From: reiher@pram.CS.UCLA.EDU (Peter Reiher)
Subject: REVIEW: CHISTOPHER COLUMBUS--THE DISCOVERY
Reply-To: reiher@pram.CS.UCLA.EDU (Peter Reiher)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 13:27:39 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.movies
Summary: r.a.m.r. #01506
Keywords: author=Reiher

[Note: It's a pity this didn't get released a week or so earlier--it could have
been r.a.m.r. #1492!  As it is, it will have to settle for 1506, the year of
Columbus's death.  -Moderator]

		     CHISTOPHER COLUMBUS--THE DISCOVERY
		       A film review by Peter Reiher
			Copyright 1992 Peter Reiher

     Those familiar with the Salkind brothers had good reason to doubt
the quality of their Christopher Columbus film, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS -
The DISCOVERY.  Their last few ventures have hardly inspired much
confidence.  However, in the past they delivered not only SUPERMAN, but
also THE THREE MUSKETEERS and THE FOUR MUSKETEERS.  While far from a
perfect film, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS--THE DISCOVERY bears more resemblance
to the Salkind's earlier successes than to their more recent failures.

     CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS--THE DISCOVERY covers Columbus' attempts to
convince someone to finance his journey, and his first voyage.  The
Salkind's decided to ignore his increasingly desperate later attempts to
prove that he had reached the Far East in favor of the great triumph of
his initial discoveries.  That decision is symptomatic of the entire
approach of the film.  While not entirely hagiographic, CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS--THE DISCOVERY is basically an adventure film about a great man
who performs a great deed despite determined opposition and tremendous
odds.  Taken purely as such, the film is basically a success.  If one
wants a more studied, intellectual approach to Columbus, perhaps Ridley
Scott's upcoming version will provide satisfaction.  If one is just
interested in a good time at the movies, the Salkind version does just
fine.

     CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS--THE DISCOVERY is a very handsome film.  No
expense has been spared to make the film look good.  The set design, the
costumes, and the photography are all impeccable.  Given the film's
budget, and the past history of the Salkind's, that's not too
surprising.  Much more surprising is that moderate amounts of effort
have been spent on the script and the direction.  Mario Puzo, a Salkind
favorite after SUPERMAN, wrote the story, and receives a partial
screenplay credit.  John Wiley and Cary Bates get the first credit on
the screenplay.  (They apparently wrote most of what got shot.)  They
have created a reasonably paced, reasonably intelligent version of the
story.  Perhaps the script's biggest flaw is that it does not provide
sufficient depth to its central character, at least in the first hour of
the film.  Eventually, Columbus is revealed to be more than a visionary
standing heroically in the prow of his ship, but we aren't given quite
enough preparation for the darker side of the man, which emerges rather
suddenly.  

     Despite this flaw, and a perfunctory love interest, and some silly
lines, and a tendency to make nods in the direction of fashionable views
of history, the script is a success, on the whole.  Even some of the
politically correct touches are made to work.  As the Santa Maria pulls
away from Spain on its voyage, revealed behind it is a ship full of Jews
who are about to be deported from Spain.  The moment was carefully
prepared, the shot was well planned, so it achieves its effect.

     This shot, and some others, show that the director, John Glen, had
a bit more than hackwork in mind.  Glen graduated from being a second
unit director of James Bond films to being the director, and has done
the last four or five of them.  However, he's done little else, and has
gained a reputation as an action specialist.  The few action scenes in
this film show he hasn't lost his touch for staging violence, but he
gets a chance to show a bit more breadth of talent.  He has real
characters who get to speak real dialog to each other in this film, and
he handles it pretty well.  He also does nicely with the big moments of
the film.

     His handling of the actors is another strong point.  There is only
one truly weak performance in CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS--THE DISCOVERY, and
it, fortunately, is in a supporting role.  The leads do quite well.
George Corraface is not well known to film audiences, but he has a
strong theatrical background, and was to play the lead in David Lean's
NOSTROMO.  He provides a good, solid Columbus, here.  He does the best
he can to mask the lack of early development of his character, so that
Columbus' nastier side does not come completely out of the blue.  But he
also manages to convey a sense of true heroism, as the success of the
film definitely required.  

     Marlon Brando, unjustly given top billing in a supporting role,
almost manages to justify it.  His is a superb performance, as
Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor and confessor to Queen Isabella.  He
subtly underplays the part (not the type of acting choice Brando has
made for many years), and makes us wish that there were more scenes like
the one where he interrogates Columbus about the possibly heretical
aspects of the planned voyage.  Corraface manages not to disappear 
entirely in his scenes with Brando, but Brando confirms that he still
has the talent, when he chooses to show it.  It's an interesting choice
of the screenwriters to deliver a moral judgement on Columbus from
Torquemada's lips, and Brando manages to pull it off, in part because of
the sincerity of faith he has brought to the character earlier.  It
would be easy to play Torquemada as a sadistic, slavering villain, but
Brando's subtlety pays far greater dividends.

     The other major parts are Rachel Ward, as Queen Isabella
(adequate); Tom Selleck, as King Ferdinand (relatively speaking, a
triumph over unlikely casting - Selleck owes his costume maker a good
deal for the success of his performance, but he does bring it off); and
Robert Davi, as Pinzon, one of the captains of the small fleet and an
ambiguous character, part hero, part opportunist.  Davi doesn't quite
succeed in the slightly underwritten part, but doesn't fail utterly,
either.

     Given the limited ambition and goals of CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS--THE
DISCOVERY, the film is just about as good as it could have been.  It's
nice to look at, not entirely devoid of intelligence, pretty
consistently entertaining, and generally well acted.  Its poor
advertising campaign and the mysterious decision by the releasing studio
not to pre-screen it for critics almost certainly doom it to failure at
the box office, but it really is worth seeking out before it disappears,
for those who have any interest in historical epics, at all.

--
		Peter Reiher
		reiher@wells.cs.ucla.edu

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