Customer Reviews

Marco Polo

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

One lazy Sunday I drifted into watching this mini-series. My first impression was that it was a silly, romanticized Hollywood treatment of a classic historical account (admittedly, one that I hadn't personally read at the time).

And, yes, seeing Brian Dennehy cast as Kublai Khan made it especially hard to buy into the treatment! But the sets, costumes and storyline were all quite extraordinary. A lot of effort obviously went into the production , which was made in China with a substantial budget.

But many things just didn't sit right with me: the magnificence of Kublai Kahn's court, his cities, the military technology, and a romance between Marco and a Chinese princess? And then the Kahn charges Marco with delivering the princess to the other side of the planet???

I watched it to the end...and then ran to Amazon to find a book to get the facts. The book I found was The Travels of Marco Polo: Edited by Peter Harris (Everyman's Library (Cloth)).

Amazing news...this "sensationalized" mini-series barely scratches the surface of the astounding things Marco Polo reports in his 700 year old tale of travel!

His adventures, many of which are dramatized in this DVD, seemed absolutely unbelievable...until I found most of them proven true in the book... including the story about delivering the princess.

And the romance? Well, I suspect that Marco left quite a few personal facts out of his life in China. So kudos to the scriptwriters who wrote a little love between the lines of his historic journey.

Bottom line - a great film for couples or anyone with an interest in history.

If you just watch the film, marvel that there's more truth in this account than there is fiction! And if you want to know the truth, treat yourself to the book.

The movie was a well made re telling of the story of Marco Polo. However such a story would take hours to tell on screen as much was left out ,however all in all i would recomend this movie .

This mini series is very close to the one in the early 80's that was the best ever made. I would definitely recommend this to lovers of history.

I enjoyed the picture a lot. Great views, handsome and talented actors. Still I prefer the style where strong scenes are suggested, leaving some of the action to the imagination.

I enjoyed the colorful pageantry of this mini-series. Keeping in mind this is Hollywood and not a documentary, this romanticized version of Marco Polo's travels was most entertaining. Ian Somerhalder is well cast as the ever inquisitive adventurer as are the other members of the international cast. With one exception, Brian Dennehy as Kublai Khan? Though a fine actor in his own right, Mr. Dennehy has no business portraying the Mongol ruler. Not to mention the scores of Asians offended by such casting. However, the sets were most glamorous making this production a worthwhile adventure.

There are several reviews that discuss the historical accuracy of this film, but my review of Hallmark's made for TV movie, Marco Polo is based mostly on its entertainment value.

The sets and costumes were very nice, but the story was very slow paced and became tedious to watch. Some of the fighting scenes were good and it was interesting to see B.D. Wong ("Pedro") performing martial arts.

Historically, Kublai Khan wished to meet with Marco Polo because he had never seen a European before. The casting of Brian Dennehy as Kublai Khan was a poor decision. It's offensive enough seeing a Caucasian actor in an Asian role, but on top of that, his acting was painfully bad.

I suppose seeing this movie might get some people interested in reading Marco Polo's book and learning more about that part of history. Probably more interesting than watching this made for TV movie.

Understanding that this person, Marco Polo, may never have seen China as he said he did, I fully enjoyed this story. It was very believable as well as interesting.

The movie was a great find! The price was excellent. It came still in the original packaging, unopened. It is an adventurous and historically accurate movie. Great family film, but one scene is a bit unappropriate.

We missed the second half of Marco Polo on TV so I was excited when I found it at Amazon. We don't have many DVD's but this is a part of history so we've watched it twice so far. So much to learn of a mysterious culture. I would recomend it to any history buff.

All you have to do is look up Marco Polo in Wikipedia and you will see this show gets its history completely wrong. The actual history is much more intresting, this thing is not.

Also, every other line is some attack on western europe. It can't go more than a couple of minutes without some put down of the west. Apparently the author hates europeans. Oh, and he also hate christians, as that is constantly mocked (typical hollywood cliches of priests, etc.)

Someone should actually make a decent movie about Marco Polo, this is just a Hollywood, european hating film.