Sir Walter Scott's novel, Ivanhoe, is about a "Saxon" noble championing the cause of justice, nebulously represented by the absent King, Richard Coeur-de-Lion, against the machinations of the King's brother John and his wicked Norman barons. It is undoubtedly a great work of literature, and, in its romance and excitement, so well-suited to adaption to the screen that it has been done multiple times. The central historical theme of patriotic, so-called Saxons defying their oppression by the Normans is redolent of a peculiarly early modern, romantic and anachronistic view of English society in 1194 and Scott took considerable liberties with the known facts, avoiding anything that would have diminished the drama, such as John's flight to Normandy to avoid Richard. I merely point this out for those who might think they are being treated to a story that could have taken place, while realizing that if one is to criticize such a part of the British literary canon on these lines, one would have also to damn Shakespeare's Macbeth and Polanski's masterful film of it.
Accepting, then, that this a great story crying out to become a great film, I was most excited to discover a version played by a cast of absolutely first-rate actors, and they certainly didn't disappoint. Olivia Hussey was especially good and moving as the beautiful Rebecca, better than I had ever seen her except in that greatest of all films, Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. The expected setting of castle and forest was all fine too.
So what went wrong? I'm afraid I laughed during the opening scene when James Mason, playing Rebecca's viciously ill-treated Jewish father (whom one would have expected to keep a low profile while traveling through a lawless land), appeared wearing an absurdly exotic Burmese peasant's hat, which he never then took off. Thus harshly alerted to a costume designer who should never have been allowed near a children's pantomime, I could not avoid having my attention undermined throughout by the invariable cheap and tacky props, including jewelry, ornaments and weapons that looked and sounded much too obviously like cheap plastic, and the factory-made printed shields, one of which could be seen to bounce back into shape like rubber after being bent in half.
Nor I'm afraid was the costume designer the only one at fault; the script writer should also have joined him on the dole. He was unsurprisingly fine when he stuck to Scott's fine words, but a disaster when left to use his imagination. The climactic battle scene consisted of a small band of men taking perhaps an hour to capture the castle, ultimately by knocking on the door with a ram. Had he never heard of moats or portcullises or that, without treachery, such a castle could only be captured by a large army after a siege of months? I cannot imagine what the producers were thinking to invest in such high-profile actors for an excellent story, only to wreck it through inept and stingy disbursement in other directions. The tacky props, when combined with the swashbuckling tone and slightly corny bombast, reminded me of some best-forgotten historical films from the fifties, so that I wondered whether it was unfair to blame the filmmakers for not having then had the technical means to produce anything faintly resembling Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. Then I remembered that the other two films I have mentioned, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth were made a decade earlier than Ivanhoe without these faults, and realized there was no excuse.
Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a novel about Eton, amazon.com/dp/1481222112
Accepting, then, that this a great story crying out to become a great film, I was most excited to discover a version played by a cast of absolutely first-rate actors, and they certainly didn't disappoint. Olivia Hussey was especially good and moving as the beautiful Rebecca, better than I had ever seen her except in that greatest of all films, Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. The expected setting of castle and forest was all fine too.
So what went wrong? I'm afraid I laughed during the opening scene when James Mason, playing Rebecca's viciously ill-treated Jewish father (whom one would have expected to keep a low profile while traveling through a lawless land), appeared wearing an absurdly exotic Burmese peasant's hat, which he never then took off. Thus harshly alerted to a costume designer who should never have been allowed near a children's pantomime, I could not avoid having my attention undermined throughout by the invariable cheap and tacky props, including jewelry, ornaments and weapons that looked and sounded much too obviously like cheap plastic, and the factory-made printed shields, one of which could be seen to bounce back into shape like rubber after being bent in half.
Nor I'm afraid was the costume designer the only one at fault; the script writer should also have joined him on the dole. He was unsurprisingly fine when he stuck to Scott's fine words, but a disaster when left to use his imagination. The climactic battle scene consisted of a small band of men taking perhaps an hour to capture the castle, ultimately by knocking on the door with a ram. Had he never heard of moats or portcullises or that, without treachery, such a castle could only be captured by a large army after a siege of months? I cannot imagine what the producers were thinking to invest in such high-profile actors for an excellent story, only to wreck it through inept and stingy disbursement in other directions. The tacky props, when combined with the swashbuckling tone and slightly corny bombast, reminded me of some best-forgotten historical films from the fifties, so that I wondered whether it was unfair to blame the filmmakers for not having then had the technical means to produce anything faintly resembling Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. Then I remembered that the other two films I have mentioned, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth were made a decade earlier than Ivanhoe without these faults, and realized there was no excuse.
Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a novel about Eton, amazon.com/dp/1481222112