Captain Corelli's Mandolin (DVD)

Captain Corelli's Mandolin was critically savaged upon its release, which was embarrassing for me at the time as I'd seen an early preview and posted a glowing review of it online. With the benefit of hindsight, I stick to my guns for the most part. The majority of the criticism seemed to come from people who didn't like Nicolas Cage, taking the opportunity to take a pop at the actor after a run of incredibly successful films. So while it's tempting to edit my original review heavily to make it look like one of the critical sheep, I'm presenting it more or less as it was first posted on Epinions because, well, I honestly enjoyed it. The film is set ...  Read the complete review

This is another film that I have seen after I have read the book and was at first dissapointed when it did not match up to the book. However I have seen it a few more times and have revised my view. The book covers a much wider canvas than the film. The film focuses on the romance between Pelagia and Antonio and the events on Cephallonia. Pelagia is a young Greek girl who is being brought up by her father with the intention of her training as a doctor. She gets engaged to her childhood sweetheart Mandras, who is a typical male chauvanist. Her life is torn apart when Mandras goes off to join the Greek army and the Italians and Germans invade the island. ...  Read the complete review

Dr. Iannis (John Hurt) and his beautiful daughter Pelagia (Penélope Cruz) live and work on the beautiful Greek isle of Kefallonia. Pelagia is in love with handsome fisherman Mandras (Christian Bale) who is eager to prove his worth in the war against the Germans and Italians. He sets off too fight the enemy but after he leaves, the island is captured by the Italian forces. As expected, they are met with a lot of hatred, but the Italians show a compassionate side, and through their passion for life they start to gain acceptance. When the passionate Captain Corelli (Nicholas Cage) is given accommodation at Dr. Iannis's home, the relationship between Corelli and ...  Read the complete review

With the book in my mind I decided that it was time to watch the film ready to be disappointed. I knew the film could not be as good as the book as the book had given me hours of entertainment and the film would only take 124 minutes. I was prepared and keen to watch ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. Valentines Day arrived; we sent the children to bed, opened a bottle of wine, and settled down on our sofa to watch. Maybe it was the wine or the romance of Valentines Day but I really enjoyed this film. It was not a film of the book, there were some of the same characters in it, but they did not behave in the same way as they did in the book. This film ...  Read the complete review

No doubt about it, it’s a romanticised view of war where tragedies happen conveniently whenever passion is in the air and people join the army just because it seemed like the right thing to do. The setting as from the book is Cephalonia.and the dreamy golds of the island to the blues of the Ionian Sea are fully realised for the viewer to see. The same cannot unfortunately be said of the story OR the acting. Set in 1940, ‘Corelli’ focuses in on various events on Cephalonia to the arrival of the ‘occupation’ of the Italians offset by an occasional narrative from Dr. Iannis (John Hurt). Primarily, it is a love triangle ...  Read the complete review