Middle Ages. Irish have been squabbling since Romans left. Cue lots of rather unnecessary political background, swordfights and beautiful shots of Irish coastline. Photogenic young Tristan grows up as Cornish King's No.1 man. Gets wounded in battle, looks dead, is shipped him off in a bier to sea. Gets washed up on an Irish beach (cue more beautiful shots of Irish coastline) near cave where gorgeous Princess Isolde just happens to be wandering. Isolde's in a huff at being made a pawn for an arranged marriage. She nurses Tristan back to health - falling head over heels in love while mopping his fevered brow and gazing adoringly and his nicely tanned pecs. Back in England, Tristan 'wins' Isolde in a joust - on behalf of the blissfully ignorant King Marke. More swordfights and politics. The lovers pine for each other, make secret late night trysts, beg each other to abandon their duty, until inevitable happens. More swordfights, declarations of 'undying' love and so on . . .
In the original legend, while Tristan is transporting Isolde from Ireland to Cornwall to marry the King, Tristan and Isolde are on far from friendly terms; but then accidentally drinking a love potion they fall into a passionate embrace. The potion is the key to the story, a symbol of an almost supernatural force that sweeps human beings away, against their inclinations and despite good intentions or obligations to others. In Wagner's famous opera of the same name, love is also the force that releases mortals from the delusion of everyday reality and false appearances, and enables them to achieve transfiguration in death.
In our film, there is no potion, only natural attraction (or teenage hormones). In many ways it's an updating of the story, though with none of the insights or spiritual and deeply symbolic elements that Richard Wagner managed to put in his version. Sadly, the movie's romantic elements are kept to a 'family audience' rating and there is much more time spent on swordfights than there is on passion or the feelings of our star-crossed lovers. Some of the simple magic of the original story still manages to shine through however, and we at least get some sense of chemistry between the two lead characters and their hopeless battles of conscience as they wrestle individually with dilemmas of duty - Tristan to protect the nobleness of his King and Isolde not to be totally indifferent to Marke's kindness.
Could it be that, if 'love can transform destiny and the fate of nations', it is a force for good when it strikes wisely, and can wreak destruction when it affects those whose attraction causes havoc, suffering and all-round evil? But such suggestions are too deep for this superficial medieval fantasy, whose main moral elements seem to be avoiding sex and at the same time encouraging the viewer to disapprove when it happens. Tristan and Isolde shouldn't have given in to lust or, having done it, she shouldn't have slept with her husband the King. If it was set in the modern day, no doubt the Christian fundamentalist influence would have given them AIDS after forbidding them to use condoms. As a work possibly aimed at the youth market, it simultaneously suggests anything is justified in the name of love, as long as you feel suitably guilty. There is a vague sense, as with Romeo and Juliet, that warring factions can eventually be joined in love, but there is little wisdom to be gleaned from this confused version of the legend. Tristan + Isolde is not a particularly bad film - more of a messy, missed opportunity. It's main triumph is probably the beautiful Irish coastline.
In the original legend, while Tristan is transporting Isolde from Ireland to Cornwall to marry the King, Tristan and Isolde are on far from friendly terms; but then accidentally drinking a love potion they fall into a passionate embrace. The potion is the key to the story, a symbol of an almost supernatural force that sweeps human beings away, against their inclinations and despite good intentions or obligations to others. In Wagner's famous opera of the same name, love is also the force that releases mortals from the delusion of everyday reality and false appearances, and enables them to achieve transfiguration in death.
In our film, there is no potion, only natural attraction (or teenage hormones). In many ways it's an updating of the story, though with none of the insights or spiritual and deeply symbolic elements that Richard Wagner managed to put in his version. Sadly, the movie's romantic elements are kept to a 'family audience' rating and there is much more time spent on swordfights than there is on passion or the feelings of our star-crossed lovers. Some of the simple magic of the original story still manages to shine through however, and we at least get some sense of chemistry between the two lead characters and their hopeless battles of conscience as they wrestle individually with dilemmas of duty - Tristan to protect the nobleness of his King and Isolde not to be totally indifferent to Marke's kindness.
Could it be that, if 'love can transform destiny and the fate of nations', it is a force for good when it strikes wisely, and can wreak destruction when it affects those whose attraction causes havoc, suffering and all-round evil? But such suggestions are too deep for this superficial medieval fantasy, whose main moral elements seem to be avoiding sex and at the same time encouraging the viewer to disapprove when it happens. Tristan and Isolde shouldn't have given in to lust or, having done it, she shouldn't have slept with her husband the King. If it was set in the modern day, no doubt the Christian fundamentalist influence would have given them AIDS after forbidding them to use condoms. As a work possibly aimed at the youth market, it simultaneously suggests anything is justified in the name of love, as long as you feel suitably guilty. There is a vague sense, as with Romeo and Juliet, that warring factions can eventually be joined in love, but there is little wisdom to be gleaned from this confused version of the legend. Tristan + Isolde is not a particularly bad film - more of a messy, missed opportunity. It's main triumph is probably the beautiful Irish coastline.