Escapando de una China devastada por la guerra, un grupo de europeos se estrella en el Himalaya, donde son rescatados y llevados al misterioso Valle de la Luna Azul.Escapando de una China devastada por la guerra, un grupo de europeos se estrella en el Himalaya, donde son rescatados y llevados al misterioso Valle de la Luna Azul.Escapando de una China devastada por la guerra, un grupo de europeos se estrella en el Himalaya, donde son rescatados y llevados al misterioso Valle de la Luna Azul.
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Elenco
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Todo el elenco y el equipo
- Producción, taquilla y más en IMDbPro
Opiniones destacadas
I remember getting a preview copy of the album quite some time before the film was released. I loved the music, but would have to agree the vocal performances are a disaster. But, I was looking forward to seeing it in the theater. At nearly 2.5 hours in its roadshow release, I was checking my watch about 45 minutes into the piece. Even when I watch it on DVD today, there are large sections I fast forward through.
As others have noted, why didn't Ross Hunter hire people who could sing in the key roles? Probably studio pressure for "bankable" stars who were "hot" at the time. No doubt someone also observed Bacharach & David are pop song writers, and you don't need to be a very good vocalist to sing pop--right? Well, the more recent musical disaster, the aptly named "Mamma Mia!" ABBA tribute also suffered from dreadful vocal performances. So much for the "anyone can sing pop" theory. Make no mistake, Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan are fine actors, but they should never the be the leads in a musical! Why not cast Glenn Close?
But back to "Lost Horizon," I think the other problem is by the time this was released in 1972, the music and presentation were considered dated or "old school." Similar complaints were leveled at Hunters 1970 film "Airport"--calling it "old fashioned filmmaking."
So, you've got three things working against the film: a dull plot, dated music, and principal vocalists who can't sing. Now some have commented that the Hollywood musical was dead by 1972. There were some other big features that only had mediocre results at this time, but just 6 years later, "Grease," with a budget of just $6 million, earned almost $400 million at the box office. No doubt it was helped by a couple of hit singles, but there was certainly some audience interest still out there.
Disney seems to have found a formula that appeals to a new generation with its "High School Musical" series and its forthcoming "Teen Beach Musical." Several of the studio's animated musical features have been remade into successful Broadway musicals. Time will tell if there is a revival of interest in big budget, big screen musicals with principals who can actually sing.
By the time LOST HORIZON came along, the movie musical was already considered a dead genre, save for the occasional import from Broadway that actually turned out well (OLIVER! & CABARET come immediately to mind). However, the age of the musical where songs were written especially for the movie had long been buried. That did not matter to producer Ross Hunter, who always was a safeguard of Old Hollywood even after the advent of the MPAA allowed for movies to be made of subjects that the studios would not have touched with a ten-foot pole. Hunter may have succeeded in bringing back old-fashioned soap operas with the Douglas Sirk movies, but as THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE showed with its original songs that paled in comparison to the classics it stood alongside (well, almost), the musical was perhaps not a genre in need of a revival.
You certainly could have fooled Hunter, who went full-steam ahead with his musicalization of a property that should have been left alone to begin with. Casting actors with little to no musical training & badly dubbing them was bad enough, but choosing a project that worked best in its original format was double trouble. That is certainly not to fault Burt Bacharach & Hal David's music, which is fine enough, though certainly not up to par with their Dionne Warwick spectaculars. But you get the idea that maybe even they were doubtful of this project's bankability. Supposedly the film led to the break-up of their previously infallible partnership, as well as Hunter's film career (he mostly worked for TV afterwards).
Apparently, Hollywood likes to keep its megaflops very secret because LOST HORIZON has not been seen much since its theatrical debut, and has not even made it onto VHS, let alone DVD in the U.S. (I found my copy courtesy of eBay). But if even Ed Wood's hilariously bad movies can be released & enjoyed by people even for all the wrong reasons, then certainly LOST HORIZON can. So I hope that Columbia Pictures can find it in their hearts to bring this movie back into circulation so we can enjoy it (even genuinely because it appears some people actually did). Heck, if only for the camp value, it would be a surefire hit. With CHICAGO & MOULIN ROUGE having indicated the musical is making a comeback, then it would be good to have LOST HORIZON out on the market again to educate people in how not to make one. But it sure is hell of a lot of fun along the way.
The classic "Lost Horizon" asked the viewer to suspend belief in the hope of something better. This "Lost Horizon" makes the viewer appreciate what he's already got... no clubfooted school teachers snaking about with obnoxious children; no litter-lugging sherpas chanting "living together, loving together" to a couple undoubtedly more anxious to get on with the latter than the former; and no English lords moonlighting as high lamas.
Do not let anyone persuade you not to see this movie. Like wearing purple and eating more ice cream than beans, it is a required rite of passage before leaving this veil of tears. Which, I guarantee you will have in abundance, no matter into which of the two groups you fall.
¿Sabías que…?
- TriviaThis movie was the first one Columbia Pictures filmed after it moved onto the Warner Brothers lot in 1972, creating The Burbank Studios, to facilitate both production companies. The castle set from Camelot (1967) was recycled as Shangri-La. The medieval turrets were removed and replaced with Tibetan gables to simulate Himalayan Buddhist monasteries. Most of the castle's lower levels remained intact, and the courtyard was replaced with layered steppes and fountains. The set remained on the studio's backlot for several years before it was torn down to make way for a new office building.
- ErroresThe library at Shangri-La is supposed to be a repository for the world's great literature, yet a number of "Readers' Digest Condensed Books" are visible on its shelves.
- Citas
George Conway: You are more beautiful than the women of Thailand; more feminine than the women of France; more pliable than the women of Japan; more...
Maria: Stop, stop. I don't want to hear about all these other women. What I want to hear is that you won't leave me.
- Versiones alternativas"Lost Horizon" was cut by 23 minutes after its theatrical release. The deleted footage consisted of three songs: "I Come To You", "If I Could Go Back", and "Where Knowledge Ends, Faith Begins"; plus two reprises of "Living Together, Growing Together" were cut, and a fertility dance sequence was also edited out. Pioneer reinstated the three songs for a 1992 Laserdisc release whilst the remaining footage was restored for the 2011 DVD version.
- ConexionesEdited into Mandrake (1979)
Selecciones populares
- How long is Lost Horizon?Con tecnología de Alexa
Detalles
- Fecha de lanzamiento
- País de origen
- Idiomas
- También se conoce como
- Der verlorene Horizont
- Locaciones de filmación
- Productoras
- Ver más créditos de la compañía en IMDbPro
Taquilla
- Presupuesto
- USD 12,000,000 (estimado)
- Tiempo de ejecución2 horas 30 minutos
- Color
- Relación de aspecto
- 2.35 : 1