The Pearl, released in 2001, and probably the worst movie of that year. I watched this movie out of curiosity since I had just finished the book, and that was where my dislike began. Where the writers and director changed the story, which they did very frugally. With that aside, I will concentrate on the movie and how it was made.
The actors of any movie are a good place to start, so that is what I will do. Lukas Haas was cast as the lead, Kino, who is described in the book as a large and strong man who has physically worked for everything in his life; I would be surprised if Lukas Haas weighs more than 150 pounds. Physicality can be overcome if the actor believes in his part and is committed, however this is not the case as Lukas Haas would just stand there watching the other actors go, even though they were not even half-decent, trying desperately to remember his lines. Richard Harris, playing the villain of the movie (not of the book), was a slight saving grace, and was able to do the best with the lines he was given. Nevertheless, I still do not understand why this two-time Oscar nominee chose to do this movie.
Even without the actors help, the director can still make a movie a success. Once again, though, this was not the case. Each scene of the movie was extremely poorly crafted, and even laughable to watch. With random characters thrown in to state obvious facts, my favorite being the man with the beard proudly announcing that "they have not yet said a price" during the appraisal scene. The director also had a poor eye for detail with little mistakes throughout, such as Kino's black spandex that he was wearing underneath his loin cloth, which can be scene plainly during the diving scene. And of course the director couldn't resist throwing in a love scene that lies nowhere in the book.
The Pearl was an overall terrible movie, and I found myself laughing aloud at the poor filmmaking and acting. In my immediate memory, I cannot think of a movie which was worse than this. The Pearl has obviously received zero award success.
I give The Pearl a very worthy 2.1/10.
