Name of the Rose, The (1986) [Blu-ray]
Drama | Mystery | Thriller | Crime

Tagline: They Believed In God But Traded With The Devil.

It's the work of the Devil. That's what some say when a bizarre series of deaths strikes a 14th-century monastery. Others find links between the deaths and the book of Revelation. But Brother William of Baskerville thinks otherwise. He intends to find a murderer by using fact and reason - the tools of heresy.

Best Actor British Academy Award winner Sean Connery is wily William in this compelling adaptation of Umberto Eco's bestseller. Christian Slater plays Adso, aide to the sleuthing cleric and a youth on the verge of sexual and intellectual awakening. F. Murray Abraham is arrogance incarnate as the Inquisitor. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud filmed this moody mystery at an actual 12th-century monastery where hooded faces loom like gargoyles.

User Comment: *** This review may contain spoilers *** Jonathon Dabell (barnaby.rudge@hotmail.co.uk) from Wakefield, England, 16 December 2004 • 'Variety' got it completely wrong when they called this film "sorrowfully mediocre" and "sluggishly staged". For in all honesty The Name of the Rose is one of the greatest films of the '80s, and a film that grows in greatness every time you revisit it. Based on a major bestselling novel by Umberto Eco, the film is an excellent murder mystery further heightened by its authentic period trappings and a clutch of tremendous performances.

Brother William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) and his young apprentice Adso (Christian Slater) are monks who arrive in a 14th Century monastery having been summoned for a religious conference. Soon after their arrival, a series of bloodthirsty murders take place and the friars still alive begin to fear that either the Apocalypse is upon them, or a highly disturbed individual is out to bump them off. Brother William has a penchant for sleuthing, so he probes into the mysterious deaths and discovers that each victim had laid his eyes upon a Greek manuscript hidden deep within the interior of the monastery. He gradually realises that the killer must be targeting those who know of the book's existence, but just as he is about to solve the killings an inquisitor (F. Murray Abraham) arrives and tries to discredit Brother William's theories, preferring to blame the crimes on non-existent heretics and satanists.

The film is very realistic in every way - the cold, uncomfortable monastery; the graphic murders; grotesque and disfigured characters; a startlingly explicit sex scene; authentic-sounding dialogue; excellent indoor and outdoor locations; and well-researched costume designs. Furthermore, it is a superbly paced film, never in too great a hurry to unravel but never so slow that it becomes a plod. Connery is great as the hero, surpassed only by Abraham in a breathtaking role as Bernardo Gui the inquisitor, and Slater does well considering his tender age as the loyal apprentice. Both Roy Scheider and Michael Caine were short-listed for the Connery role, but I don't see how either actor could've done better with the character. Jean Jacques Annaud directs outstandingly, capturing every shadow, every expression and every plot piece with the eye that only a director obsessed with his material possibly can. The Name of the Rose makes the top #50 of the 1980s without question.

Summary: Criminally underrated by some, hailed as a masterwork by others. Who's right? The "masterwork" campaigners, of course!

User Comment: Edward Lamberti from London, UK, 16 September 2004 • Umberto Eco's novel has something of a reputation as one of the great unread bestsellers. To have it on the shelf in the early eighties was a fashion statement as much as it was a literary necessity. And yet when the film was released, it was attacked for being an ineffective adaptation. Turning the 600-page novel, a detective mystery enriched by descriptions of medieval life and semiotic ruminations characteristic of Eco's academic writings, into a mainstream two-hour movie was, of course, ambitious. Four credited screenwriters and an international co-production gave off a sense of struggle and indecision. The movie was, and remains, easy to deride.

It's true that the film, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, has to skip, or skirt, much of Eco's detail - the famous pages-long description of the doorway, for example, is acknowledged by a few camera shots - but it takes the novel's literary strengths and offers a cinematic equivalent: a vivid depiction of monastic life which thrusts the viewer into the period of the story. In this respect, the production is exemplary: cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli, art director Dante Ferretti and composer James Horner were all operating at the top of their game.

And, as Renton in Trainspotting (1996) knows, Sean Connery proved a perfect choice as William of Baskerville, the 14th-century Sherlock Holmes figure investigating the deaths in an Italian monastery. It's one of Connery's best performances, a happy marriage of character acting and star casting: he suits the physical description of William and he properly conveys the character's wisdom, caution and sense of regret. Christian Slater's Adso, the narrator of the novel, is a surrogate for the viewer, expressing bafflement at the mystery story and awe at William's deductive powers; while F. Murray Abraham works wonders with the underwritten part of the inquisitor Bernardo Gui.

The Name of the Rose is one of the most underrated movies of the eighties. That it wasn't brilliant should not detract from the fact that it's as good as it is.

Summary: One of the most underrated movies of the eighties.

[CSW] -4-This movie defied easy categorization and required a great deal of attention be paid in order to ferret out its many references and mysteries. The faces and makeup of the actors chosen to play many of the monks gives them character simply by seeing them. The only reason that I don't add this to my collection is that knowing how the mystery is resolved and how the very satisfying ending is concluded, another viewing might not be anywhere near as intriguing and suspenseful as the first viewing was. However, I won't completely dismiss the idea of adding it to my library later.

Notes: On its most basic level, The Name of the Rose is nothing other than a simple detective story wherein Sean Connery's Franciscan monk William of Baskerville investigates a series of gruesome deaths at a Benedictine monastery, a monastery which is in the grips of fear it is communally possessed by Satan and which in fact has a few secrets up its cowl. William's novice Adso (Christian Slater in one of his first major roles) tags along and is really the center of the film's point of view, as becomes quite clear in the film's closing moments (in a nice little twist that first time viewers may or may not see coming, and which I won't spoil here). All of the scholarly detritus surrounding The Name of the Rose's central mystery can in fact be jettisoned quite easily without much detriment to the film's momentum, but the fact is, the more you know about philosophy, history, religious orders and even the Inquisition, the more you'll probably be able to appreciate the many strata that underlie The Name of the Rose's basic whodunit setup.
[V3.5-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.

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