disastrous in part because of the rough climate, the mistaken assumption that there was gold a-plenty, and escalating violence between the Spanish and the natives. Again Columbus and his men are shown as enlightened administrators, with only the sadistic, cardboard villain Moxica (a greasy, angular Michael Wincott) bringing out the Spaniards' worser natures. And so Columbus bears the brunt of the New World's failure, as he is arrested, grows sick, and goes uncredited for his discovery. (Columbus's third voyage - that truly led to his downfall - is ignored entirely, the film's epilogue implying his final voyage was his third, not fourth.)
Throughout there is also some court intrigue involving Sigourney Weaver's Queen Isabella and her advisers, whose greed and Imperial ambitions contrast Columbus's altruistic dreams.
All proceedings are beautifully shot as one would expect in a Ridley Scott production, and not enough can be said for Vangelis's majestic score. Unfortunately, the poor pacing of the script and modern inferences on history undermine 1492 - it doesn't stand alongside the great epics. Nonetheless, there is a sense of adventure as well as lost possibilities. -
MCT:July 5, 2007
It's a seriously underrated film even though it has some major problems. While the acting suffers due to the casting of a Frenchman in a English role, I've never been much of an acting person, only caring when it stinks, which this didn't.
The cinematography and score approach the level of mystical. When Columbus sets foot on the New World. The camera focuses on his boots as the wade through the shallow water till they finally stand on dry land where he falls to his knees. It's a moment fraught with meaning; relief at a voyage over, joy of a dream fulfilled, or foreboding of the European conquest of the the Americas.
Scenes like that let the viewer decide, and the film really suffers when half of it is about founding a colony complete with modern criticism of the time period. If it had focused on the preparation, voyage and discovery, the film would have been a brilliant film.
But alas, only Vangelis' score is brilliant.
Link to that brilliant scene:
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=UKE01iFJQxw&mode
=related&search= -
MCT:July 3, 2007
This movie has one of the best sound effects of all time. Fast forward to where they are about to cross a river and you'll see what I mean.
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MCT:June 8, 2007
A very evocative picture of life over 500 years ago... superstitious, with the unknown to the west.
This movie does a great justice to bring that era to life, with spectacular sets, costumes, and of course, the ships!!
For lovers of history, this is one of the best films in the 'historical epic' genre, and Vangelis' score creates an eerie presence that probes the depth of their struggle and existence.
It is more a story of the life of Columbus, from just before he gains approval to sail in search of Asia to the west. The man Columbus was an incredible character in history, and the casting of Depardieu in this role was perfect, as he has the screen presence to carry the burden-ful role. I cannot imagine any american actor who could have pulled it off in his stead.
Not designed to be a super-blockbuster, it was made in honour of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the New World, and lend a real representation of what happened.
Overall, it is a highly under-rated film; has such a depth of character; and captures the spirit of the era!
Very passionate... not for the shallow. -
MCT:May 23, 2007
It was as horrible as I thought it was going to be and it's sad. I love Ridley Scott's films too. Just a poor project with terrible results. It reeks of the P.C. '90's a bit but still manages to be offensive to history and the Indigenous people of the America's. In terms of accuracy, that goes out the window pretty fast with this glossy rendition of Western History. It was a little better than Chris Columbus:The Discovery though.
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MCT:May 2, 2007
there is an exciting interesting film to be made from this story but this isn't it, dull in the extreme
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MCT:April 15, 2007
Ooooh,,very beautifully filmed movie,with such fine actors. The story is timeless.Wow. I own this one.
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MCT:January 29, 2007
I saw it once, years ago, while jotting down plot markers and notes on a sheet of paper for AP Euro. That summary of the film has long since faded, so my memory of its artistic merit falls just short of nothing. It wasn't a B-movie, but it certainly wasn't a great film.
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MCT:June 28, 2006
I say its a good movie if you have the patience for it. has a tendency to drag on but it's a good watch...at least once.
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MCT:June 15, 2006
The film itself isn't bad, but I loooovve the soundtrack by vangelis. Music in a film is everything.
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MCT:May 30, 2006
pretty good, but pretty boring. This is what you see at midnight on History Channel (where i watched it!)
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Comments
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ladyphoenixxevposted 573 days ago
