Christopher Columbus: The Discovery

Columbus (George Corraface, who's dropped the "s" from the end of his first name since starring in Peter Brook's epic MAHABHARATA) is first seen mixing it up with some treacherous Turks who are trying to steal his valuable maps to the great ocean over which he hopes one day to sail. (These same Turks have been disrupting European trade with the Far East.) It is Columbus's plan to prove the world is round by sailing West in order to reach the East. Exclusive rights to this new trading route will go to whichever monarch backs Columbus's expedition, with the explorer's take being a percentage of the trading gross. His brother makes little headway with either the English or the French monarchs and Columbus himself is kept in Spain by King Ferdinand (Tom Selleck) and Queen Isabella (Rachel Ward). As these two indulge in lengthy deliberations over their decision, Isabella's Rasputin-like Grand Inquisitor and confessor, the feared Torquemada (Marlon Brando), asks Columbus inscrutable questions and flays heretics in the basement. Looking haggard from his work as a mapmaker and mercilessly mocked by street urchins, Columbus takes solace in the company of his voluptuous child bride.

Having failed in her efforts to convert Spain's Jews to Christianity, Isabella has Torquemada throw them out of the country and takes a new interest in Columbus's plan as a means of spreading her faith to the New World. Columbus mounts his famous expedition, overcoming all the standard complications--Portugese attempts to sabotage the mission, dissent among his officers, mutiny among his crew, bad weather, hallucinations, etc. The New World itself is a paradise, especially for Columbus, who takes a pop-eyed interest in a native chieftain's young daughter. (She bears an uncanny resemblance to his child-bride at home, except that she wears nothing at all to cover breasts at least twice the size of his wife's.)

Columbus heads home without having discovered his route to the East, but with plenty of gold and a sampling of converted souls. He's forced to leave a third of his officers and crew behind when his fascination with the chieftain's daughter--chaste though it remains--leads to the sinking of one of his ships. Paradise turns sour for those left behind when the natives, fed up with their guests' raping, fighting and proselytizing, slaughter the whole scurvy bunch. Columbus also goes a little crazy on the voyage home but pulls himself together in time to present his bounty to the king and queen and be officially awarded his piece of the trading action.

Under the direction of James Bond veteran John Glen, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: THE DISCOVERY tries to deliver lusty adventure, pitched battles and cartoonish history. But its screenplay, whose credited coauthors include the writers of THE GODFATHER and GANDHI, also aims for depth and complexity as it tries to address the dubious gifts Columbus brought to the New World, like rats, syphilis and slavery. The result is an oddly conflicted film.

Columbus starts out, improbably, as a swashbuckling trader with a crazy dream. From there, he segues to ladies' man, then to Queegish captain obsessed with order and discipline. At no time, however, is he credible as someone capable of planning and carrying out his audacious mission. And he's the most clearly defined character in the film. His sergeant-at-arms is the most curious. He trades secret sexy winks with Columbus's wife in Spain, yet he had a liaison with her sister, only to denounce her as a whore when she became pregnant with his child. Along on the voyage, of course, is the bastard son, who swears that only one of them will return to Spain alive and, amazingly, is never tossed overboard.

These token attempts at depth consistently run aground with Glen at the helm, who seems to get quickly bored when his characters aren't trying to either kill or have sex with each other. The big-star cast, understandably, keeps looking as if they can't quite believe how they're dressed or what they're doing. Selleck looks like he's having trouble willing his way into the mindset of a Spanish monarch. Brando puts in the most expensive--and pointless--cameo since he last fleeced the Salkinds for SUPERMAN.

Rachel Ward (AFTER DARK, MY SWEET; AGAINST ALL ODDS) gives simultaneously the flashiest and most thoughtful performance. Her Isabella burns with the eery, unhealthy glow of latent religious mania. The classically trained Corraface, scheduled to star in Sir David Lean's adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Nostromo until the great filmmaker's death in 1991, handles Columbus's violent mood swings with remarkable aplomb. If anything, this film may one day occupy roughly the same position in Corraface's career that KING KONG does in Jessica Lange's. (Violence, nudity, sexual situations, adult situations.) leave a comment