"CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN"-Nicholas Cage, Penelope Cruz, John Hurt

Corelli's Magical Island | Captain Corelli's Mandolin | Christian Bale, Nicolas Cage

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	• Captain Corelli's Mandolin Christian Bale, Nicolas Cage Universal Studios, 2002 average customer review:based on 116 reviews view larger image
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Re-claiming the joy in life

The film, based on the novel "Corelli's Mandolin", is a somewhat mixed product with some very good features and some questionable features also.

Some of the strengths of the film include the unique perspective of the film, an invading Italian army in Greece at the beginning of World War II. The dialogue and contentions between Italian and Greek concerns was interesting. The film highlights the actions of both Italy and Greece in the early days of World War II.

Several of the actors were superb, including Penelope Cruz, John Hurt (her country physician father), and Irene Pappas (the mother of Penelope's betrothal, Mandras). Irene Pappas is probably the most believable and capable actor in the entire film.

The Greek island and countryside was beautiful. Seeing Penelope Cruz and Christian Bale swimming in the crystal clear Greek waters was especially inviting. The music was extra special, including many works of Italian opera. All of these features listed above kept the film afloat.

However there were also weaknesses. These included the acting of both Nicholas Cage in the role of Captain Corelli and of Christian Bale in the role of Penelope Cruz's fiancé, Mandras. Both of these men are outstanding actors as evidenced by all their many fine films. Both of the characters they portray go through painful experiences that change them forever. So, what went wrong? I think the odd and fake sounding Italian accent Cage was asked to assume, and the fake sounding Greek accent that Bale was asked to assume gave the film an unreal comic sense that the director surely did not mean to occur. A second weakness of the film was the stereotypical screenplay which stereotyped Italians, Greeks, and Germans. Greek villagers had cute fights. Italian soldiers engaged in slapstick humor a bit too often. Germans were double-dealing to the extreme, even with their ally - the Italians. The third weakness was the battle scenes once the Germans invaded the island that was previously held by the Italians. The screen writing and film editing was a bit sophomoric, leaving the viewer with the concept that the chaos they were watching on the screen was not purposeful and was a result of faulty script and editing.

Yet, despite the flaws, I would still recommend this entertaining film. Corelli and his men have a love for life which is often associated with the Italian national character. They do convey this throughout the film. The Greek characters balance life's tragedies and joys. We see people change in this film. We see a young woman in love with her childhood boyfriend lose that love gradually and fall in love with a man who stimulates her at many levels. We see her boyfriend, a handsome self-absorbed robust young man, undergo tragedy and take on a larger purpose in his life. Finally we see a sensual and well emotionally balanced Italian man experience great loss and pain and eventually emerge from that pain so that he can once again claim life. It is these aspects that redeem the film.

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"CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN"-Nicholas Cage, Penelope Cruz, John Hurt

This is a great action film-love story filmed in the Greek Island of Cephalonia during the German and Italian occupation in World War II. Nicholas Cage plays a believable and excellent roll as an Italian infantry army officer who falls in love with a local girl brilliantly portrayed by Penelope Cruz. John Hurt also plays and excellent role as Penelope's father and coastal town doctor. This moving drama climaxes with the fall and surrender of Fascist Italy and suddenly their German allies turn into jailers. The Italians at Cephalonia decide not to surrender their weapons and themselves to the Germans and give their weapons to the partisans and a fierce fight develops between the Germans and the now insurgent Italian troops, where German gunboats and troop transports and a Luftwaffe Stuka Dive Bomber Squadron take part in the fight to subdue the Italians and suffocate the rebellion. All actors act very believable and brilliantly in their rolls. Later a wounded Nicholas Cage is smuggled out of the island by partisans and a few years later, after World War II ends, returns to Cephalonia from Italy to stay with Penelope Cruz, which has become a doctor like her father.
I strongly recommend this well acted film and commend it for its accurate historical message and great special effects.

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Corelli's Magical Island

Captain Corelli's Mandolin is a touching love story about the suffering that people overcome to hold on to love. Penelope Cruz does a very good job, while Nicholas Cage is rather miscast. The film manages to capture the attitude of the Italians occupying the island. They did not come as the enemy, and those that managed to survive were seen as heroes by the Greeks. Any Kefallonian who lived through those times will tell you similar stories to this one. Many Italians came back to marry their Greek girls. Set on the magical island of Kefallonia, the film manages to capture to pristine quality of the water. Unfortunately the island seems very small and remote, which it is not. It is a magical place where goats have golden teeth, water flows up mountainsides, and black pines grow that can grow nowhere else in the world. The story is uplifting, even though it acheives this by downplaying the horror of the civil war and earthquake. Although it seems that only a few Italian soldiers were killed by the Germans, instead of thousands, it still brings attention to this heroic moment that changed the war. I recommend this movie. Watch it without being too critical and enjoy the nice story.

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Excellent Love/ Drama

We really enjoyed this movie. PLUS for once the Region 1 DVD WORKED WELL IN AUSTRALIA (REGION4 Zone) AND WE GOT SUBTITLES in large clear print!
I reckon this must be one of Nicholas Cage's BEST ROLES.
Thanks for everything,
Cheers,

With this lavish follow-up to Shakespeare in Love, director John Madden proves himself a worthy craftsman of literary films, and while Captain Corelli's Mandolin may frustrate admirers of Louis de Bernières's densely detailed novel, it's a tastefully old-fashioned adaptation, preserving the novel's flavor 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. Emphasizing 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

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