In 1490s Spain, following rejection by the king of Portugal of his proposal to find an alternate route to India, Genoese navigator Cristobal Colon (Geores Corraface) takes his proposal to King Ferdinand (Tom Selleck) and Queen Isabelle (Rachel Ward) of Spain. Despite Ferdinand's skepticism and religious opisition from inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada (Marlon Brando), Cristobal is able to gain the support he needs for his voyage through Queen Isabelle and sets off for his voyage to discover an alternate path to India.
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery is a 1992 adventure film that was one of a number of projects made to celebrate the Columbus Quincentenary (500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage) with this film and 1492: Conquest of Paradise entering production roughly around the same time. Produced by the infamous father/son producing duo of Alexander and Iyla Salkind, the movie was plagued by cast and crew turnover before it was even released with Ridley Scott briefly considering working with the Salkinds before choosing to go with competing project 1492: Conquest of Paradise with the Salkinds attempting to sue Scott only to drop the lawsuit later. George P. Cosmatos of Rambo II and Cobra had originally been slated to direct with Timothy Dalton and Isabella Rosesellini slated to play Kind Ferdinand and Queen Isabella but following clashes behind the scenes all three departed with Cosmatos and Dalton issuing legal action against the Salkinds. Eventually the film managed to find a director in John Glen who had directed the Dalton Bond films Living Daylights and License to Kill and the Salkinds managed to score Marlon Brando in a supporting role as Torquemada for $5 million, which Brando only took after being promised re-writes that would showcase Columbus' role in Indian genocide that although promised by Iyla were reneged by Alexander. Brando later unsuccessfully tried to have his name removed from the credits with him receiving top billing. Upon release the film was a colossal failure opening in fifth place behind several holdovers and the opening of low budget Brandon Lee vehicle Rapid Fire and the film only managed to make $8 million against an estimated $45-50 million budget. Lawsuits continuing to plague the Salkinds afterwards with even Ilya suing Alexander and the Salkinds would never be involved in a major motion picture ever again. The movie has quietly faded into obscurity with the movie panned upon initial release, but not leaving any legacy of notoriety because Christopher Columbus: The Discovery is the worst kind of bad, boringly bad.
When watching Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, the first thing you notice is that despite being a very expensive movie, there's very little in terms of creating a sense of grandeur with director John Glen keeping the framing very tight and claustrophobic with no real impressive shots. Even the costuming has the feeling of a bad game of "dress-up" rather than a well-produced period piece, but when you have the out of place casting of Robert Davi and Tom Selleck in prominent supporting roles it doesn't help sell the illusion especially since both are very contemporary actors who don't fit in 15th century Spain. In terms of the film's handling of Christopher Columbus, the movie feels like "hero worship" of Columbus and plays the voyage in a manner similar to that of a swashbuckler (not too dissimilar from how the Salkinds did their Musketeer films), there's maybe some very brief hints of Columbus' legacy but for the most part the worst actions against indigenous peoples are done by forgettable boarderline nameless crew members rather than Columbus himself. The closing shot of the movie that sees Columbus standing atop a seaside cliff with his outstretched arms "embracing" the "new world" is massively misjudged and considering the conversational shift regarding indigenous peoples in the 90s this movie couldn't have been more poorly timed if it tried.
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery is probably about as close as the 90s got to having an equivalent to 1981's Inchon!, in that it's an expensive poorly done historical epic where both "history" and "epic" are not guaranteed. While it may not have the baggage associated with the Unification Church or as crazy a production history, it has nonetheless made a tedious slog that fits comfortably alongside Inchon! As a comparison piece.
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery is a 1992 adventure film that was one of a number of projects made to celebrate the Columbus Quincentenary (500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage) with this film and 1492: Conquest of Paradise entering production roughly around the same time. Produced by the infamous father/son producing duo of Alexander and Iyla Salkind, the movie was plagued by cast and crew turnover before it was even released with Ridley Scott briefly considering working with the Salkinds before choosing to go with competing project 1492: Conquest of Paradise with the Salkinds attempting to sue Scott only to drop the lawsuit later. George P. Cosmatos of Rambo II and Cobra had originally been slated to direct with Timothy Dalton and Isabella Rosesellini slated to play Kind Ferdinand and Queen Isabella but following clashes behind the scenes all three departed with Cosmatos and Dalton issuing legal action against the Salkinds. Eventually the film managed to find a director in John Glen who had directed the Dalton Bond films Living Daylights and License to Kill and the Salkinds managed to score Marlon Brando in a supporting role as Torquemada for $5 million, which Brando only took after being promised re-writes that would showcase Columbus' role in Indian genocide that although promised by Iyla were reneged by Alexander. Brando later unsuccessfully tried to have his name removed from the credits with him receiving top billing. Upon release the film was a colossal failure opening in fifth place behind several holdovers and the opening of low budget Brandon Lee vehicle Rapid Fire and the film only managed to make $8 million against an estimated $45-50 million budget. Lawsuits continuing to plague the Salkinds afterwards with even Ilya suing Alexander and the Salkinds would never be involved in a major motion picture ever again. The movie has quietly faded into obscurity with the movie panned upon initial release, but not leaving any legacy of notoriety because Christopher Columbus: The Discovery is the worst kind of bad, boringly bad.
When watching Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, the first thing you notice is that despite being a very expensive movie, there's very little in terms of creating a sense of grandeur with director John Glen keeping the framing very tight and claustrophobic with no real impressive shots. Even the costuming has the feeling of a bad game of "dress-up" rather than a well-produced period piece, but when you have the out of place casting of Robert Davi and Tom Selleck in prominent supporting roles it doesn't help sell the illusion especially since both are very contemporary actors who don't fit in 15th century Spain. In terms of the film's handling of Christopher Columbus, the movie feels like "hero worship" of Columbus and plays the voyage in a manner similar to that of a swashbuckler (not too dissimilar from how the Salkinds did their Musketeer films), there's maybe some very brief hints of Columbus' legacy but for the most part the worst actions against indigenous peoples are done by forgettable boarderline nameless crew members rather than Columbus himself. The closing shot of the movie that sees Columbus standing atop a seaside cliff with his outstretched arms "embracing" the "new world" is massively misjudged and considering the conversational shift regarding indigenous peoples in the 90s this movie couldn't have been more poorly timed if it tried.
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery is probably about as close as the 90s got to having an equivalent to 1981's Inchon!, in that it's an expensive poorly done historical epic where both "history" and "epic" are not guaranteed. While it may not have the baggage associated with the Unification Church or as crazy a production history, it has nonetheless made a tedious slog that fits comfortably alongside Inchon! As a comparison piece.