Purely Joyful Movie!

Powerful

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Film Review: "1492 - Conquest of Paradise" (1992)Receiving probably the highest independently-raised production budget of a decade in the early 1990s, Director Ridley Scott, at age 54, accumulates all the powers of live-action film-making, together with cinematographer Adrian Biddle (1952-2005) and down to a sword's tip production design by Norris Spencer to deliver a standing for all-time 150-Minute-Cut on the dramatized work-life-story of Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) based on an thrilling as original script by screenwriter Rose Bosch, who has been inspired by Marco Polo's experience reports from a 14th-century-journey to China; this "Columbus" interpretation dares to sail the Atlantic ocean westbound to hit an island of the Caribbean with fully-financed prospects from the Spanish Queen Isabel, match-making portrayal by actress Sigourney Weaver and certain in-country aristocrats for "The New World", inhabited by cooperative then-slaughtering Natives in add-on action favors of an immensely-emotional "tour-de-france" traveling with actor Gérard Depardieu in the leading role, who must confront two nemesis characters at once - spiritually as physically - given faces by collision-coursing, suspense-striving supporting cast Armand Assante and Michael Wincot as suspensions-bringing character of Moxica in the 2nd half of "1492 - Conquest of Paradise", when this European co-produced adventure film also-produced by director Ridley Scott and network-forcing producer Alan Goldman makes its struggle-felt toward a monumental motion picture achievement identifiable as entertaining to follow in a just-exceeded 25th anniversary presentation.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

This could have been a great movie, but it was rendered entirely unwatchable by Gérard Depardieu. Why did the people who made this movie cast him as Columbus? A French clown? Of course the French love him, because he's one of their own, and because they love clowns. They loved Jerry Lewis, after all. But why cast a French clown as Christopher Columbus? It is downright bizarre, and it completely ruined this movie, which otherwise could have been a great movie. Among the alternatives, there is one very well-known American actor, with southern European ethnic heritage, who would have been great in this role. Even Arnold S. would have been better than the French clown. The one thing that keeps this movie from being relegated to the trash pile is the musical score.

1992 marked the 500th anniversary of the 'discovery' of the Americas. It meant there were a plethora of documentaries and articles on Columbus. Some were critical, he discovered a continent that had 1 million people living there, might had been discovered by others before and he found the wrong place as he thought it was India. Ultimately many of the original inhabitants suffered from his intervention.1492 from Ridley Scott tries to makes sense of this contradictions. It is a gloriously flawed film, great art direction, production and music. A multi national cast with Depardieu speaking his lines with a heavy French accent but bringing presence. Scott scored with his supporting cast of villains, all of them hiss-able as vipers on the head of Medusa. You know early on things are going to turn ugly for the native Americans.Scott likes his history and admires Islamic history and you see early on when it comes to Reconquista when Moorish structure are destroyed and lost forever that the Spanish aristocrats are not appreciative of the arts and noble causes but only care about the monarchy, church and gold.Columbus is painted as a romantic adventurer, maybe misguided even naive. Depardieu cannot quiet hold the film together, frankly his English is not good enough. Its still a bold attempt at filmaking but we lack the real, more complex and the more greedy Columbus.

Anyone who has a clue about history will cringe all the way through this movie. Kind of make Columbus look like a hero in the eyes of the Tainos.I am happy to see the the movie grossed well below it's production cost...that should tell you what a spectacular joke this movie was. I might just watch it again to amuse myself...truly a bad movie. Aside from looking for familiar location shots, this movie left me amazed that for all the money spent, little was done in researching the history of the Taino encounters. In this country, we no longer have Columbus Day....it is now called the Day of Races.To honor such a man wreaks of ignorance.