1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)

Directed by Ridley Scott. Starring Gérard Depardieu, Michael Wincott, Armand Assante, Sigourney Weaver, Tchéky Karyo, Kevin Dunn, Loren Dean, Ángela Molina, Mark Margolis, Fernando Rey, Frank Langella, Bercelio Moya, John Heffernan, Fernando García Rimada, Billy L. Sullivan. [PG-13]

The better of the two Christopher Columbus epics released on the 500th anniversary of his “non-discovery” of the New World, but that’s not saying much. Saying more is to describe this extravagant period piece as detailed, sumptuous, and handsomely produced…but also dramatically inert, overbearing (particularly in the application of Vangelis’ suffocating score), and incapable of reconciling its murky themes with the run-on narrative. A solemn, dreary affair, its revisionist attitudes sap away any sense of excitement or grandeur, and can’t even deliver on the promise of intrepid courage—only about fifteen minutes of this two-and-a-half hour film are devoted to the initial sea voyage. Performances (and accents) are greatly inconsistent across its international cast, and although Depardieu lends the exotic trappings and ponderous dialogue some sober dignity, he’s even less compelling than the whitewashed myth of the man found in grade school textbooks. Written by Roselyne Bosch; moody yet scintillating photography by Adrian Biddle.

46/100