From: kirsten@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Kirsten Starcher)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Opinion of 1492
Date: 13 Oct 92 23:59:51 GMT
Organization: Memorial University of Newfoundland

I'm surprised that there haven't been many messages giving opinions on 1492.
So here's one, whether you like it or not.

I really expected to like this movie a lot.  I'd heard so much about it -- how
it was the great epic of the year, definite Oscar nominee, blah blah blah.

For the first hour, I believed it.  I was completely blown away by the sets,
the costumes, the ships; I thought Depardieu was super; the plot was really
captivating; there were some wonderfully powerful moments, ie. when he first
sights land, etc. etc.  It seemed really good.

But the rest of the movie, after he returns to Spain and then goes back to the
New World to establish a colony, just... died.  The plot became disjointed and
confusing -- no explanations were made for a number of events (the civil war,
though it had been building for a bit, just came and went without much
ceremony, for example).  The movie started to move *SLOWLY*.  I mean, dragging.
It was as if they'd made a reasonably slow-paced movie that was three and a
half hours long, and then realized, "We can't do this!" and had to cut parts
out, leaving the rest of it as slow-moving chunks of action.

I really didn't like Sigourney Weaver as the Queen.  She may have looked
alright for the part, but she just didn't have any believable royal presence.
Add to that the American accent -- it didn't really fit in with Depardieu's
French accent and the dozen or so other accents mixed in throughout the movie.

I also found the dialogue, at times, incomprehensible; I'm sure I missed some
vital bits of information because I just couldn't catch what the characters
were saying.  I wasn't the only one to mention this, either; I've heard this
from one or two others.  It's not just me going deaf.  :-)

There was no real character development of any of the characters besides
Columbus, either.  The "bad guy" (Minoxa?  I can't remember) was just a "bad
guy".  I read the press kit and it cleared up something that was never made
clear in the movie; that Minoxa resented a foreign peasant having such power,
and found it simply intolerable.  I mean, I could tell he didn't like Columbus
and his ways, but I didn't really see anything else until I read that.

Also, throughout the movie, Columbus refers to the "New World".  The few
history books I've looked at on the topic all state that Columbus went to his
grave believing that he'd found a new route to Asia; he didn't ever find out
that he'd found a whole new continent.  Bit of an inconsistency, isn't it?

To summarize:  This movie tries really hard but just piddles to a halt.
Fantastic sets, wonderful attention to detail (except the damn accents) but
just can't last the 2.5 hours.  Wait for videotape.

(It does have a cool soundtrack, though!)

 
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Kirsten Starcher		"All I want is that second of time
kirsten@morgan.ucs.mun.ca        and a few square inches inside of your mind."
							- Joyful Noise
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