This film is kind of forgotten these days, even more so now that James Franco’s finally been exposed as a creep. However, I think there’s a pretty decent film here. Reynolds was clearly trying to recapture the magic of his all-time classic Count of Monte Cristo adaptation, but this just fell short, possibly because of the behind the scenes nonsense that Franco was pulling (according to co-star Sophia Miles, he was refusing to even speak to Reynolds during the filming).
That said, I think Franco does tortured heart-throb pretty well and Miles does a great job of playing a woman stuck in an impossible possition. Also, Rufus Sewel and Henry Cavill give a lot more to their thankless roles as the scorned husband and nephew than expected. The biggest problem, in my estimation at least, is that it’s just too damned long. It should not take 2 hours and 5 minutes to tell a story this straight forward, particularly one as well-troden as this.
So, I’ve aimed to shed the film of some excess weight and hopefully deliver something more satisfying as a result. The biggest cut is the rather pointless prologue. We don’t need to see the deaths of Tristan & Isolde’s father and mother, or how Marke got his hand chopped off. It adds nothing particuarly important to their characters that we don’t already learn later in the movie. We also don’t need to see Tristan and his freinds discover the Roman tunnels as, again, it is revealed later. I’ve also cut Tristan being a dick to Isolde because she’s trying to find happiness in the marriage he told her was so important. It just makes him look like a petulant child.
The new running time is 1 hour 44 minutes. As this is for my ESL students, it has hardcoded English subtitles, although I could make a version without subtitles if I recieve enough polite requests. An ESL reader adaptation will also be included that incorporates elements of the movie with the parts of the original legend like Tristan fighting the dragon (no love potions though, that wasn’t part of the original story but was added later by religious zealots).
The movie will be in the same folder as all my other edits. If you don’t already have the link, please contact me though PRIVATE MESSAGE. As always, suggestions are welcome.