Depardieu, Sigourney Weaver Reviewed by Kate Ahrens THERE HAS been a wealth of information and entertainment about the 'discovery of America over the past year, and Hollywood was certainly not going to miss the bandwagon.
fou would think then, that Ridley Scott's version of events would have somewink specar to wko poopic want to go to sec it rather than get their fix of Columbus-mania from elsewhere. It hasn't.
The flaws in thís film are almost countless. It falls miserably in presenting a coherent historical account of the reasons behind the trip, both from Columbus' viewpoint, and that of the Spanish aristocracy.
Its attempt at an examination of the tensions between the state and the church is laughable. And its 'explanation' of the fallure of Columbus colonisation expedition creates far more cuconons tan 15 answer3Depardieu struggles admirably with a part for which he was hopelessly miscastas an actor whose real strength is exploring the hid den depths and character naws or mis part, te two dimensional nature of the script considerably hampered his performance.
Depardieu was not the only casting mistake - Sigournev Weaver as Oueen Isabella was ridiculous; I mean, the queen of Spain with an American accent?!
However, if the worst thing wrong with this him had been a stray American accent, I could have been perquality. But worse is to come. oes something like this:
OHs woa violal who wanted to work with the native tribes he found and dreamt of creating a ruly equal society in the New World, but was brought down by devious and corrupt elements in the Church and in the Spanish court. dramatising this tale by means of the worst melodramatic effects.
Baddies are immediately recognisable by the way the music becomes sinister the Columbus is a man of such honour and kindness that his wife is prepared to wait patiently for him to return from this journey that no one is convinced will sucaed.
Indeed she urges him to go and doesn't once even mention the fact that he is going off on some hare-brained adventure from which he will almost certainly not return and leaving her to look after their two children on her own.
The queen is persuaded to give her royal blessing to the trip because he's not afraid of me'. What a load of rubbish!
There is also the small matter of the almost obscene amount of gratuitous blood and gore. unpleasantly by surprise and it advanced the plot not one 1 want to be charitable and about this film (cos that's just the kind of person I am!) so here goes: if you like wildly inaccurate hístorical films, hink that Sigourney Weaver nd Gerard Depardieu are wonderful actors who can do no wrong and really enjoy rots or minaress violence, then this is the film for you. Reeking of success - REM