Ivanhoe
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Movie Reviews of Ivanhoe
Movie Review: A Great Ivanhoe
Summary: 5 Stars
Ivanhoe is a fine adaptation of Scott's most popular novel. The film is full of excitement and romance and retells a good story well. The historical setting is familiar from Robin Hood. King John is on the throne his brother Richard languishing in prison. Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor) seeks to raise the ransom to free Richard and is helped by Isaac of York and his daughter Rebecca (Elizabeth Taylor) who, having suffered persecution because of their Jewish faith under King John, hope that the situation might change under King Richard. Rebecca falls in love with Ivanhoe, but much stands in their way, including the Norman knight Bois-Gilbert (George Sanders), who hates Ivanhoe and wants Rebecca for his own. Moreover Ivanhoe has long ago pledged himself to Rowena (Joan Fontaine), a Christian like himself, and in these intolerant times all sides forbid love between those from different faiths.
Ivanhoe is beautifully filmed with the stunning colours so typical of Technicolor films of this period. The script and the acting are both very good, with Liz Taylor particularly fine as Rebecca. She was never more beautiful than in this part, but shows her acting talent as well. Her scenes are the most powerful and moving in the film. Robert Taylor makes no attempt at an English accent, so sounds rather different from the rest of the cast. But this hardly matters as no one is in fact speaking the language of the twelfth century, so who is to say which accent is the most authentic. George Sanders is his typically villainous self and at times is in danger of slightly overacting, but he does bring out the sympathetic aspects of the character and makes what could be a one-dimensional role interesting.
Ivanhoe is a film full of jousting and sword fights with exciting battle scenes, but it has some depth as well. It may be mainly an entertainment, but it has powerful and moving themes about justice and tolerance, which make it all the more worth watching. The DVD is well produced with excellent picture and sound quality. The only extras are some trailers and a delightful Tom and Jerry cartoon "Two Mousketeers" with Jerry and the little French mouse battling Monsieur Pussycat. The DVD should be enjoyed by anyone who likes an historical film with a fine story, lots of action and a moving romance.
Movie Review: Best Ivanhoe Available
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best Ivanhoe available, and I believe most people who have been waiting for its release on DVD would agree. It was an excellent effort at historical accuracy for 1952, although it took liberties with the original storyline. Considering the amount of antisemitism that the Walter Scott book contained, that's probably just as well. Despite those changes, it's still more faithful in spirit to the original than any other Ivanhoe film. A really neat capability, now that it's out on DVD, is to freeze-frame the painted backdrops to get a better look at them. When Ivanhoe guides the Norman knights to his family castle in the beginning of the film, for example, there's a wonderful rendition of an early Motte and Bailey castle circa 1200. Where the Motte is a plain stone tower on a large mound, with a great house (or hall) in the bailey where everyone lived most of the time and had nightly feasts, such as the one the Normans barged in on. You could easily imagine yourself looking at Launceston, or one of several other Norman Motte and Baileys that still exist in England, France, and Italy. Of course, there were things out of place for the late 1100s, but it was close enough to help the viewer feel like 'you were there'. The camera work seemed excellent, being one of the first wide screen cinema-scope pictures. Stunts were basic by today's standards, with some sequences, like the arrows firing against the castle's gatehouse, appearing fairly comical. Most characters were above average in their acting abilities, although Elizabeth Taylor seemed to recite her lines in a machine-like tone at times. The music was well written, however it was magnetically recorded on monophonic film and sounds tinny and flat when compared to the Dolby THX encoded movies we're all used to hearing today. Certainly not in the same league with modern films like Lord Of The Rings, but for 1950's technology, it rates a full 5 stars.Movie Review: Still moving
Summary: 5 Stars
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This is another one of those movies that proves your emotion can be evoked without any f-bombs, or any swearing at all.
WARNING: Spoiler follows.
The climax comes when, for political reasons, the Jewess Rebecca is accused of witchcraft. Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, the antagonist and supporter of the evil Prince John, had been making advances to her throughout the story, to no avail, because she was in love with Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe.
To save her from burning at the stake, Ivanhoe challenges the verdict by an offer to combat the prince's champion. To play one off the other, the prince chooses Guilbert to fight Ivanhoe against Rebecca's cause, the idea being if Guilbert wins, Rebecca burns - not exactly what Guilbert had in mind.
Guilbert, however, has a proposal for her:
Guilbert: "Rebecca. I can yield now and Ivanhoe will win by default, and you will go free. I will have to live out my life in disgrace; all this I would do if you will be mine."
Rebecca: "We are all in God's hands now, Sir Knight."
Guilbert: (Angrily) "Then prepare to die - both of you!"
A tense combat follows in which Ivanhoe is almost defeated, but Guilbert is mortally wounded in a quick turn-around of events. As he lies dying, Rebecca goes to him out of sorrow, and he says to her, "Rebecca, fate had me instead of Ivanhoe love you. God be with you always." And he dies.
I know this dialog might sound a little corny by today's standards, but I think good actors saying, "We are all in God's hands now, Sir Knight" is a lot more moving than, "[...] you and the horse you rode in on, [...]" and "Fate had me instead of Ivanhoe love you. God be with you always" is infinitely better than, "[...] you, [...]!"
But then again, that's just me.
Movie Review: High adventure in Glorious Technicolor!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ivanhoe is easily the most glorious of MGM's British swashbucklers made with blocked funds designed to beat a short-lived embargo on US films being shown in the UK. It's also one of many roles intended for Stewart Granger that instead ended up revitalizing Robert Taylor's career by default. He's not exactly the perfect choice for the part, but he does well enough even if he is outshone by George Sanders de Bois Guilbert, hopelessly in unrequited love with nice Jewish girl Elizabeth Taylor who is herself hopelessly in unrequited love with Ivanhoe. Indeed, Sanders manages to make him both ruthless and still worthy of pity. That he does is as much down to the quality of ?neas MacKenzie's adaptation and Noel Langley and Marguerite Roberts' fine script, which strips away Scott's often inaccessible wordiness to find the human story at its heart, adding an intelligent portrait of anti-Semitism along the way.
Richard Thorpe's vivid direction and Freddie Young's gorgeous Technicolor photography ensure the film always looks a treat, while Miklos Rozsa's score is one of his very best, equally at home with both the swashbuckling spectacle and the tragic love story. Although Emlyn Williams `Squire' Wamba is a pain, most of the supporting cast - Joan Fontaine, Felix Aylmer, Finlay Currie, Robert Douglas, Guy Rolfe - acquit themselves well. Grand entertainment.
WHV's DVD transfer is for the most part excellent, though the ambush of Cedric's party seems a little faded and lacking in depth. Sadly the nly film-related extra is a teaser trailer (there was a much better 4-minute trailer for the film), but at least they've made an effort to pad it out with Tom and Jerry's Oscar winning cartoon The Two Mouseleteers and trailers for Scaramouche, Knights of the Round Table and The Aviator.
Movie Review: AN ALL TIME GREAT
Summary: 5 Stars
It is wonderful to finally see the DVD of this exuberant 1952 adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's thrilling 1819 novel about a heroic knight's attempt to restore Richard the Lionhearted to his rightful throne as King of England.
Everything about this film is top notch. Handsome Robert Taylor is perfect as the stalwart knight Ivanhoe. Joan Fontaine and Elizabeth Taylor are at their prime as the ladies in his life. And Guy Rolfe as the evil Prince John, usurper of the throne, has never been a better villain. (From appearances, Rolfe's role in this film was the model for the sorcerer Jafar in Disney's Alladin.)
The screenplay is intelligent and of course there's great jousting action and a terrific castle siege.
Especially noteworthy are Freddie Young's stunning Technicolor lensing and Miklos Rozsa's stirring score.
A fun extra is the Oscar winning swashbuckler Tom and Jerry Cartoon "Two Mouseketeers."
When I was a boy in Richardson, Texas -- before the era of home video -- my father would rent 16MM movies and we'd project them on a big screen in our den. One of his all time favorites was IVANHOE and it became one of mine as well.