Almost Complete Remake!

Rating: 5/10 (27 September 2006)

This film is a typical victim of the modern hype Hollywood uses. While professionally shot, well-acted, and all the rest, it is at end merely a remake of an earlier flick on the same subject! The first movie, starring Michael York and others, is a little brighter than this one, but for all Spielberg's vaunted talent, the latter is more or less an episode-by-episode remake of the first.
No real insights, new vision, etc. I found the remake disappointing as a consequence, and more than a little pretentious.
What further bothers is the shamelessness of the plagiarism. He could just as well imitated Rossini when pressed to compose an opera in a short period: take an old one--the Michael York version, in this case, and appended a wimpy there-is-no-right-or-wrong message at the end.