Gordon-11 This film tells the story of an English prince and an Irish princess falling in love, in the time when the two countries were hostile to reach other."Tristan + Isolde" tells a tale of love that could not be allowed under the societal circumstances. Their love is well portrayed and is convincing. The leading lady is charming and beautiful. The prince, played by the then not as famous James Franco, is also good in his role as a heterosexual lover. It's a sad story with lots of emotions. The remarkable thing about this film is that it has many actors who have subsequently made it big. Even the young Tristan claims "The Maze Rubber" fame!

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU That was the time when England, or Britain or even the British Isles were divided along two lines, The Celts and the arriving Anglo-Saxons after the Roman colonization. Ireland was Celtic and Cornwall too. They thus had two lines of constant struggling that united the Cornish and the English against the Irish. On one side the wars between the Irish and the Celts from Cornwall and on the other side the wars between the Anglo Saxons from let's say Sussex and the Celts from Cornwall. The social system is feudalism though the presence of Christianity does not seem to be very advanced, and this form of ,feudalism is more the social disorder that existed after the Romans had gone, when the Germanic invaders are settling in the country and when slavery had disappeared though serfdom has not yet been established.. Ireland was Christianized in the fifth century. So we are before. Before the Bishop Bede who Christianized England. Yet there is some desire to unite the Cornish and the English to defend themselves together against the Irish. This is done by the alliance of the Cornish Lord Marke with the daughter of one of the main lords on the English side. But the young woman had saved the first knight of Lord Marke, when he had been sent on the sea in a small boat because he was thought dead after a battle and was supposed to be buried at sea like that. She got him out of the boat that had come to a beach near her own residence, then healed him, and of course fallen in love with him under a fake name. She was Isolde. The alliance was worked through a tournament and Lord Marke being one- handed had asked Tristan who had come back to him, healed and strong, to represent him in the tournament. He wins and Isolde thinks he is the prize of the fight. But she discovers he is not and then love and duty start fighting a war to the death, and to the death it will be.Married with Lord Marke, then crowned queen along with Lord Marke who is crowned king, Isolde is following her inclination towards Tristan in spite of the resistance on his side in the name of honor that he considers more important than love. That attraction, that appeal end up in an affair and that affair is discovered by the English, including Isolde's father, and some of them try to attack Lord Marke and be done with his desire to be king and his territory would be conquered and integrated into England. Though Tristan was arrested and put in goal and Isolde was banned, Tristan is freed within the battle against the assailing treacherous English, he saves the situation and then dies of his wounds in the arms of Isolde who had come back. And the end is sad because love is after all stronger than honor, though honor has to be satisfied first. Let's say Lord Marke is not entirely feudal in his behavior since he should normally have executed both the treacherous wife and the treacherous knight, which he did not do and in the end he yields to love and let Isolde be with Tristan when he departs from this world. Lord Marke is also in love with Isolde, and when you love you always come to sharing your love with the world.A good film though the surrounding feudal world is hardly really seen or shown, neither the religious practices, nor the simple people who are not yet serfs and no longer slaves, but what are they? This story situated so far away in feudal times is by far antecedent to all those stories of courtly love that were to come later, yet it is the symbol of the emergence of new human feelings and even passions: the passion for loyalty and honor and the passion for love, the latter becoming stronger and less institutionalized as some kind of exchange goods in feudal deals.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

gregeichelberger Originally published on Jan. 11, 2006:Tristan + Isolde = Questionable ChemistryThis work, based on the old Celtic Dark Age story, takes place in Briton shortly after the fall of the Roman Empire (about 480 AD), and concerns the two title characters, English warrior Tristan (James Franco, "Spiderman," "The Great Raid") and Irish princess Isolde (Sophia Myles, "Underworld"), who somehow meet, make love and almost bring down two kingdoms. As such, this epic historical tale, directed by Kevin Reynolds ("Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves") comes in above "King Arthur" and "Alexander," but below "Kingdom Of Heaven, and way below "Braveheart." It should have been more interesting and exciting than it turned out.Notably missing, apart from any sort of chemistry between the two leads (yeah, there's some soft core lovemaking, but they don't really mean it), is the Richard Wagner music so often associated with this opera; and while I understand the omission, it still would have been nice as an incidental score.In the absence of such, though, we're left with a lot of violent battles (in the Dark Ages people couldn't just get along it seemed), as the underdog Brits were oppressed by the brutal Irish (now there's a switch on modern sensibilities). Led by King Donnchadh (David Patrick O'Hara, "Braveheart"), the bloody Irish are making all sorts of trouble for the peace-loving English, burning, raping, ravaging, pillaging and attempting to prevent a loose federation of barons from uniting and forming the Great Britain we know of today.Oh, if only they had succeeded ...Opposing this, ala William Wallace, is Tristan, raised by the powerful knight, Lord Marke (Rufus Sewell, "The Legend Of Zorro"), and his country's great champion, but he is killed in a skirmish, put in a funeral boat and set adrift. Of course, since half of the movie is named after him, you know he isn't really dead, just poisoned and paralyzed. He drifts across the Irish Sea and somehow beaches himself right where Isolde is taking a stroll with her cluck-clucking maid.Against her better judgment (and because she's an amateur apothecary), she brings him to her beach house and heals him with herbs and oils. She reads to him and soon a tepid love develops. Of course, they consummate this, but Tristan's boat is discovered by the bad guys and he has to take a powder back to England.Meanwhile, Donnchadh has arranged for a tournament to be held between the British tribes in hopes of dividing them even further. When Tristan overcomes the Irish ruler's handpicked winner, however, the princess becomes betrothed to Marke (unbeknownst to either lead character). Thus, even after his best friend and father-figure is married to Isolde, Tristan and her continue to carry on a torrid affair (that seemingly everyone knows about - except Marke).Donnchadh uses this split to enlist the aid of the other barons to attack Marke's castle, which initiates one final conflict complete with a siege, explosions, a rain of fire and even a beheading (proving that even in a heavy, dark drama there are some light, fun moments).The battle scenes were intriguing enough, and the special effects were okay, but with Tony Scott ("Thelma & Louise," "Gladiator," "Black Hawk Down") as Executive Producer, I expected a little more from this classic story - a coherent and plausible plot would have been nice.

Desertman84 Tristan & Isolde is a romantic drama film based on the medieval romantic legend of Tristan and Isolde. It stars James Franco and Sophia Myles in the title role together with Rufus Sewell. The movie was produced by Ridley Scott and Tony Scott, and directed by Kevin Reynolds.After the collapse of the Roman Empire, King Donnchadh of Ireland has become the de facto ruler of England, but one of his underlings, Lord Marke, dreams of uniting British forces with an eye toward self-rule. One of Marke's most valuable allies is Tristan,his protégé, who has become a brave warrior since he was rescued by the lord after his parents were murdered by Irish forces during a battle. While Marke and Tristan dream of banishing Ireland's presence in England, Tristan has a secret he's been hiding from Marke after suffering serious wounds during a hard-fought battle, he was rescued and nursed back to health by Isolde ,King Donnchadh's daughter,and the two fell deeply in love. But the couple were separated after Tristan returned to England, and when Donnchadh attempts to quell the British uprising by staging a tournament among the nation's greatest warriors, an extreme and rather personal surprise is in store for Tristan.The movie was boring.No question about it.Despite of the great visual style and a haunting original music score composed by Anne Dudley,the movie does not achieve the romanticism that it aims for.Also,Franco and Myles does not elevate the drama to a compelling and powerful movie.They manage to make Tristan and Isolde's love story a standard romance found in most dramatic films.But nevertheless,it manages to entertain inspite of the fact that its goal is to be more than just a guilty pleasure film. In other words,it has less to offer especially for movies that features romantic piece periods.