Ivanhoe
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Movie Reviews of Ivanhoe
Movie Review: Max
Summary: 4 Stars
A topic of my youth! Very moving to see it again after so many years!Movie Review: Ivanhoe
Summary: 3 Stars
Ivanhoe is a decent costume drama. It's not your traditional swashbuckler nor does it fall into the costume adventure genre. It's really a drama that's wrapped up with period costumes. It was a lavish production from Warner Brothers (that's what the DVD has on it though I've seen it on one web site as an MGM production). That's some of it strengths but it languishes from some drawbacks also. Robert Taylor has the role of Ivanhoe & that's unfortunate. R. Taylor was certainly handsome enough & had a great speaking voice but he's limited as an actor, there's just not enough warmth or range in his abilities. Joan Fontaine has the role of Lady Rowena, Ivanhoe's true love. Elizabeth Taylor portrays Rebecca, a beautiful Jewish lady who has the misfortune of falling in love with Ivanhoe. Fontaine & E. Taylor are both much more than capable in their portrayals.
Ivanhoe is a tough novel for Hollywood. Though it has been many years I have read the novel. It's way too deep for a two hour film to do justice.
The essentials of the novel are here: Ivanhoe is searching for King Richard the Lionhearted who has been imprisoned upon his return from the Crusades. King Richard is being held for ransom. The novel was based on some true events of the period but it was romanticized & the movie is even more so. The truth about Richard I is he wasn't English, he was French, spoke very little English & spent very little time in England. His reign was 1189-1199. He was one of the principal leaders of the Third Crusade eventually becoming the commander-in-chief (to use a more modern term). Richard I was a fierce warrior, hence the moniker: The Lionhearted, which he earned in his teens. England, essentially, was a tax base for his war campaigns elsewhere.
As to the film, it's not a bad one. Ivanhoe tries to gather up the ransom to free Richard but England is so broke that they're unable to raise the sum. Fortuitously, Ivanhoe has aided Isaac (Felix Aylmer), Rebecca's father, from deeath by intervening against some unscrupulous Norman knights led by Bois-de-Gilbert (George Sanders). It's Isaac & his daughter, Rebecca, that raise up mose of the ransom for Richard. Along the way Ivanhoe has some adventures including taking on five Norman knights in a row in a tournament joust. He succeeds in beating the first four but the fifth, Bois-de-Gilbert, is too much after the previous four. Ivanhoe suffers a serious wound & goes into hiding.
Eventually Ivanhoe & Bois-de-Gilbert meet in mortal combat with Ivanhoe winning.
The film has the wicked Prince John (Guy Rolfe), brother to Richard I, a pretender to the throne. Also in the film is Robin of Locksley (Harold Warrender), better known as Robin Hood, who gives assistance to Ivanhoe.
Ivanhoe was written by Sir Walter Scott in 1819. The novel is set in 1194. Cedric (Finlay Curie) is Ivanhoe's estranged father & his family is one of the few royal Saxon families still around. Cedric is a descendant of the Saxon king, Harold Godwinson.
Warner Brothers has included a few bonus features: "Two Mouseketeers", one of the best Tom & Jerry cartoons & a swashbuckler Movie Trailer Gallery. The audio & video quality of the DVD are excellent.
Movie Review: Comments on DVD Quality
Summary: 3 Stars
This is perhaps the worst DVD quality I have yet seen from a major studio: colors are washed out, resolution is mediocre, for the first 20% of the film there are vertical scratches in the print, and the music in the opening credits shows severe high frequency loss. The defects were so many that I didn't bother pursuing the audio in greater detail although speech was at least reasonably intelligible. Overall, the quality is about on a par with a VHS tape and vastly inferior to that of the laserdisc issued in 1993.
In a quick check of reviews here I found only one person who commented on the poor quality of this DVD and, surprisingly, I found a review that praised its quality. That was from a "Top 100" reviewer which confirms my suspicion of reviews from people who write large numbers of them.
Combined with the serious scratches in the print of the Olivier/Garson version of Pride and Prejudice which I recently saw, I've become a bit leery of purchasing a Warner DVD without renting it first to examine the quality. Potential purchasers of this title might want to do the same to see if they can tolerate the many defects in this release.
Movie Review: Good Scott
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm very surprised any reviewers here found the color on this DVD lacking, as I thought they popped out. The whole production here looks great. (I wish the picture were as restored on the Fox Tyrone Power titles.) The picture's also very well-written. Unfortunately, the leads are positively leaden. Robert Taylor looks great and he has a certain magnetism, but absolutely no charm. And Fonatine isn't much better. The two are so bland that at the film's ending they aren't even joined together, let alone for a kiss. Can you name another romantic adventure where that's the case? Fortunately, the rest of the cast and production compensate.Movie Review: Good film, incomplete adaptation
Summary: 3 Stars
Anyone who has read Sir Walter Scott's novel, the inspiration for this movie, and hoping to find a faithful screen adaptation will be disappointed. Most of the major characters are present, as are many of the major plot points. However, much has been left out, and the character and story of the film diverges from that of the book. The film has a wonderful cast, beautiful costumes, and otherwise excellent production, but I found portions of it lacking, and the result is that while it is interesting and entertaining, it is not very compelling.