| Tristan & Isolde | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Kevin Reynolds |
| Produced by | Ridley Scott Tony Scott Lisa Ellzey Giannina Facio Moshe Diamant Elie Samaha |
| Written by | Dean Georgaris |
| Starring | James Franco Sophia Myles Rufus Sewell |
| Music by | Anne Dudley |
| Editing by | Peter Boyle |
| Studio | Scott Free Productions Franchise Pictures |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox (USA/AUS) Universal Pictures (UK) |
| Release date(s) | January 13, 2006 |
| Running time | 125 minutes |
| Country | Germany United Kingdom United States Czech Republic |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $28,047,963 |
Tristan & Isolde is a 2006 romantic drama film based on the medieval romantic legend of Tristan and Isolde. It was produced by Ridley Scott (who had been working on an adaptation since the mid-seventies) and Tony Scott, directed by Kevin Reynolds and stars James Franco and Sophia Myles, with an original music score composed by Anne Dudley. This was Franchise Pictures' last film before bankruptcy.
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The film is set in Great Britain and Ireland, in the Dark Ages, after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. Lord Marke of Cornwall (Rufus Sewell) plans to unify the peoples of Britain - Celts, Angles, Saxons and Jutes - under himself as high king to resist Irish domination. Most lords agree to this, as Marke is highly regarded and respected as a fair and courageous leader. The Irish king Donnchadh (David O'Hara) discovers this and sends troops to attack a Jutish castle where a treaty between the British tribes is being discussed. The raid claims the lives of the castle's lord and his wife, and Marke saves their son Tristan at the cost of losing a hand. Feeling compassion for the young boy whose father loyally supported him, Marke welcomes Tristan into his home and regards him as a son. Tristan grows to be a fierce, courageous warrior (James Franco) whose loyalty to Marke is not that of a knight to his lord, but rather a son to his father.
Tristan and other Cornish warriors launch an attack on an Irish slave caravan: in the battle, he finds himself fighting Morholt, Donnchadh's champion and leader of his army, to whom Princess Isolde (Sophia Myles) has been promised in marriage. Though he kills Morholt and Donnchadh's forces are overrun, Tristan is severely wounded in the fight and believed dead, though he is in fact only suffering the effects of Morholt's poisoned sword.
Tristan's body is put out to sea on a funeral boat which eventually washes up along the shores of Ireland. He is discovered by Isolde and her maid Bragnae, who administer an antidote that revives him and then secretly nurse him back to health. Tristan and Isolde fall in love; however, Isolde does not disclose her real name. After some time Tristan is forced to flee to Cornwall. He returns home to a hero's welcome, where a confused but overjoyed Marke welcomes him back with open arms.
Plotting to defeat Britain, Donnchadh proposes a peace treaty, promising his daughter Isolde in marriage to the winner of a tournament. Tristan participates on behalf of King Marke, unaware that the "prize" Isolde is the woman he fell in love with in Ireland. He wins the tournament, only to discover the truth about Isolde and to see her betrothed to Marke.
Although Marke is kind to Isolde, and she grows fond of him, her heart belongs to Tristan. Tristan, in turn, is torn between his love for Isolde and his loyalty to Marke, a man whom he has loved as a father and who saved his life as a child. The couple eventually renew their love and begin an affair behind Marke's back, although they often consider ending it for the sake of their duty to Marke. This affair is discovered by Lord Wictred (Mark Strong), a longstanding dissenter to Marke's leadership. He conspires with Donnchadh to use their love to overthrow Marke, with Wictred getting Marke's throne in exchange.
In Tristan's final attempt to end the relationship, he and Isolde are caught in an awkward situation by all of the British kings. Seeing this as weakness on Marke's part, the kings decide to part ways with Marke; the alliances are ruined and his wife and son-figure have betrayed him. Marke is at first hurt and furious over their betrayal, but relents after hearing Isolde explain her history with Tristan and offers them the chance to run away together. But Tristan (who tells Isolde that if they elope, they will be remembered for all time as those "whose love brought down a kingdom") chooses instead to stay in England and fight for his king. At the same time, Marke's nephew and Tristan's old friend Melot (Henry Cavill), angry and resentful of his uncle's long favouring of Tristan and tricked by Wictred's seeming support of him, shows Wictred an old passage into the Roman foundations of Marke's castle that Tristan and Isolde used to carry out their affair. Wictred then fatally stabs Melot and sneaks his army into the castle. Marke and his forces swiftly become pinned down by Donnchadh's army outside the castle and Wictred's men within.
Tristan sneaks back into the castle via the secret tunnel. On the way, he finds the dying Melot: the old friends forgive one another before he dies. Tristan emerges from the tunnel and attacks Wictred's men, allowing Marke's soldiers to secure the castle, but he is mortally wounded in combat by Wictred, though he kills Wictred shortly afterwards. Now outnumbered, Tristan, Marke and the soldiers loyal to him emerge from the castle and present Wictred's severed head to Donnchadh. Marke urges the British kings standing with the Irish to aid them in making Britain a single, free nation: inspired by his words, the British kings and their men attack Donnchadh and his army. As a fierce battle between the British and Irish erupts, Marke carries a dying Tristan to the river, where they are met by Isolde. Marke leaves to lead the British to victory, while Tristan eventually dies in Isolde's arms after uttering his last words of "You were right. I don't know if life is greater than death. But love was more than either." Isolde sees to his burial beneath the ashes of the Roman villa where they had met to be with each other, and plants two willows by the grave, which grow intertwined; she then disappears from history and is never seen again. Marke, it is said, defeated the Irish, united Britain, then ruled in peace until the end of his days.
Upon release, the film generally received poor reviews. It received a 32% rating at the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with a consensus that it was "competent but somewhat static", failing to "achieve the sweeping romanticism that it aims for."[1] 38 of the 119 reviews were favourable. At Metacritic, the film scored a 49 out of 100 based on 33 reviews, with "mixed or average reviews".[2]
The scene in which Isolde reads the love poem to herself and to Tristan is a poem written by John Donne called "The Good-Morrow". John Donne lived in the 16th and 17th century, not in the "Dark Ages" of the time claimed in the movie. The "Dark Ages" is a loose and often controversial term referring to the 5th to 9th century.
The premise of the film based, presumably in the 5th-6th century, on an Irish enslavement of "the tribes of Britain" is not viable. Irish tribes such as the Deisi of Leinster did invade parts of western Britain but were never capable of dominating the whole island.
The map at the start of the second scene is wildly inaccurate, showing Juteland to the north of Rheged. Longbows were not in use until later in the medieval period. Dunluce Castle is on the Northern shore of Ireland not as shown. Circular stone keeps did not make an appearance until late Norman times along with draw-bridges and even later rounded archivolt doorways.
The Irish invade using Scandinavian longships. There is little evidence of clinker boat construction before the arrival of Viking raiders 300 years later.
There is little evidence for the use of stirrups in western Europe until the 8th century at the earliest. (However, many films with historic settings have to use them, anachronistically, for safety and insurance purposes.)
The film opened at number eight for the weekend of January 13, 2006. It grossed $7.85 million in its opening weekend. As of March 30, 2006, the film grossed a total of $14.73 million at the domestic box office.[1]
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