1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)

Gerarad Depardieu. and the music of Vangelis. a hero as result of good intentions. and hostile savages. this film is more a seductive fairy tale than a historical film. and this is the motif for see it as a show, ignoring the inaccuracy, the fake events and the clear errors. the poetry of image. nothing else is the virtue of this full of noble intentions film. Christopher Columbus is only a character and cold be strange to compare him with the portrait, known from school years or result of lectures. because, obvious, the purpose is not exactly to recreate a life but to give an impressive hero. and the good thing - it is a beautiful film. detail who could be enough.

This film seeks to show the journey in which Christopher Columbus allegedly discovered America. About this there is a lot of historical controversy and its very difficult to be sure if the true discoverer was him, Amerigo Vespucci or the Portuguese João Vaz Corte-Real (who seems to have explored the Canadian coast twenty years before Columbus's voyage). There are also doubts about the origins of Columbus. Some think he was Castilian and not Italian, others think he was from Sardinia, others claim that he was born in Portugal. But the film does not explore these controversies, remaining faithful to the canonical version of the facts: a Genoese navigator who discovers America to Castile. But even so the film makes mistakes. Columbus was an adventurer and not a man in search of a dream, and the Castilian kings only allowed themselves to finance him because they had information that already had given as probable the existence of new lands in the region that Columbus wanted to explore. Thus, the navigator died believing that he had arrived in Asia and only later navigation's determined to be a new continent. Everything I've said here throws out some ideas of the film and proves that the writer made a serious mistake by completely ignoring the navigator's travel diaries and basic facts of his biography, not restraining himself from inventing when he pleased, under the argument of creative freedom that, even in a movie, should not justify all that the screenwriter invents. Okay, it's a movie and not a documentary, but if it's a historical fact there should still be some rigor in the way it's portrayed. The interpretation of Depardieu is not bad, but the accent was something that he messed up a bit. The way the Indians were portrayed also seems incorrect and stereotyped. Even so, the film is worth it because its cinematically beautiful, has almost epic scenes and depicts very well the effort and daring of those who ventured across the seas. One thing I cannot fail to point out: the extraordinary soundtrack of Vangelis, which has become an icon of music for cinema.

Anyone who has a clue about history will cringe all the way through this movie. Kind of make Columbus look like a hero in the eyes of the Tainos.I am happy to see the the movie grossed well below it's production cost...that should tell you what a spectacular joke this movie was. I might just watch it again to amuse myself...truly a bad movie. Aside from looking for familiar location shots, this movie left me amazed that for all the money spent, little was done in researching the history of the Taino encounters. In this country, we no longer have Columbus Day....it is now called the Day of Races.To honor such a man wreaks of ignorance.

In 1492, we witness an epic(in the original sense of the word) depiction of how things were around the period of the time when Christopher Columbus arrived at the "New World" in the fifteenth century. Based on historical events which occurred during Columbus' expeditions, this film shows how things were before, during, and slightly after Columbus arrived in the islands of the Caribbean. What was particularly interesting was when Columbus arrived in the "New World" which was already inhabited by Indians. Subsequently, we get to see how these natives were conquered & eventually turned into slaves. The same spirit which was responsible for the Inquisition in Spain eventually came into contact with the original natives of this "New World". Historically, this would be a good movie for Americans to observe and analyze on an educational level. For those who may not know, this movie shows that Christopher Columbus and his minions DID NOT discover this "New World", however they DID conquer it, hence the title of the move "1492: Conquest of Paradise".