1492: Conquest of Paradise

In 1987 journalist Roselyne Bosch – then senior writer for Paris's Le Point magazine – went to the archives of Seville to research an article on the early preparations for the Columbus quincentennial. Shown copies of Columbus's first letters to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel, Bosch realized she had found a fascinating subject for a screenplay and began years of intensive research, focusing on translations of original documents as well as the numerous books that had been written about Columbus.

Bosch remembers, "I chose to explore the most exciting theory about him – that he was a rebel who pushed the limits of his time; not just geographically, but also socially and politically. You can't imagine a more complex personality that his. There are several men in one."

After Bosch teamed with French producer Alain Goldman, the duo set their sights on attracting a major film director. "Bosch's approach satisfied my curiosity about what kind of leader, seaman and father he was," says Goldman.

Goldman and Bosch met with director Ridley Scott and Mimi Polk Sotela, executive vice president of his production company and producer of Thelma and Louise.

"They came to me with a detailed synopsis of the life of the man," comments Scott, "as well as a tapestry of the world he knew. It was intriguing to me at that point to see the historical overview. To understand Columbus, you have to understand his point in history.

"What fascinated me was the progressive disaster that engulfed both the islands and Columbus after the discovery," Scott says. "It was a great adventure, but for the man it was also a tragedy. He was accused of seeking gold and glory, but it was an idea that kept him going all those years before 1492. He was a visionary and a man with a conscience."

"We thought Roselyne's approach was very interesting," says Polka-Sotela. "As a journalist, she had clearly done her research and her approach was to be honest but fair about Columbus – his obsessions, what he did in order to try and fulfill his deams: both the positive and the negative results from the pursuit of this quest."

"He was a bright light emerging from a dark age, a man looking for renaissance," says Scott.

Scott and Goldman agreed to join forces, and, in the fall of 1990, they announced the project.

"Today it seems fashionable to re-examine history," Scott remarks, "and Columbus is receiving his fair share of criticism. Without question, he is one of history's provocative characters - a grand raconteur. He has also been accused of being a grand liar. Yet I think he can be forgiven. His elaborations convinced both the church and crown to take this 'giant leap for mankind.' One also cannot deny the man the courage it took to carry out a voyage into the unknown."

"Political clumsiness and brutality are words applied to his career and downfall," Scott says, "but one has to understand what was considered 'normal' in the 15th century – public burnings of heretics, the ruthless ousting of the Moors and the Jews from Spain. You have to understand the times to understand the man and his actions."

"At the time you could have your hands cut off for stealing a piece of bread and you could be burned at the stake for eating meat on Holy Friday," observes Bosch. "When historians are serious about it, they consider Columbus to be quite moderate.

"For a long time there was the cliché of the hero," Bosch says, "and now I'm afraid there is the cliché of genocide. The truth is in between."

As Bosch completed her script under Scott's guidance, the producers, along with the help of the CAA, Sinclair Tenenbaum, and Marriott Harrison Solicitors, secured international financing for what was shaping up to be one of the biggest independent films ever made. Ultimately, a package was assembled that encompassed a trio of elements: a three country co-production (England, France and Spain), advance sales to worldwide territories (through Odyssey Distributors), and a deal for U.S. and Canada distribution with Paramount Pictures.

The worldwide release of "1492" commemorates Columbus's first voyage on its 500th anniversary. Playing Columbus is France's Gerard Depardieu. "Anyone can sometimes make mistakes that hurt people," says Depardieu. "One of the reasons why I have such fondness for this film is that the character is so deeply human, someone with faults.

"I think that Columbus was an artist," Depardieu states. "Because when a man is looking for paradise, he's also looking for harmony, willing to find a better world. And that is the idea of an artist. I identify with all characters who feel the need to see something new. For a man like Columbus, anything is possible."

Depardieu's preparations included reading Columbus's letters. "He told me he wanted to hear his voice," recalls Bosch. "Nothing is better than the letters for that. Now we share the same passion for the character. Five hundred years later, Christopher Columbus is still extremely convincing."

Armand Assante portrays Sanchez, treasurer of the Spanish crown. "Sanchez actually existed, but very little is known about him," says Scott. "He personifies the nobility and the forces that eventually brought Columbus down."

"Sanchez isn't a villain, he's the guiding force of the reason of the state in the film," says Assante. "He speaks the truth, but dreamers like Columbus don't want to hear the truth. Eventually, Sanchez comes to realize that dreamers do have a place within the state and must be nurtured."

Queen Isabel is played by Sigourney Weaver, who worked with Ridley Scott on her hit motion picture, Alien.

"I think Sigourney has a kind of stature as well as a vulnerability that I think Isabel must have had," says Scott. "And that's where the impact lay in the relationship between her and Columbus. It would be silly to suggest it was ever anything approaching sexual, but there was something that obviously impressed Isabel about him."

"Isabel always relied on her intuition," says Weaver. "When Columbus speaks about what he wants to do, she feels that he can really do it – she feels his passion is the same as hers. She thought that he was her kindred spirit, doing the impossible even more than she. That was the start of her great admiration for him."

Michael Wincott plays the disturbed nobleman Adrian de Moxica, who incites a brutal mutiny in the New World.

"Moxica is a creature of his lineage, a man of absolute and corrupt power," says Wincott. "To him, Columbus is a peasant and a foreigner, and taking orders from someone so beneath his station is total humiliation. It would have been impossible for them to get along."

Ridley Scott and his production team scouted in Spain for more than four months before choosing locations in such historic cities as Caceres, Trujillo, Seville, and Salamanca.

"Like all countries in the world today, Spain is getting scarred by development," says Scott. "And so it was very difficult to find untouched environment."

Granted extraordinary privileges by the Spanish authorities, the filmmakers were allowed to shoot in world-famous monuments like the Alcazar and Casa de Pilatos in Seville and the Old Cathedral of Salamanca - the Spanish equivalents of filming in the White House or Buckingham Palace. The opportunity to work in places Columbus actually visited – like the Alcazar and Convento de San Esteban, Salamanca - was a source of inspiration and awe for the cast and crew.

Production designer Norris Spencer and his team of art directors researched medieval and early Renaissance paintings and books to find references for the period. Often in the background of paintings and madonnas and saints they discovered domestic scenes displaying medieval objects. In Spain, 350 carpenters, laborers and painters would be required at the height of production.

As any item from 1492 would now be a precious antique, all the props were specially constructed for the film or later-era replicas were secured by set decorators Ann Mollo from antique dealers and prop houses in Madrid, Seville, Rome, and London.

Costume designer Charles Knode also studied art of the period. Discussing the more-than-3,000 costumes used in the film, Knode says, "What we always tried to do was have clothing, not costumes. We tried to make everything look lived-in."

Particularly challenging were the eight outfits Knode created for Queen Isabel, including a spectacular gold brocade gown with a 30-foot printed velvet train and gem-encrusted headdress.

As a Royal College of Art-trained artist, Ridley Scott has the advantage of being able to communicate directly with his production team by drawing pictures. Moments after scouting a new location or between takes, Scott often will himself illustrate the images he wants on screen. These drawings are then assembled, along with the work of the film's storyboard artist, into logbooks an used as a reference by key members of the crew.

Gerard Depardieu comments that he is accustomed to reflecting about a role and working out any problems before filming commences. "Once I'm on the set, it's like an explosion of joy," Depardieu says. "I am happy to follow the director and I don't want to convince him of a different approach to a scene. With Ridley Scott I've managed to build up exactly the kind of relationship I yearn for on the set."

After considering Cuba, Mexico, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia, Costa Rica was selected as the setting for the scenes from the New World.

"Costa Rica has been called 'the Switzerland of the Indies,'" says Scott. "It's balanced politically, has no army, and has 95% literacy. Apart from that I needed to have islands, beaches, mainlands, and jungle, and I found it all in Costa Rica."

While in Costa Rica, the production was based in Jaco, a small town frequented by tourists on the Pacific coast. After the bitter cold of the Spanish winter, the filmmakers were suddenly confronted with the heavy humidity and 100+ °F (37.8+ °C) temperatures of the tropics.

The production team had to cope with such unwelcome guests as alligators, scorpions and poisonous snakes. For safety's sake, a snake handler was employed to divest certain locations of the slithering reptiles. Another memorable part of the jungle experience was the haunting, shrill cry of the cicadas heard each day at sunrise and sunset.

Ten major sets were built in the environs of Jaco by production designer Norris Spencer and his team, including three Indian villages, a gold mine, and a long jetty, where the scenes of Columbus's departure from Spain was filmed. The most spectacular set was Columbus's city of Isabel, built on what had once been an empty field infested by snakes. In just three months, the barren 20-acre site was transformed into a burgeoning metropolis, complete with cathedral, city hall, an army barracks, a jail, and a two-story governor's mansion for Columbus.

The look of the city is an intriguing blend of European and Indian styles that Spencer describes as "a crossover between what the indigenous builders used and what the Spanish aspired to build.

Ridley Scott is a filmmaker celebrated for dramatic and action sequences by dazzling visual imagery. There were few camera set-ups for "1492" that weren't enhanced by atmospheric effects achieves by mist, smoke, rain, or fire.

Scott explains his goal is "to keep all elements under control. I try to make the air of the frame around the actors have life."

The production team enlisted, for six weeks, 170 indigenous people of Costa Rica comprising four tribes – the Bribri, Maleku, Boruca, and Cabecar – to play Indians that Columbus encounters in the New World.

Most of the principal Indian roles were played by six Colombian Waunana Indians who worked previously with executive producer Iain Smith on the 1986 film The Mission. They joined the production in Spain, portraying Indians brought back by Columbus to be presented to Queen Isabel. One, Bercelio Moya, has the role of Columbus's translator, Utapan. He is joined in the film by his father, Alejandrino, who plays Chief Guarionex, and his grandfather, Florin, who portrays the tribe's shaman. In addition, four other men from their village came to Costa Rica to build the totem poles, dugout canoes, furniture, and weaponry which adorn the various Indian villages seen in the film. "They understand very well what happened in history," says Claudia Gomez, who also worked with Waunana on The Mission. "They are very happy to show the world the cultures that Columbus encountered."

"I feel that the people we are portraying are both noble and dignified," says Alejandrino Moya, "and I would have been proud to have been part of their tribe."

Replicas of Columbus's flagship, the Santa Maria, and the caravel, the Pinta, were made in Bristol, England, by Square Sail, a British company that specializes in vessels for the motion picture industry. The two boats were refashioned from the waterline up, out of the hulls of two turn-of-the-century brigantines. The smaller caravel, the Niña, was totally constructed in Bahia, Brazil by the Columbus Foundation to commemorate the 500th anniversary. It is the culmination of the most recent research into the period and is considered by experts to be the most authentic discovery caravel ever built.

The Santa Maria and the Pinta left Bristol on 10 December 1991, and, following a route similar to Columbus's, sailed down to the Canary Islands and across the Atlantic to Costa Rica, arriving 55 days later, in early February. There they joined the Niña, which had arrived two weeks earlier from Brazil. While equipped with navigational equipment and diesel engines for total reliability, the three ships made the voyages largely through the use of the ship's sails.

"I've tried not to readjust history," says Ridley Scott. "There is madness and savagery in the film. We see Columbus go too far. Still, my aim is to take you underneath the skin of this character, so you can understand why he may have done these things. By the end of the film, Columbus has his own sense of remorse, but he can also take great pride in opening up a New World."

1492: Conquest of Paradise opened on 66 screens in Spain, grossing $1 million in its first five days.[10] In the United States and Canada, it opened 9 October 1992 in 1,008 theaters. The version released there was edited to 150 minutes, with some violence and brutality removed in order to achieve a PG-13 rating.[11] The film was not a success in the United States, debuting at number 7 with a gross of $3,002,680; worse than the opening of Christopher Columbus: The Discovery earlier in the year, and went on to gross just $7 million.[12][13][14] It opened in France on 12 October 1992, grossing $1.46 million for the weekend from 264 screens.[10] In its second week in Europe, it was the highest-grossing film with a gross of over $7.7 million, including $1.77 million in its opening week in Germany from 213 screens. It did not open well in Italy with $261,800 in its opening weekend from 33 screens.[15][16] By the end of 1992, it had grossed $40 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $47 million.[17] It went on to gross $59 million.[18]

Overall, the film received mixed reviews from critics,[19][20][21][22][23] with the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes giving the film a 32% rating based on 22 reviews with the critical consensus: "Historically inaccurate and dramatically inert, Ridley Scott's retelling of Christopher Columbus' exploits is an epic without grandeur or insight".[24] However, film critic Roger Ebert said that the film was satisfactory, and that "Depardieu lends it gravity, the supporting performances are convincing, the locations are realistic, and we are inspired to reflect that it did indeed take a certain nerve to sail off into nowhere just because an orange was round."[25] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B+" on scale of A+ to F.[26]