Uma Voz para Milhões

The singing appears to be found on most of his greatest hits or compilations. There does not appear to be any new vocal material. Kathryn Harrold is definitely eye catching and if I remember properly, Eddie Albert seems to be doing a reprise of Oliver Wendell Douglas. Nice to watch, simply to say you have watched it. Recall though, operatic acting is VERY different from screen acting. Saw him at the Met in an opera in 1998 at a time his health made every performance a question mark as to who would actually be singing that night. I got lucky, but I did sweat a bit. When I got my Playbill with no insert, I was a little kid at Christmas. That was a man in his element. In front of a camera, Pavarotti is great for talking and discussing. Not acting. Simply not trained for it.

There's Pavarotti, at the height of his powers and popularity, in glorious voice, and some beautiful photography, and that's about it for this misguided attempt to turn Luciano Pavarotti into the Mario Lanza of the 1980's. The whole thing was totally uninspired by anything except the desire to make a quick buck out of Pavarotti fans. All the critics panned it when it came out, but thought it would succeed on the strength of Pavarotti's (then) huge fan base. They were wrong. Talent or no, the rotund Pavarotti was nobody's idea of a romantic leading man. The fans wanted to hear Pavarotti sing, not see him try to act, and "Yes, Giorgio!" sank like a stone at the box office. Only Eddie Albert managed to rise above the mess with his dignity intact, giving his usual good, understated performance (Was he ever capable of giving a BAD performance?).

In short, if you want to see and hear Pavarotti at his best (roughly 1973-90), watch one of his videos/DVDs, either of his opera performances or his concerts, and avoid this best-forgotten failure.

I don't recall too much of this film, but I do recall going to the free concert in Boston for the climatic sequence for this film. It was a hot muggy East cost afternoon, and the mounted patrol of Boston's police force were out in force, horsies and all :) High above the camera copters were flying getting footage of the gathering crowd. Up front, near the actual ampitheatre, were the hard core opera and classical music aficionados. While behind them were folks who just wanted to get a glimpse of Luciano Pavarotti.

Needless to say Boston park was packed with people. I don't recall too much of the actual concert itself, but I do recall trying to spot myself in the crowd when the film aired on HBO. No, I didn't see myself, and the movie was just so-so, though entertaining all the same on a mediocre level.

I can't recall, but I think it was the same summer when the Red Sox decided to put on a water exhibition show during a rain delay. Who would've thought that I would experience two memorable events in Boston's social history that summer.

The film itself, from what I recall, isn't great cinema. Luciano Pavarotti was all the rage on the opera scene. So much so that he was gaining mainstream attention, and hence the studios took a chance on trying to cash in on his burgeoning popularity in this typical rags to riches tale.

It serves as a mild curiosity, but nothing more. I personally wish Pavarotti had done better mainstream films, but regardless he did some outstanding opera performances, many of which are available on DVD.

I haven't seen the film in over twenty years, but I won't forget my small participation in it.

By my "Kool-Aid drinkers" remark, I mean that these are such devoted fans of the man Pavarotti that they make no attempt to objectively rate this film. Giving this a 10 is akin to giving Wally Cox the award for Mr. Universe or putting a velvet Elvis painting in the Louvre!!! When this film debuted, I remember the savage reviews with headlines such as "No, Giorgio" and some said it was among the worst films ever made. This is definitely overstating it as well. While bad and far from a great work of art, there was a lot to like about the film and the movie's biggest deficit was not the acting of Pavarotti nor his girth.

Believe it or not, the brunt of the blame rests solely on the shoulders of the writers (who, I believe, were chimps). It is rare to see a movie with such clichéd dialog or goofy scenes like the food fight, but even they aren't the heart of the problem. The problem is that the writers intend for the audience to care about a "romance" that consists of a horny married middle-aged man and a seemingly desperate lady. Perhaps European audiences might be more forgiving of this, but in the United States in 1982 or today, such a romance seems sleazy and selfish--especially when Pavarotti tells Harrold that he loves his wife and "this is just fun". Wow, talk about romantic dialog!! Sadly, if they had just changed the script a little bit and made Pavarotti a widower or perhaps had his wife be like the wife from a couple classic Hollywood films, such as from ALL THIS AND HEAVEN, TOO or THE SUSPECT (where the wife was so vile and unlikable you could forgive the husband having an affair or even killing her). Instead, she's the loving mother of two kids who waits patiently at home while her egotistical hubby beds tarts right and left--as Pavarotti admits to having had many affairs before meeting Harrold.

Sadly, even the gorgeous music of Pavarotti couldn't save this film. Towards the end of the film, there are some amazing scenes in New York where the set is just incredible and Pavarotti's singing transcendent. For that reason, I think the movie at least deserves a 3. I really wanted to like the film more, but it was a truly bad film--though not quite as rotten as you might have heard.

Sadly, from what I have read, this film might be a case of art imitating life, as Pavarotti's own life later had some parallels to this film, though this isn't exactly the forum to discuss this in detail.

As others have said, "No, Luciano" is a more apt title or response to this movie title. For entertainment, the great opera singer should stick to singing.....not that he's a terrible actor. It's just that this movie stinks.

The first 25 minutes were fine - a nice family movie, as it were - but after that it's nothing but a boring soap opera.

Appropriately playing a singer, Pavarotti, as "Giorgio Fini," loses his voice a few times and the doctor, "Pamela Taylor" (Kathryn Harrold) comes to the rescue. The singer then falls for the doctor, the doctor slowly falls for the singer, the two argue all the time and on and on and on it goes.

Pavarotti has a winning smile and is a likable guy. It's Harrold that spoils things and after watching her here I am not surprised she didn't become a star.

There is nice scenery in the movie to enjoy, good shots of San Francisco and Italy, at least in the first half of the film. I got bored and don't remember much about the second half of it.