Ivanhoe

Rating:
Summary: Marvelous adaptation
Review: I was glued to this movie from start to finish. Even though it is five hours long, you'll wish it were twice that long as you don't want this great movie to come to an end! The characters are excellent and the direction is superb. I'm a fan of the A&E movies and this ranks at the top of their list. I'm really surprised at some of the negative ratings. One person thought it was too violent, but I felt the violence was really mild. Any one who purchases this movie, won't be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: It just makes me sad....
Review: I was so happy when I heard that Ivanhoe was getting the miniseries treatment it deserved. I couldn't wait to see this movie.

I guess the reason why I hate this movie so much is because I was so disappointed. I was really expecting more from A&E.

My complaints? Whoever made this movie must have watched much too much melodrama in which the villains twirl their black mustaches and cackle at the misfortunes of the innocent. The characters are stripped of all complexity. I do wish the filmakers had taken Sir Walter Scott's name off of their hideous creation

The series became so vile, I was unable to get past the fourth tape.

Sad, very very sad.

Rating:
Summary: Unexpectedly Watchable
Review: I went into Ivanhoe assuming I'd watch a few minutes and then switch to something else. I was suprised how easy it was to stay with this. There were a few slow spots, but the series was well paced and easy to enjoy. This production was a lot more realistic looking than most period pieces, where it seems like people spent all of their free time polishing their armor and going to ye olde ancient dry cleaners. I am normally not a fan of Cirian Hinds, but I was blown away by him as de Bois-Guilbert! Susan Lynch, as Rebecca, was wonderful as always.

I admit that I have not read the book so I can not comment on the adaptation.

Rating:
Summary: New Ivanhoe-great!
Review: I'll try to be brief. This is a fantastic movie. I enjoyed it far more than Spider Man 2, or any of the Lord of the Rings.

The story is easy to follow, the charachters have reel feelings, strengths, weeknesses, and the acting was exellent. No need for 100-million dollar special effects.

My only complaint, and this seems to be true for many of the "new" films, is that the spoken word is sometimes difficult to hear because of all the background music or battle sounds etc.
But this movie has all we wish for. Action, romance, heroes, villians-and the good guys win!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent adaptation
Review: I'm amazed at the flurry of negative reviews for what is a well thought out and well acted adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's novel. I wonder if they are actually from one person with an axe to grind. Yes, there are differences from the book, but most of them are positive. The book is often hard to follow, the mini series makes things less confusing.

Much of the credit for the success of this adaptation goes to Cieran Hinds as Bois Guilbert, Ivanhoe's nemesis and would be suitor of Rebecca (Susan Lynch in an excellent performance). He manages to be evil and yet human at the same time. Nick Brimble's Front de Boeuf is wonderfully evil and Valentine Pelka as de Bracy shows the Norman's honourable side.

The action sequences are exciting and well done, tension is often high, but not at the expense of characterization. All in all, an excellent production, well worth seeing.

Rating:
Summary: Overall, I didn't like it.
Review: It failed to meet my expectations. The 1952 version is superior to me in every way. I wish a reviewer said this so I could have stopped myself from buying this. I should have just waited for the 1952 version.

I won't bother compairing it to the book, coz we should have all realized by now that movie adaptations should never be compaired to the book, it's like compairing apples with oranges...totally different media, one appeals to vision and hearing, the other to one's own imagination.

Ivanhoe looked too much of weakling to me, I thought his father was the more knightly. But admittedly, the acting was descent, 5 hours is OK if you have nothing better to watch, but the whole movie failed to capture me.

Bottom line: I recommend renting before buying.

Rating:
Summary: Scott's tale of chivalry played out by a superb cast
Review: It seems strange that the title character of the 1997 version of Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe" would end up being one of the least interesting characters in this six-part mini-series, but this is not the fault of actor Steven Waddington. Television writer Deborah Cook ("The House of Elliot," "The Royal") has simply made so many of the other characters more interesting and the cast is quite stellar, especially given how few of them I instantly recognized. But by the time the Ivanhoe/Rebecca/Brian de Bois-Guilbert love triangle is being played on to its tragic end, the Ivanhoe/Rowena/Athelstane one seems rather mundane in comparison.

The quintessential novel about chivalry, "Ivanhoe" is set about a century after the Battle of Hastings, so that there is still conflict between the ruling Normans and the defeated Saxons in England. King Richard (Rory Edwards) is taken prisoner on his way back from the Crusades and is being held for ransom and his younger brother, Prince John (Ralph Brown) is beginning to enjoy being the de facto monarch of England. The story told throughout England is that it was Ivanhoe (Waddington) who betrayed Richard, which is why Ivanhoe's father, Cedric (James Cosmo) refuses to allow his son's name to be uttered in his castle. Cedric is a Saxon noble who had thrown out his son for falling in love with the Lady Rowena (Victoria Smurfit), Cedric's ward. Now Cedric hopes to marry Rowena to Athelstane (Chris Walker), another powerful Saxon Lord.

Ivanhoe returns to England, disguised as a pilgrim, where he befriends a couple of Jews, Isaac of York (David Horovitch), and his daughter Rebecca (Susan Lynch). When Ivanhoe sees how the Normans are treating the Saxons he challenges Prince John's best knights in a jousting tournament: Maurice De Bracy (Valentine Pelka), Front-de-Boeuf (Nick Brimble), and Brian de Bois-Guilbert (Ciarán Hinds). Of course, Ivanhoe wins the tournament, but is wounded in the process and has to be cared for by Rebecca, who is a healer. At this point, things start to become very complicated.

Because this is a mini-series we are able to enjoy every one of Scott's plots complications in "Ivanhoe." We have Ivanhoe trying to get in his father's good graces once again, determined to clear his name, and trying to win back the Lady Rowena. There is the entire political question of John trying to take over the throne and whether the Saxons will start a civil war. Meanwhile, De Bracy is interested in Rowena and Bois-Guilbert becomes fixated on Rebecca. Then Lucard de Beaumanoir (Christopher Lee), the head of the Knights Templar shows up to wreck havoc. All of this is without talking about King Richard meeting up with Robin of Loxley (Aden Gillett), Friar Tuck (Ron Donachie), Little John (David Nicholls) and the rest of the men of Sherwood Forest, who have a few bones to pick with their monarch for abandoning the nation to go off crusading. By the time Elinor of Aquitaine (Siân Phillips) shows up as a regina ex machina, you will be surprised that everything has ended up being resolved one way or another.

The production values for this version of "Ivanhoe" do not allow for a lot of bodies walking around as background figures, but production designers Adele Marolf and Michael Trevor make sure this is a grimy, gritty, dirty world and not one in which knights wear shiny armor. But beyond the look of this "Ivanhoe" there are literally well over a dozen great performances. For once Prince John looks like he could pull off his coup and this Ivanhoe actually gets angry and physical when he finally confronts his father. Then you have Wamba (Jimmy Chisholm) and Gurth (Trevor Cooper), stealing pretty much every scene either one of them is in from start to finish, although the same can be said for Christopher Lee. But the standout performance belongs to Ciarán Hinds who transforms the troubled Brian de Bois-Guilbert into a tragic figure and the most interesting character in the bunch, especially since his character is the capstone to the resolution of the story.

Rating:
Summary: Sure, the book takes a few more brain cells but...
Review: It's worth it! The standard excuse for a movie that does not follow the book is that the book was too confusing. That is no excuse for the strange dramatic choices made in this adaptation of Ivanhoe. There have been many movies that manage to capture the spirit and charm of a book without completely gutting the basic personalities of the heroes. I refer to Rebecca's swooning manner (she was a firecracker in the book), Rowena's shouting match with Cedric (she got her way by being sweet and confidant, never by screaming), the Normans cheating at their own tournament (they didn't need to, they were on their own terf and the Saxons had a disadvantage to begin with) See what I mean? Strange dramatic choices.

Attempt to slog through the unabridged Ivanhoe, it may take some time and it certainly won;t be brain candy but every character is balanced and developed as only Sir Walter Scott can do it.

Rating:
Summary: Ivanhoe Goes To War
Review: Ivanhoe is a classic story, loved by children and grown-ups alike. By what misguided arrogance do screenwriters think they can write a better story than the original author? The attempt to introduce new motivations for the characters leads to a plot full of holes and empty of the delight and careful craftsmanship of Sir Walter Scott's book. The tenor of the film is monotonously angry and the battle scenes are a tedious, cheesy hacking and hacking. The male roles look and act so alike that one cannot tell them apart. The last scene with Eleanor from A Lion in Winter has nothing to do with anything and disconnects both John and Richard from the characters they have played all through the rest of the movie. If you like Ivanhoe, reread the book. If you do decide to buy this, do yourself a favor, at least, and fast-forward the battle scenes. You won't miss a thing and you'll be able to get to bed on time for a change.

Rating:
Summary: "Realistic" but dull
Review: Ivanhoe is a great classic of romantic literature. The creators of this version, however, abandoned the romantic aspects entirely in order to present what they see as how it "would have really been." In other words, they present Ivanhoe without any romance whatsoever. The knights present no pretence of chivalry, the women have no charm (Rowena is a churning cauldron of bitterness and nagging), Athelstane is no longer a comic relief, the fool is not foolish (or funny). The surprises of the book are revealed in advance (Ivanhoe reveals himself to his beloved before the tournament), so that there is no tension in the story. Rowena is played as a modern feminist and the addition of the Queen Mother as the deus ex machina in the end is lame. Can anyone really believe that a Queen Mother of that period would have insisted that her sons "hug" at the end? Or that Richard Lion-Heart would have done so?

In short, the drama that arises in the book is absent in this version, which replaces it with a sort of modern psychological pseudo-drama about individual feelings. The absence of context is fatal. For example, there is no explanation of the Knights Templar, their role, their principles, or their hypocrisy. As a result, it is impossible to make sense of the trial of Rebecca. The best performances were by Christopher Lee and the actress portraying Rowena, although the character she portrays bears little resemblance to the Rowena of the book.

I see no reason to remake a romantic novel without the romance, but this seems to be the modern way. As in the movie "Troy," which took away the Gods from the story, leaving the events inexplicable, this version takes away all the information, culture, and history that makes the story understandable and fun.