DANKY PANKY

Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise is bathed in moisture: scene after tropical scene is hazy, foggy, misty, ultra-humid. (Its Spanish sequences are reversed—chilly, incensed and very smoky from the Inquisition’s flesh burning.) Heavy and zapping of energy, 1492 further vexes because you can’t quite find a way into Scott’s vision. The movie pans over the historic facts without evading the horrendous savagery that Columbus’s “discovery” heaped upon natives, especially the Arawak of Hispaniola, who might have numbered close to a million when Columbus arrival and by 1585 had virtually disappeared. We are reminded not every advisor of Isabella of Spain agreed with her approval of Columbus’ quest for a new route to the East, his original destination; and the film acknowledges Isabella liked Columbus from the start—perhaps not so much from his lack of fear of her but more because they were both rare redheads. No quibbles over the 10/09/1492 first sighting of land and the 10/12/1492 landing—on the big screen, with Vangelis’ exotic High Mass score pulsing, the emotions are a rush. But soon the pestiferous twists appear: Scott, cinematographer Adrian Biddle and the co-producer-screenwriter Roselyne Bosch seem to have conspired to show Gérald Depardieu as Columbus in heroic shadows so they can punch up the villainous stereotypes—namely Michael Wincott’s Adrián de Moxica as Spain’s Ming the Merciless—to create some bloody action movie stuff to satisfy the Alien crowd and provide blame for the bloodshed. Could also be argued they’ve consciously conspired against Columbus’s roots by casting French: Depardieu, bless his slight lisp and bulbish nose, can’t convince as an Italian, no matter how hard he tries to bring reason and clarity. (He doesn’t get the joy of his first bite of chocolate, either.) A film about Columbus isn’t likely to pass muster these days, given the on-going vitriol over the arrogant vanity of a European nation believing it “discovered” the new land when the mix of natives had been around a hellava lot longer than the spotters. What 1492 did invite, for a while, was a re-examination of the disastrous consequences of subjugation, until Spain and other Europeans realized the moral embarrassment of coming to terms with their failures in spreading the promise of the Old World’s civilization was about to repeat itself in Bosnia. With Sigourney Weaver and Armand Assante.

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Text COPYRIGHT © 2007 RALPH BENNER (Revised 4/2022) All Rights Reserved.