1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) More at IMDb Pro »

The flaw is Gerard Depardieu's English: too often does it undermine an otherwise magnificent movie. Why would I go through the effort? Because I speak perfect French and when you watch this film dubbed (and the dubbing is perfect, since it is Depardieu and Karyo dubbing themselves!) you realize what an awesome one it is. Ironically, I cann't imagine anyone other than Depardieu in the role, except maybe Russell Crowe (but at the time he was an unknown Hollywood!). The script is fantastic (sure it lingers in some places but it all happened SLOWLY in those days. One could argue that seven Samurai and Lawrence of Arabia are slow in places, well go rent a Steven Seagal picture, for all the good it will do you!), the performances are great (though betrayed in the English version by accents) and two combined elements set this appart from any other film in existence: the symphonic mix of photography and music! Ridley Scott has always had an awesome visual flair, but in that sense this must be the top of his game (yes, even counting Blade Runner, Legend and Gladiator). Then there's that score by Vangelis! I love movie music and always pay attention to it, but I have yet to hear more astonishing a theme (or any tune of the score, the whole CD is a masterpiece, unlike most of it's peers) than that of 1492: Conquest of Paradise. So if you master any other language than English, see this, on a big screen with good sound. That's when a flawed epic turns into a true work of art!