Rating: 
Summary: Moments of Incomparable Beauty
Review: The movie begins with a quotation from Columbus' writings which will immediately capture your attention by its intelligence. Fortunately the movie itself is also well written, thoughtful and visually stunning. 1492 is one of those rare movies that really seems to transport the viewer back in time. This is achieved not only with elaborate sets, beautiful costumes, and breathtaking scenery, but also by the slow pace of the movie. You feel like you're living through the events rather than just having them summarized. The film covers the first two voyages of Columbus and his attempt to build a city (Da Vinci's ideal city!) on the island of Haiti. This is an enormous undertaking and one cannot feel anything but great respect for Columbus...and risk-takers in general...who think big and accomplish much.
Gerard Depardieu is excellent as Columbus , and, needless to say Ridley Scott is a superb director...every scene is photographic art. The music by Vangelis is also inspiring and at certain key points throughout the film, helps to achieve moments of incomparable beauty. I would like to purchase the DVD when it becomes available.
Rating:
Summary: Conquest of Cinema
Review: This film is amongst the most beautiful and adventurous of all films! I find Christopher Columbus, played by Gerard Depardieu, to be one of the most interesting explorers of all time. "1492 - Conquest of Paradise" brings this amazing man back to life. Don Adrian de Moxica was so skillfully portrayed by Michael Wincott. It was, in my opinion, the strongest performance in the entire movie, but unfortunately lasted a mere 35 minutes before....well I won't say in case you have not seen the movie yet. Aside from Wincott's stunning performance was that of Armande Assante who did an excellent job portraying Sanchez, council to Queen Isabel (Sigouney Weaver). The soundtrack in strong and moving. Vangelis' music fits perfecly with the gorgeous scenery through out the entire film. Lots of atmosphere. This film MUST be released on DVD, in both widescreen and full screen format!
Rating:
Summary: Visually stunning, and fairly factually correct...
Review: This is indeed one of the movies on the top of my list... While some historical liberties are taken, in order to make it dramatically appealing (i.e., contrary to common belief, Columbus' ideas were not rejected out of ignorance, but because his academic audiences knew all too well that Asia could not be as close on the West as Columbus claimed it would be), the movie is, as a whole, quite an achievement... The scene when they discover land at the end of the first trip is, in my opinion, one of the greatest achievements in cinematography... Acting is fairly good across the board, and Gerard Depardieu plays a good Columbus, with a good resemblance, if one is to believe ancient portraits...
Vangelis' soundtrack is one of the finest in the history of cinema... In one track, an indian voice is slowly overtaken by a western choir, a sad metaphor of events to come...
By the way, note to the writer below, who wants to get his facts straight: indeed, the region the other writer was referring to is Catalonia (in Catalan), Cataluna/Catalu~a in Castillian)... No, Columbus was probably not Catalan, although it has been one of his suggested regions of origin...
Rating:
Summary: Stunning!!
Review: This movie is incredible! The score by Vangelis is
breathtaking. I can't believe this has not been
released on dvd. One of Ridley's best!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Only one fault
Review: This movie was fantastic. The only fault is that Christopher columbus was not really Italian. in fact, was born in Spain - Cataluna, to be exact. Beside this, the movie is close enough historically.
Rating:
Summary: Realistc or Idealistc Conquest?
Review: We could clearly see that there were many occurrences that the writers left out in Conquest of Paradise. Here, we see an idealistic version of what occurred after Christopher Columbus discovered the New world. The writers produced a cross-word puzzle that, us, the viewers were able to put together before the climax of the movie developed with intensity. I enjoyed the money greatly, yet I was expecting to se the other side of the Conquest, the horrible side. I wanted the rest of the audience to understand that the results of the conquest was not as pleasant as we have told our children. In Conquest of Paradise Gérard Depadieu is portrayed as a hero, or so we are led to think, yet we don't have a chance to see the other version of the story. I was expecting to see how the indigenous culture basically came to be extinct; how their religion was disregarded and Christianity was implemented. We don't see this in this movie; we only see one side of the dilemma.
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