1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writer:

Roselyne Bosch (scenario)

Release Date:

9 October 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Biography | Drama | History

Tagline:

Centuries before the exploration of space, there was another voyage into the unknown.

Plot:

Christopher Columbus' discovery of the Americas and the effect this has on the indigenous people.

Plot Keywords:

Shirtless | Spanish Inquisition | Bare Butt | Persecution Of Jews | Child Nudity

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Gérard Depardieu	...	Christopher Columbus
Armand Assante	...	Sanchez
Sigourney Weaver	...	Queen Isabella I.
Loren Dean	...	Older Fernando Columbus
Ángela Molina	...	Beatrix Enriquez
Fernando Rey	...	Antonio de Marchena
Michael Wincott	...	Adrian de Moxica
Tchéky Karyo	...	Martín Alonso Pinzón
Kevin Dunn	...	Captain Mendez
Frank Langella	...	Luis de Santángel
Mark Margolis	...	Francisco de Bobadilla
Kario Salem	...	Arojaz
Billy L. Sullivan	...	Young Fernando Columbus
John Heffernan	...	Brother Buyl
Arnold Vosloo	...	Guevara

Also Known As:

1492 (Australia)
1492: Christophe Colomb (France)
1492: La conquête du paradis
1492: La conquista del paraíso (Spain)

Runtime:

154 min

Country:

UK | France | Spain

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby SR (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | France:U | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:TE | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Iceland:16 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Peru:PT | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG (cut) | Brazil:14

Filming Locations:

Costa Rica

Company:

Gaumont

Trivia:

Screenwriter Roselyne Bosch got the idea for the project when she discovered millions of untranslated parchments while researching an article on Columbus. After joining forces with a French film executive, she finally found an interested director in Ridley Scott, who had always wanted to make a movie about Columbus. Scott agreed to direct the film on one condition: Columbus must be played by Gérard Depardieu. Depardieu was contacted, and eager to take the part.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Visible on a modern ship, after the camera circumnavigates the "Santa Maria"

Quotes:

Columbus: Paradise and hell both can be earthly.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "3satfestival: Rainald Grebe & Die Kapelle der Versöhnung - 1968 (#9.6)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Una Caza Chica

Beautiful but vacuous

The perils of working towards an anniversary and trying to beat a rival project to the screen are all too evident in 1492 – Conquest of Paradise. It's easily Ridley Scott's most beautiful looking film, designed and shot with real love and care. With almost every shot gorgeous enough to take down and frame, it's like walking through an art gallery at times. Unfortunately that's never enough to compensate for a terrible screenplay by Roselyne Bosch that seems to have been written on the bus to work and stumbles from cliché to cliché. Carry On Columbus has better dialog at times, not to mention a better grasp of history. Worst of all, it throws away the real dramatic potential in Columbus' life for an unconvincing slice of class warfare – wouldn't you know it, it was really all those pesky upper class Euro trash aristo types like Michael Wincott that screwed up paradise, not Columbus' own incompetence and incredible cruelty – while painting him as the 'chosen one.' At one point when the Inquisition ask our compassionate visionary if he is comparing himself to Christ, there's even a dramatic pause as he thinks it over in that he-is-you-know tipping the nod to the audience way. The result is a film that wants to be up there with Herzog's Spanish nutter in the jungle movies but is too expensive to allow its protagonist to go all Klaus Kinski on it and run the risk of alienating the audience, leaving us with more excuses and special pleading than drama.

Strangely, no-one in front of or behind the camera seems to notice just how bad the script is ("Excuse me, but you're the only queen I know," Columbus tells Isabella, soliciting the even more unlikely reply "You're the only navigator I know, so that makes us even."), and both performances and technical standards are all worthy of a much better film. Still, sometimes looking good is good enough – but not good enough for 154 minutes. It's a shame that they didn't read Kirkpatrick Sale's excellent historical biography instead of just using the title.