1492: Conquest of Paradise Reviews

History was not well served by Hollywood in 1992. Following Warner Bros.' ill-fated CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: THE DISCOVERY comes Paramount's 1492: THE CONQUEST OF PARADISE, a lumbering journey that conveys none of the joy or mystery of exploration. Star Gerard Depardieu's unintelligible line readings and director Ridley Scott's murky mise-en-scene make it a hard film to hear and see, let alone like. Yearning to follow a Western route to Asia, explorer Christopher Columbus (Depardieu) presents his case to the Spanish royal council in 1492. Only the Queen's treasurer Sanchez (Armand Assante) supports the idea, and Columbus is refused. With a banker's help, however, he gets an audience with Queen Isabella (Sigourney Weaver), and convinces her to finance his voyage. The explorer is so obsessed by his quest that he neglects his mistress Beatrix (Angela Molina) and two sons. Columbus and his men set sail on the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. After weeks of navigating by the stars and not reaching land, Columbus faces the near-mutiny of his sailors. His inspiring speech about their mission, however, convinces the weary, hungry men to continue and they finally land in Haiti. The Spaniards quickly befriend the local natives, learning their language and customs and believing the land a paradise. Columbus takes some Indians and their meager gold jewelry back to Queen Isabella, who is delighted with the explorer's success. But when Columbus returns to the West Indies with Spanish noblemen, he finds that the sailors he left behind have been massacred. Instead of punishing the Indians, however, Columbus establishes a colonial government. A mass rebellion occurs after Spanish nobleman De Moxica (Michael Wincott) persecutes some natives. After hearing about Columbus's chaotic administration, Queen Isabella sends another man to supervise the colony and summons the explorer to return to Spain, where he is promptly thrown in prison. The Queen later releases him, however, and agrees to let him make one more voyage. 1492: THE CONQUEST OF PARADISE has managed the impossible: to make Columbus's story dull. It meanders along for two and a half hours without creating the slightest ripple of interest. Former TV commercials director Ridley Scott (ALIENS, BLADE RUNNER, THELMA & LOUISE) indulges his passion for shadows and darkness, an idea that just doesn't work in an epic historical film; the grim lighting makes all the actors look grey. And Scott lingers over every scene. When the director finally gets to the landing in Haiti, a dramatic highpoint, he overdoes it by using the big slow-mo approach. Meanwhile, Roselyne Bosch's screenplay includes some unintentionally funny dialogue. Columbus's meeting with the Queen turns into a flirtation as he asks her how old she is. Another scene has Friar Marchena (Fernando Rey) deck Columbus when the explorer goes berserk in his church. Unfortunately, the most amusing part of the film is Depardieu's awkward performance. The actor, so marvelous in his native tongue, has trouble speaking English, and his thick accent makes even the simplest sentences difficult to comprehend. "De lund eez dere. De lund eez closh," he says to convince a sailor they will soon finish the voyage. Depardieu's hangdog expression and substantial girth also contribute to the laughable effect. As Isabella, Sigourney Weaver deports herself with a stiffness befitting a soap opera queen, not a true monarch; it's as though she doesn't quite know what to do with her body in the elaborate costumes. Assante looks like he should have played Columbus. Michael Wincott, who portrays the evil De Moxica, uses his strong features to good effect. On the other hand, his costume is distracting, reminding one of pop star Michael Jackson's outfits--a black leather jumpsuit with a low-slung, silver-studded belt. Although Columbus's achievements and motives have been subjected to criticism in recent years, the legendary explorer deserves a better filmic treatment on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of his discovery of the new world. (Violence, adult situations.)