L'inchiesta (2006)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Giulio Base

Writers:

Suso Cecchi d'Amico (story)
Ennio Flaiano (story)

Release Date:

4 April 2007 (Spain)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | History | Mystery

Tagline:

The thrilling tale of one man's quest to uncover the mystery of all mysteries. Sent to disprove the resurrection, he discovers faith, love, and a revelation that could shatter the empire.

Plot:

In 35 A.D., a Roman tribune is sent to Palestine to investigate the death and possible resurrection of a certain Jesus from Nasareth.

Plot Keywords:

Christian | Tiberius | Roman | Jerusalem | Pontius Pilate

Cast

Daniele Liotti	...	Tito Valerio Tauro
Dolph Lundgren	...	Brixos
Mónica Cruz	...	Tabitha
Hristo Shopov	...	Pontius Pilate
Christo Jivkov	...	Stefano
Ornella Muti	...	Mary of Magdalene
F. Murray Abraham	...	Nathan
Max von Sydow	...	Tiberius
Anna Kanakis	...	Claudia Procula
Enrico Lo Verso	...	Shimon Peter
Fabrizio Bucci	...	Jesus
Maria Pia Calzone	...	Mary, Mother of Jesus
Vincenzo Bocciarelli	...	Caligola
Roberto Negri	...	Aulus Fuscus
Ciro Esposito	...	Stefano the Disciple

Also Known As:

En busca de la tumba de Cristo (Spain)
The Final Inquiry (USA) (new title)
The Inquiry (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence.

Runtime:

112 min | Italy:190 min (TV version)

Country:

Italy | Spain | USA | Bulgaria

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Spain:13 | Germany:16 (video premiere) | Finland:K-13 | Singapore:NC-16 | Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

Bulgaria

Company:

Italian International Film

Trivia:

Remake of the famous 1986 film directed by Damiano Damiani, starring Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel and Phyllis Logan.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The Roman alphabet consists of capital letters only (no lower case). When Titus writes his letter to the emperor Tiberius he uses a lower case i (with a dot above it). Even the preceding Greek alphabet has the iota without a dot.

Movie Connections:

Remake of L'inchiesta (1986)

Lundgren's the best movie I saw, but is it really a strong recommendation?

When I got this movie it had quite a low score here on IMDb. But the subject seemed to be interesting, it was not an Hollywood production and had at least one big name in the paylist - Max von Sydow's. So I took the challenge and gave it a try. Big mistake... Though it's screenplay is written with some interesting plots and with quite an original ideas for a Jesus-related movie this is almost the only thing worth to be praised here.

The first thing you will notice is the music of someone, who's surname is Moricone but his not "the one" but some other Moricone. So is his music - kind of Moricone's style but not "the one" - something is missing, it's to loud and generally does not fit.

Then you will notice the performers and they certainly can help to forget about poor music since they performance is really stunning. Literatim. It's something like operetta filmed in the silent movie period with all those exalted movement and acting typical for those old times. Moreover my version was apparently dubbed in English although the movie was apparently made in English at the first place! I do not know why they did it - maybe some Italian actors had some problems with the language but then if you add voices to a already finished movie it is never perfect and the effect is rather ridiculous. Combined with aforementioned style of acting it looks just utterly stupid. And if this was not enough some of supporting roles are seemed to be written for computer RPG characters! You know, like for example those typical NPCs standing next to the town gates only to say something like "welcome to Jerusalem"... Some dialogues between those characters seemed o be intentionally written in Monthy Python style...

But apart from that there is also an actor there who really stands out - Dolph Lundgren! By far it is the best of his performance I had a "pleasure" to watch. Of course as every barbarian he speaks with Scottish accent witch is really sweet, especially that he apparently is trying to imitate Sean Connory... Since he plays a barbaric Germanic warrior and he has not much to do there apart from being "strong, noble and wild" and of course of swinging his enormous axe everywhere. The movie is full of scenes where Lundgren is shown somewhere in the background or foreground performing this complicated tasks and I must admit he had really mastered it. Seriously - for someone who's performing talent is so, well, narrow I think he is a real star in this movie.

Some say "there is no good movie without a love story plot". But this one could be definitely better without. I had mentioned before about some interesting and original ideas in the scenario but this is only to be observed in the first half of the movie. The second half is devoted mainly to love story plot and this just kills this otherwise would-be-weak-but-not-the-worst movie. It's just dull and absurd in the world of this picture and moreover it is completely redundant.

See for yourself if you dare but there are better ways of spending time.