1492 : Christophe Colomb

This would make a really interesting lower half of a double bill with Terrence Malick's The New World. They're pretty explicitly about the same theme, finding paradise on Earth only for it to slip through the characters' fingers as they reach out to reclaim it, but the idea is approached very differently across the two films. The New World is the poetic version, and 1492: Conquest of Paradise is the more literal minded (but still visually sumptuous) take by Ridley Scott. It's not nearly as successful as The New World, but I do think there's quite a bit to like in Scott's take on Christopher Columbus.

It's the early 90s and everyone knows that a new world is required. I'm of course talking about the early 1990s and a bunch of studio executives remembering a nursery rhyme from their nannies about Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492. So, they greenlit two pictures. I've never seen Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (and have no desire to, considering its reputation), but being a Ridley Scott fanboi, I've always had a soft spot for this large adaptation of ten years of Columbus' life.

The first hour is where the movie works best. It's his time trying to convince financiers and representatives of the Spanish crown and Church that he could easily sail to India by going west from Portugal. The ancient Greeks who devised the circumference of the Earth were wrong and it's not actually that far to India. The knowledgeable academics scoff at Columbus because he's rejecting settled science that's been settled since Ptolemy. Columbus was actually wrong, by the way. If America hadn't happened to have been right there, smack dab in between the two, Columbus would have starved to death on the open sea.

But that's not the point. The point is that Columbus was a visionary. He didn't see the world as it was accepted, he saw it as he wanted it to be. He lucked out when the unknown continent and its islands happened to be between Europe and India, but his vision didn't end with just a new trade route.

The trip westward is finely filmed with the expected grumblings of mutiny, but it's the landing at San Salvador that takes the cinematic cake of the film. Perhaps it's filmed as one would expect (slow motion with Columbus falling to his feet), but the combination of image and sound (with a quality score from Vangelis) makes the landing feel really special.

It's here, on the island that the natives and the movie call Guanahani that Columbus sees his new vision, that of a new Eden. This is right out of Malick's playbook and even feels like the retreats to nature seen in Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, and, especially, The New World. It's innocent and where the European men are their happiest. They live with nature and the natives in perfect harmony for a time, but this paradise is temporal, for it is on Earth. Columbus must return to Spain for the health of his financier, and he leaves behind several dozen men who wish to remain.

The trip back is a huge success, though he brings back little gold or spices that one would expect from part of India. He gets feted and honored by Isabella, and sent back with hundreds more men to truly make that place a new Eden for more Spaniard, but upon his arrival, Columbus finds all the men he left behind dead, killed by one of the native tribes. He advocates mercy and tolerance in the face of his more extreme noble members, determined to make the paradise he envisioned.

This second half of the film is a bit clunkier, covering more time with more moving parts and characters to track. It works as well as it can with action beats and a villain, but it's still a letdown from the first. Columbus comes through it as noble-minded but deeply flawed, unable to see the world for what it is, pushing everything aside for his vision of what the world should be. There are implications that he's foreseeing what would become some of the central tenets of the American War for Independence, especially in his interactions with Moxica, a Spanish lord who accompanies Columbus on the second voyage.

Being a Ridley Scott film, the movie looks really good from beginning to end. His use of smoke, steam, and snow to provide texture helps throughout. He frames his scenes exceedingly well, and the lush greens of the tropics pop off the screen, offering a strong counterpoint to the whites and light browns of the Spanish settlement that rises from the jungle. Gerard Depardieu is large and physically imposing as Columbus, while also convincingly wide-eyed and innocent of the world while hardheaded about his own vision.

It's not Scott's greatest work, but it takes a large subject and boils it down to a compelling theme that twists around its main character in interesting ways. It's a solid effort, and a quality entertainment.

1492 was not an exciting movie, at times, even, it was boring. Not the usual Ridley Scott stuff. But it's all made up for by Vangelis' score. The main theme is a recognizable piece of music, so beautiful; and the rest of the score is enchanting. To tell the truth I wouldn't have liked this film so much, if it weren't for the music!

I'll never forget reading about the making of 1492: Conquest of Paradise in my beloved biography Depardieu. Gérard, set to play Christopher Columbus in Ridley Scott's epic, studied English with a private tutor for months before filming, to try and wean him away from his famous accent. Then, during the scene when he learns of his voyage's destination, he storms through the room and declares, "My God! We leave in two weeks!" When you watch that scene, you'll find it hard to believe he worked so hard to take away his accent, since he sounds exactly like he always does. But, since I love him, I don't really care. To any critics, I offer the challenge to them to try and become fluent in a foreign language without any trace of an American accent, all in front of a movie camera.

At the end of the day, 1492 wasn't a success at the box office, but it's a very tricky subject to get right. Are you going to paint Columbus in a positive light? Are you going to focus on the voyage, the backstory, or his life in the New World? Is it going to be fictionalized, painfully truthful, or somewhere in between? If the latter, you can guarantee critics will rake your movie across the coals for being realistic in parts and glossing fiction over other parts. So, when you rent this movie, be open-minded. The movie won't please everyone, but even the most thorough history classes won't please everyone.

What you will get in 1492 is a very lush, beautifully filmed epic. The sets and interior design are very pretty and realistic, complete with natural-looking lighting. The outdoor environment, filmed on many different islands, looks as untouched by civilization as possible, and many scenes are quite interesting to see Columbus's adjustments to his surroundings. You'll also get to see France's most popular, talented actor in another larger-than-life role. Granted, he doesn't sound Italian, but many Americans don't care about specific accents; as long as he has one, they think he sounds foreign enough. Sigourney Weaver dons some beautiful gowns as Queen Isabel, and you'll also see Armand Assante, Fernando Rey, Tchéky Karyo, and Frank Langella in the supporting cast.

Yes, too long, too boring, too much license on the culture, and the characters aren't very believable. Also very surprising how it can be so outrageously kind to Columbus since this film was produced at a time when politically correct forces were raking the guy into infamy. I hate to sound like a broken record, but the music was beautiful. Maybe too much so. A inconspicuously second-rate score might have been more appropriate.

1492: Conquest of Paradise is directed by Ridley Scott and written by Roselyne Bosch. It stars Gerard Depardieu, Armand Assante, Fernando Rey, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Wincott and Tcheky Karyo. Music is scored by Vangelis and cinematography by Adrian Biddle.

"500 years ago, Spain was a nation gripped by fear and superstition, ruled by the crown and a ruthless inquisition that persecuted men for daring to dream. One man challenged this power. Driven by his sense of destiny he crossed the sea of darkness in search of honour, gold and the greater glory of God."

It barely made a dent at the box office, but neither did the other big Columbus release in 1992, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery. Meaning what? Both films are bad? Or that many went to see one that was bad and thought better than going to sit through another Columbus epic? Or maybe the topic, the anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the New World, just hadn't got the appeal that studios hoped for? All possible, but in the case of Ridley Scott's 1492: Conquest of Paradise, the lukewarm response is probably born out of it being a different kind of movie than that which was expected.

This is no rousing epic that's full of derring do and swagger, it's over talky for the non historical movie loving crowd, and crucially it goes against the grain of what Columbus, we are now led to believe, was like. It seems that Scott and Bosch were more happy to paint the famed explorer as a noble man of the people, a man of science, keeping his motives vague and his actions as dignified. With hindsight, it surely would have been more interesting to have had a Columbus picture portraying him as the self driven bastard he's been accused of being! I wonder how many more people would have paid to see that?

Film is not helped by Depardieu's performance as Columbus. Acting on direction of course, the restrained portrayal leaves the film without an heroic, passion fuelled edge, something that is badly needed in a film about such a momentous historical occasion. His fluctuating accent is also a nuisance. There's no doubting the professional performance the Frenchman gives, it's just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The other cast members jostle for screen time with mixed results, but Assante, Karyo and Wincott are good value for money. But they, like Depardieu, pale in the shadow of Scott's aesthetics.

This is where the film is a real winner. From the medieval make over for a moody Spain; to the capturing of ships setting sail from Port of Palos under an orange sky; to the wide angled shooting of Costa Rica, Scott and Biddle delight the eyes. When Bosch's screenplay allows, Scott is able to construct some truly indelible sequences, with garrotings, flaming pyres and a village assault serving notice that all is not lost here. But these, along with an extended sequence of men in unison trying to erect a giant bell, only make us notice just how much of a wasted opportunity this was. While Vangelis' stirring score also has one hankering after a narrative with more momentum.

Big flaws and frustrating, but not a complete disaster for those armed with the knowledge that this is no rousing and devilish experience. 6/10