Captain Corelli’s mandolin

Year of release : 2001

Run time : 2h9m

Genre : War / Drama

Cast : Christian Bale, Penelope Cruz, Nicolas Cage, John Hurt, David Morrissey

The movie is based on the 1994 novel of the same name by Louis de Bernieres, and pays homage to the Italian soldiers who were executed in September 1943 at the massacre of Acqui Division by the Germans in Cephalonia, and to Cephalonia’s people, who died in an earthquake after the war.

The movie opens with Pelagia’s father, the doctor of the Cephalonia island who examines a man deaf in one ear, pulling a pea out of his ear. The man has a nagging wife, maybe pulling the pea out wasn’t the best idea.

The doctor writes letters to Antonio, telling him about the island who faced hardships, and Pelagia.

The people of the island have a religious holiday, with religious artefacts healing the sick, and dancing. The kids want to see the cannon shooting, and when it fires, it shoots Mandras in the butt.

Mandras is Pelagia’s boyfriend. Her father is examining him, and he seems to be fine, it’s just a bruise . Mandras’ mother is also a nag, as when she runs to see what happened to him, she starts fighting him and slapping him.

Mandras seems to be very childlish, as I don’t quite like how he treats Pelagia (he throws her in the water, and at their engagement party he ties her belt to the chair, asking her to get up).

Mandras proposes to Pelagia, and she accepts, but her father says to her, he always thought she’d marry a foreigner, as Mandras is immature. After their engagement Madras leaves for war, as he wants to do something with his life, and thinks enrolling will give meaning to his life.

Pelagia writes to Mandras every week, but never receives anything back. She lives in fear he died. One day, coming back home ,she finds him in her house ,wounded. After she and her father heal him, he goes back to war, although she asks him to stay!

Italian soldiers are coming to the island, and Pelagia starts having feelings for one of them (the one her father writes to in the beginning of the movie, Antonio) who ends up living in their home, as it’s a mandatory requirement.

The movie personally bored me. It’s very long and moves slowly. When they talk, I could barely hear them, but when the music started or when the war scenes started it was loud!

I have this movie on original video tape, and bought it, back in 2002-2003, because Christian Bale was one of my favorites. I’m saying was, because I don’t like the movies he plays in, so I just stopped watching movies I don’t wanna watch just because he’s in them. Christian Bale looks great in this movie, by the way! Between him and Cage, I wouldn’t have chosen Cage!

The movie actually started well, it was entertaining and funny, but then became boring.

I liked the cinematography, the colors, the places where they filmed at, the village, the houses.

The movie also has a bit of singing, as the Italians are a garrison of singers and instrumentalists (Nicolas Cage had to learn how to play the mandolin for the role, as he plays it for real in the movie).

Mandras is a character with growth, as he goes from an immature boy at the beginning of the movie, to a man. We find out he didn’t reply to her letters because he never learnt how to read or write (so her father was right, he’s not her equal). I hate how in this kind of movies, about cheating, they make the boyfriend less worthy in some way, not good enough, so we’d feel Ok about the cheating.

I liked how although he loves Pelagia, Mandras helps and rescues the man he knows she loves now, so he is a good man, worthy of her love.

The actors were good.

The soundtrack, I think, had Greek influences.

The movie received negative reviews (28% on Rotten Tomatoes and 36 on Metacritic), the critics complaining that the movie is not faithful to the novel and the story is “uninvolving” ,the romance lacking, as the leads don’t make them feel their passion .

The movie grossed 62 million dollars at the box office against a budget of 57 million dollars, which I think, makes it a flop.

Viewer discretion is advised, as the movie contains nudity.

Rating : Could have been a contender !