The Name of the Rose
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Movie Reviews of The Name of the Rose
Movie Review: Monks, Murders and Mysteries.
Summary: 5 Stars
_The Name of the Rose_ is an extremely bizarre movie based on an Umberto Eco novel set at a Benedictine monastery during the 1300s. It even has an appropriate subtitle: "They believed in God but traded with the Devil." William of Baskerville (Connery) is a Franciscan intellectual traveling with a young novice Adso (Slater) who visits a Benedictine monastery to prepare for a debate between Franciscan brothers and the Catholic Church's papal emissaries regarding the status of the Church's immense material wealth. While at the monastery, a series of seemingly inexplicable deaths have been centered on a controversial, potentially heretical Greek text of Aristotle. Several monks have turned up dead in mysterious circumstances and the officials in charge of the monastery attribute the casualties to the presence of the Devil. The Holy Inquisition is brought in to investigate while Br. William (like his namesake Sherlock Holmes) attempts to piece together the puzzle to find out why the monks are dying off and to gain access to the mysterious book. Ensuing is a conflict complete with a hunchback, witch-burnings, a peasant uprising and a battle with a blind monk in a towering inferno. This movie does its best to present its subjects in a very unsavory light in its setting at an actual medieval abbey. Although it is a horror/mystery thriller, the movie even has its humorous moments especially in its depiction of the ultra-superstitious and dogmatic life and mindset of the dark ages.Movie Review: Wonderful movie and read the book!
Summary: 5 Stars
Next to Braveheart, this is my favorite movie, and the book by Umberto Eco is the best mystery novel I've ever read, personally. It's a mystery drama in a setting of the dark ages of Europe in an ancient Abbey of the Italian Alps, 1327. Brother William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) finds himself investigating murders that happen over a seven day and night period. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, and the empirical insights of his own master; Roger Bacon. During his investigations he discovers that the Aedificum, is not only a massive towering library of the Abbey castle fortress, but a labyrinth of rising and falling staircases worthy of the hand of M.C. Escher. This labyrinth of books, hidden away from mankind, is a dangerous threat to the Church, so closely guarded, that he and his young novice, Adso Melk (Christian Slater) must first find their way into the library in order to find clues of the murders, but then must find their way back out with hard evidence of the killer, before the arrival of the infamous Spanish inquisitor, Benardo Gui (F. Murray Abraham). All at once exiting, intriguing, and horrific, The Name of the Rose will have you on the edge of your chair!!!
This is also, one of Ron Pearlman's first acting film rolls as Brother Salvatore`, the Hunchback of the Abbey, and his performance is outrageous! If you didn't know it was he, you might not recognize him because he's so ugly! It's his best performance to date.
Movie Review: Unique
Summary: 5 Stars
What I appreciate so much about The Name of the Rose is its uniqueness. How many other medieval-themed movies about the pedestrian (not the stuff of legends) are there? How many mystery stories set more than a couple centuries ago are there? It's a movie without equal... not because it's all that excellent a movie, but, rather, because nothing compares in subject matter and style (and it's still a good movie, to boot).It takes guts to make a movie that takes place 100% at a monastery in the 14th century. There is also no romanticizing of the life of monks or the operation of the monastery. The grimy, cold, lifeless world is a realistic portrayal of many of the (especially northern and remote) monasteries of the day. Despite the bleakness and corruption, however, I'm fascinated with how institutions like this are almost solely responsible for the preservation and duplication (represented in the film) of many of the old texts and manuscripts that we have today. That's not any focus of the film, but just an observation that makes the setting feel more alive and fascinating for this history buff.
It's really unfortunate that the critics registered such terrible reviews. I can only imagine that they viewed it as riding the coattails of Amadeus' success, with buckets of blood thrown in to make things more interesting. Taken alone, I think that it stands on its own as an awfully good mystery movie set in a period and setting largely unfamiliar to cinema.
Movie Review: The Rose is Red like Blood
Summary: 5 Stars
It may seem a bit depressing and dark at first, but the mystery and sets are great. The music is haunting as well and adds to the atmosphere. Sean Connery's and Christian Slater's preformances are absorbing. The supporting cast are well known supporting actors that turn in excellent performances. To me Ron Perlman's performance was as good as Jack Nicholson in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".
The murder of members of an order at a monastery are convaluted and require close scrutiny to solve. Between the politics, postering, and bazaar secrets the monastery has they have their work cut out for them to unravel the true clues of the murders. Any fans of "Cadfael" series or the "Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders" movie should enjoy it. Book fans, if you don't like the movie, please read the book again. Critizing the movie for not being the book insults our intelligence. After all we know no movies equal to the books of the same name.
Sets, music, and direction make this movie stand out as well. All add to the medieval atmosphere that is needed to keep this from being overly dark and makes a wonderful film. Any fans of murder mysteries should enjoy it. Fans of Connery and Slater should definitely catch it. Thank goodness we can buy this on DVD July 6th.
Movie Review: Excellent adaptation.
Summary: 5 Stars
How do you take a long and very dense book, and turn it into a cohesive and quickly-paced film? The makers of THE NAME OF THE ROSE answered that riddle. All around, this film has everything going for it. The performances are compelling and right on--no one acts like a 20th Century actor trying to act 14th century. The setting is gorgeous, although the squalor of the less fortunate is vividly conveyed. The intricate almost Escher-like quality of the labyrinth within the monastery is an amazing feat of set design and engineering.
Most of all, it's the script and direction that carry the day. Given how much information had to be siphoned and sifted from Umberto Eco's novel, the screenwriters and director Jean-Jacques Annaud masterfully created a taut and convincing murder mystery without getting bogged down in the details. The only time I thought it did was during the dragged out Inquisition scenes. However, these scenes did represent what was at risk for these characters. All in all, this is a marvelous film which murder mystery fans or fans of period pieces will want to have in their collections.
Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS.