Cheap Captain Corelli's Mandolin (Video) (Penélope Cruz, Nicolas Cage) (John Madden) Price

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Customer Reviews of Captain Corelli's Mandolin

The movie begins in 1940 on the spectacularly beautiful Greek island of Kefallonia. The winds of war are sweeping across Europe. Italy, allied with Nazi Germany, has begun an invasion of Greece. The residents are somewhat philosophical about this because, over its long history, the island has suffered numerous invasions, as well as devastating earthquakes.

The story is narrated by Dr. Iannis [John Hurt], a lifelong resident. He has seen to it that his beautiful and intelligent young daughter, Pelagia [Penelope Cruz], has received a good education. She is in love with Mandras [Christian Bale], a local fisherman. Her father knows that Mandras will never be Pelagia's equal, but his protestations do not stop the couple from getting engaged.

One warm, bright day the Italian troops arrive. It's not a violent event, since the island has no army. Among the Italians is the dashing but gentle Capt. Antonio Corelli [Nicholas Cage], who has never aimed a gun at anyone in his life and who would rather be singing and playing his mandolin. He winds up being bivouacked in the Dr.Iannis and Pelagria's home. He is attracted to her, but she at first does not respond. She sees him only as part of an invading force. Later, though, she begins to view him differently. He is the equal she has unknowingly been waiting for. A classic love triangle begins to emerge, and the war that so far has been relatively benign will soon become malignant for both the islanders and the Italians.

Regular readers know that the war movie is not my favorite kind. Of the ones I've liked, the majority center around the effects of war on civilian populations. Captain Corelli's Mandolin could have been one I enjoyed. The movie is as much about love and the ability of life to thrive in even the harshest settings than it is about war.

A couple of things work against it. One is the script. Even though I didn't read the book, it's as though the movie is a compressed version of it. It's director, John Madden, has made some fine movies, including Shakespeare in Love and Mrs. Brown. Here, he has made editing choices that, while keeping the movie from running three hours, make the story feel choppy. The story advances months and even years without much warning.

The other problem is the casting of the main roles. Cage is a fine actor. Though he is most closely associated with action adventure films, he has also shown talent in romantic roles in movies like Moonstruck and City of Angels. Still, he's not quite soulful or peaceful enough to play Corelli, a most reluctant warrior, convincingly. I have seen Penelope Cruz in several movies she made in her native Spain, and she was quite good. I have yet to be impressed by a performance of hers in an English language flick. She needs to work on getting down the nuances of the language, not just its words. Also, it's disconcerting to hear her Greek character speaking English in a heavy Spanish accent.

The star of this movie is Kefallonia itself. If the plot doesn't hold your interest, there's always the scenery to look at. Some people have said that the village in the movie looks uncannily like the one in the book. There's an easy explanation for it. All of the buildings were constructed for it. The area where it was filmed was leveled by an earthquake in 1953 and never rebuilt.

Beautiful Story, Music, and Scenery--A Triple Treat Movie
Captain Antonio Corelli (Nicolas Cage) epitomizes the best qualities of Italian men---in love with life, women, and music. His arrival on a small Greek island and falling in love at first sight with Pelagia (Penelope Cruz) is a beautiful love story with World War II's bloody battles as a backdrop. Cage performs superbly as the invader who makes friends with the enemy and is later startled by the ruthlessness of his German allies. Penelope Cruz is also outstanding as the highly-educated daughter of the village doctor (John Hurt) who is engaged to her intellectual inferior Mandras (Christian Bale.) The passion between Corelli and Pelagia is fraught with tension that erupts in a beautifully-directed love scene. Despite the great love story, it is perhaps the character of Mandras who is most compelling as his feelings for Pelagia are revealed and his actions toward Corelli round out his mysterious nature. I have never read the book, but would love to do so now in order to see a fuller development of the intriguing Mandras. Also notable among a cast of fine performances are those of Irene Pappas as the spirited mother of Mandras who realizes what is happening between Pelagia and Corelli, as well as David Morrissey as the German captain who battles personal feelings with his unquestionable support for Hitler. The music and singing in this movie is excellent. To borrow one of my favorite lines from the movie: Heil, Hitler, Heil Puccini! Listening to the Italian soldiers singing "Santa Lucia" and other great works from the Italian masters was alone worth the cost of admission. Add Corelli's beautiful playing of his mandolin and the idyllic setting of the Greek island of Cephalonia and you have a movie I highly recommend seeing.

could have been a good movie with a different set of actors
I can't stand either Nicolas Cage or Penelope Cruz so I was prepared to hate it. It wasn't as bad as I anticipated but it wasn't great either. Nicolas Cage is a terrible actor and his fake Italian accent was getting on my nerves in a major way. All the Italians in the movie joke around and sing-that all they do. I also couldn't see how they(N and P) fell in love. One day they just were. Yeah, right. I have to add one more thing and its about Penelope's looks. I think with right clothes and makeup she can look decent but in this movie she looks downright horrid. Her hair is done in the most unflattering hairdo on the planet and her clothes look as if she robbed the scarecrow. Whether the look was intentional or accidental is a mystery. The ending was incredibly stupid. He leaves Penelope until the war is over and then doesn't come back until two years later because he feels guilty about coming between her and her fiancé. Give me a break