Amazon.co.uk Review
While Captain Corelli's Mandolin may frustrate admirers of Louis de Bernières' densely detailed novel, it proves Shakespeare in Love director John Madden is a worthy craftsman of literary films. It's a tastefully old-fashioned adaptation, preserving the novel's flavour while focusing on its love story set against the turbulence of World War II. Set on the Greek island of Cephallonia, the drama begins in 1940 with occupation by Italian troops, awkwardly allied with the Nazis and preferring hedonistic friendliness over military intimidation. That attitude is most generously embodied by Captain Corelli (Nicolas Cage), who is instantly drawn to the Greek beauty Pelagia (Penélope Cruz) despite her engagement to Mandras (Christian Bale), a resistance fighter whose absence leaves Pelagia needy for affection. Mandras's eventual return--and the inevitable attack by German bombers and ground troops--threaten to stain this Greek-Italian romance with deeply tragic bloodshed.
Accompanied by pensive serenades from the captain's cherished mandolin, the film charts the unlikely attraction of Corelli and Pelagia, whose wizened physician father (splendidly played by John Hurt) fears for the worst. Their love is uneasy (and Cage's miscasting doesn't help), but the island's beguiling atmosphere is as seductive to them as it is to the viewer, thus making the outbreak of violence--and a climactic earthquake--jarringly traumatic. Emphasising nobility in war and the many definitions of love, the story's wartime context intensifies the film's admirable depth of emotion. Faults will be found by anyone who's looking for them, but Captain Corelli's Mandolin remains a sensuous, richly layered film that die-hard romantics will find hard to resist.--Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
poor script and disappointing visual experience.......2008-01-01
This movie fails to do justice to the novel it purportedly adapts. Where the story, as written by Louis de Bernieres, is epic and demands a visually stunning performance, this movie is unremarkable in its attempts to portray the strength and character of Captain Corelli and Pelagia.
Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz were a promising choice as far as actors went, but the script let them down and I was ultimately bored - Bored! - by this movie.
four great actors and one great story.......2007-06-07
Captain Correlli's Mandolin was based on the bestselling novel by Louis De Bernieres and so the makers would have had no excuse for doing it badly.As it happens they did it rather well primarily by casting four great leading actors who gave excellent performances - John Hurt,Nicholas Cage,David Morrissey and Penelope Cruz.There is a powerful love story going on between Cruz and Cage in the film, but for me it was given extra quality by the attempts by the German soldiers to befriend their Italian counterparts and the issues raised of loyalty to friends or loyalty to country,acts of heroism and acts of cowardice.The thing I remember most about the film was the performance of John Hurt as the wise old man who's seen it all before.A film worth seeing because you won't have seen anything like it before.
Penelope Cruz is so hot in this film.......2007-06-01
The love triangle is an interesting one and strikes me as believable, because I know it happened in various places under occupation. Penelope Cruz played Pelagia, a young Greek girl engaged to be married to Mandras (Christian Bale). I had questions about the depth of their love from the start, but their future was torn apart when Italy invaded Greece, and Mandras went off to fight. After German intervention, Greece is conquered and the island Pelagia lives on comes under Italian occupation, during which Pelagia meets and begins to fall in love with Captain Corelli (Nicholas Cage.) This, of course, was a dilemma that came to many young women in occupied lands. As they got to know their occupiers, they started to see them not as the enemy but as real people, and sometimes fell in love - often to the disapproval of their neighbours. I just finished reading an interesting book about the German occupation of Britain's Channel Islands in which this was a major issue. Once Mandras returns to the island, Pelagia is torn between them.
The second background issue is the Italian occupation itself, which I thought was quite realistically portrayed. First was the contempt with which the island treated their Italian occupiers. Greece defeated Italy (quite true from a historical perspective) and was really conquered by the Germans. The refusal of the town to surrender to the Italians and instead to insist on surrendering to a German officer struck me as something that could well have happened (and was quite funny in fact. I loved the line, "we would rather surrender to this German's dog than to you Italians.") The portrayal of the Italian troops also struck me as believable. The Italian Army was never enamoured of their German ally, and never enthusiastic about fighting with them. Although Hitler and Mussolini were close friends, their soldiers tended to treat each other with contempt. Here, the Italians are more interested in singing than fighting (which the German troops on the island simply can't understand,) and are ecstatic when Italy makes peace and withdraws from the war - until they discover that this may well make them prisoners of the Germans. It was all quite well done, I thought.
Better than I thought........2006-10-20
I had been put off watching the film as I heard it totally destroys the book. But I'm glad I went against this and watched it anyway. The film does not capture the true essense of the book, but it is a masterpiece in itself. It is comical, warming and devastatingly sad. It captures the troubles of war, romance and courage. Watch it!
A good night in........2006-09-20
I was almost put off buying this dvd by the more "literary" criticisms of this film, having seen that it did not follow the novel's story very accurately. Well, lots are tarred with that brush. In the end you have make up your own mind & I am glad I bought the dvd. I and a friend who watched it with me, thoroughly enjoyed it. I have not read the novel but as a romantic & heart-warming war-time story it was great, & made all the more enjoyable by fine acting, move-making, and wonderful Greek scenery.
It was worth evey penny of the £5 (almost) I paid for it.
Amazon.co.uk Review
While Captain Corelli's Mandolin may frustrate admirers of Louis de Bernières' densely detailed novel, it proves Shakespeare in Love director John Madden is a worthy craftsman of literary films. It's a tastefully old-fashioned adaptation, preserving the novel's flavour while focusing on its love story set against the turbulence of World War II. Set on the Greek island of Cephallonia, the drama begins in 1940 with occupation by Italian troops, awkwardly allied with the Nazis and preferring hedonistic friendliness over military intimidation. That attitude is most generously embodied by Captain Corelli (Nicolas Cage), who is instantly drawn to the Greek beauty Pelagia (Penélope Cruz) despite her engagement to Mandras (Christian Bale), a resistance fighter whose absence leaves Pelagia needy for affection. Mandras's eventual return--and the inevitable attack by German bombers and ground troops--threaten to stain this Greek-Italian romance with deeply tragic bloodshed.
Accompanied by pensive serenades from the captain's cherished mandolin, the film charts the unlikely attraction of Corelli and Pelagia, whose wizened physician father (splendidly played by John Hurt) fears for the worst. Their love is uneasy (and Cage's miscasting doesn't help), but the island's beguiling atmosphere is as seductive to them as it is to the viewer, thus making the outbreak of violence--and a climactic earthquake--jarringly traumatic. Emphasising nobility in war and the many definitions of love, the story's wartime context intensifies the film's admirable depth of emotion. Faults will be found by anyone who's looking for them, but Captain Corelli's Mandolin remains a sensuous, richly layered film that die-hard romantics will find hard to resist.--Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
poor script and disappointing visual experience.......2008-01-01
This movie fails to do justice to the novel it purportedly adapts. Where the story, as written by Louis de Bernieres, is epic and demands a visually stunning performance, this movie is unremarkable in its attempts to portray the strength and character of Captain Corelli and Pelagia.
Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz were a promising choice as far as actors went, but the script let them down and I was ultimately bored - Bored! - by this movie.
four great actors and one great story.......2007-06-07
Captain Correlli's Mandolin was based on the bestselling novel by Louis De Bernieres and so the makers would have had no excuse for doing it badly.As it happens they did it rather well primarily by casting four great leading actors who gave excellent performances - John Hurt,Nicholas Cage,David Morrissey and Penelope Cruz.There is a powerful love story going on between Cruz and Cage in the film, but for me it was given extra quality by the attempts by the German soldiers to befriend their Italian counterparts and the issues raised of loyalty to friends or loyalty to country,acts of heroism and acts of cowardice.The thing I remember most about the film was the performance of John Hurt as the wise old man who's seen it all before.A film worth seeing because you won't have seen anything like it before.
Penelope Cruz is so hot in this film.......2007-06-01
The love triangle is an interesting one and strikes me as believable, because I know it happened in various places under occupation. Penelope Cruz played Pelagia, a young Greek girl engaged to be married to Mandras (Christian Bale). I had questions about the depth of their love from the start, but their future was torn apart when Italy invaded Greece, and Mandras went off to fight. After German intervention, Greece is conquered and the island Pelagia lives on comes under Italian occupation, during which Pelagia meets and begins to fall in love with Captain Corelli (Nicholas Cage.) This, of course, was a dilemma that came to many young women in occupied lands. As they got to know their occupiers, they started to see them not as the enemy but as real people, and sometimes fell in love - often to the disapproval of their neighbours. I just finished reading an interesting book about the German occupation of Britain's Channel Islands in which this was a major issue. Once Mandras returns to the island, Pelagia is torn between them.
The second background issue is the Italian occupation itself, which I thought was quite realistically portrayed. First was the contempt with which the island treated their Italian occupiers. Greece defeated Italy (quite true from a historical perspective) and was really conquered by the Germans. The refusal of the town to surrender to the Italians and instead to insist on surrendering to a German officer struck me as something that could well have happened (and was quite funny in fact. I loved the line, "we would rather surrender to this German's dog than to you Italians.") The portrayal of the Italian troops also struck me as believable. The Italian Army was never enamoured of their German ally, and never enthusiastic about fighting with them. Although Hitler and Mussolini were close friends, their soldiers tended to treat each other with contempt. Here, the Italians are more interested in singing than fighting (which the German troops on the island simply can't understand,) and are ecstatic when Italy makes peace and withdraws from the war - until they discover that this may well make them prisoners of the Germans. It was all quite well done, I thought.
Better than I thought........2006-10-20
I had been put off watching the film as I heard it totally destroys the book. But I'm glad I went against this and watched it anyway. The film does not capture the true essense of the book, but it is a masterpiece in itself. It is comical, warming and devastatingly sad. It captures the troubles of war, romance and courage. Watch it!
A good night in........2006-09-20
I was almost put off buying this dvd by the more "literary" criticisms of this film, having seen that it did not follow the novel's story very accurately. Well, lots are tarred with that brush. In the end you have make up your own mind & I am glad I bought the dvd. I and a friend who watched it with me, thoroughly enjoyed it. I have not read the novel but as a romantic & heart-warming war-time story it was great, & made all the more enjoyable by fine acting, move-making, and wonderful Greek scenery.
It was worth evey penny of the £5 (almost) I paid for it.
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