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(US/UK/France/Spain) Directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator).
Cast: Depardieu plays Christopher Columbus. Co-starring Armand Assante, Sigourney Weaver, and Michael Wincott.
Plot: Columbus believes the earth is round and that by sailing east he can find new routes to the trading mecca of Asia. But the Church says the world is flat and anyone who disagrees is a heretic. Still, a young, charismatic Columbus manages to convince a few key supporters, including Queen Isabel of Spain (Sigourney Weaver). He gets the funds for an expedition and sets out with three ships and a lot of European character actors. They do discover land, but it isn't the Asia they hoped for. It's the West Indies, a land of primitive natives and a lot of bugs but not much in the way of fashionable goods. Columbus tries his best to set up a profitable colony and satisfy the Queen's lust for gold while 'doing right' by the natives, but the elements are against him -- including tropical storms, head-hunting savages, and Moxica, a social-climbing villain out to ruin Columbus. By his old age, Columbus is disgraced, a broken man, yet history will remember him for the visionary he was.
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