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1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)
Starring Gérard Depardieu, Sigourney Weaver, Armand Assante, and Arnold Vosloo. Cinematography by Adrian Biddle. Editing by William M. Anderson, Françoise Bonnot, Leslie Healey, Armen Minasian, and Deborah Zeitman. Produced by Alain Goldman and Ridley Scott. Written by Roselyne Bosch. Directed by Ridley Scott.
Seven long years of patient waiting pay off for Christopher Columbus when Queen Isabel finally agrees to support his voyage west to find an alternate route to Asia. He immediately launches his expedition and after many turbulent months at sea Columbus and his crew reach land. He claims the land in the name of Spain and colonization begins. But managing the “New World” soon proves to be a nearly impossible undertaking as it is quickly plagued by destruction and chaos.
In 1987 French journalist Roselyne Bosch traveled to Spain to research material for an article celebrating the five hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ historical voyage across the Atlantic. While searching deep in the repositories of Seville and Madrid she stumbled upon a virtual goldmine of letters and articles from the time period; some even penned by Columbus himself. With this wealth of knowledge at her fingertips Bosch decided that this newly discovered information would likely be best presented in the form of a film. So she began assembling her epic screenplay featuring historically accurate details of Columbus’ incredible journey and new insight to his complicated personality. Bosch tried to attract a handful of French filmmakers to produce her script, but she couldn’t find any takers. After exhausting the possibilities in her home country, Bosch eventually brought the screenplay to Hollywood where it soon found its way to Ridley Scott. Scott, who had just hit another career highpoint with his latest project Thelma & Louise, was actually considering developing his own Columbus project. But he quickly found everything he wanted to do in Bosch’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise and was soon on board as director.
While traveling the globe during the production of 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Scott and his production team were surprised by the news that the production of another Columbus movie was already in progress. Titled Christopher Columbus: The Discovery the film starred Marlon Brando, Tom Selleck, and Georges Corraface in the title role. But Scott refused to be distracted by the competition and was soon hard at work crafting his film. Painstaking measures were taken to maintain historical credibility both at land and at sea. Scott even commissioned two full sized recreations of Columbus’ ships (the Santa Maria and the Pinta). But despite all of Scott’s efforts, 1492: Conquest of Paradise just never seemed to find its audience. It may have suffered from the release of the other Columbus film and it may have been yet another victim of lackadaisical promotion, but the reality is that the film just isn’t that entertaining. The project certainly has its moments, most of which reside in its cinematography, but ultimately there really isn’t any reason to watch it more than once in a lifetime.
Budget: $47,000,000
Total US Gross: $7,099,531
Genre: Adventure
Runtime: 154 Minutes
US Release Date: 10/9/92
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Awards: Golden Globes: Nominated for best original score.
Tagline: Centuries Before The Exploration Of Space, There Was Another Voyage Into The Unknown.
Quote: “Paradise and hell both can be earthly.”
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