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Ugliest collection of characters you are ever likely to see

This moderately succesful, and highly inventive monastic "whodunnit" from 1986 makes it's way to DVD, and in so doing will surely captivate a whole new audience. Sean Connery plays Brother Wiiliam of Baskerville, a renowned Sherlock Holmes of the Church, who comes to the aid of an isolated abbey in Northern Italy, and attempts to solve a recent spat of mysterious deaths. Connery's arrival actually accelerates the body count, and there is some subtle commentary interlaced about the differences of religious persuasion between Connery (A Franciscan Monk, dedicated to poverty) and the resident Roman Catholic Abbot, and his flock. As the mystery deepens, the Inquisition is summoned to speed up the investigation before an impending papal delegation visits, in the form of the fanatical, and deliciously malevolent Bernardo Gui (played by F Murray Abraham). Brother William and Gui do not of course see eye to eye, as we learn they have crossed paths before in a previous church "investigation". A baby faced Christian Slater plays Connerys young apprentice, Adso of Melk, who is keen to involve himself in the mystery, but terrified of the consequences, and the two characters play off each other nicely. Whoever was in charge of make up, set design and casting is to be congratulated, for the eerie remoteness of the location is almost tangible. Add to this, a positively grotesque collection of Monks, and some seriousy UGLY people, and the flavor of the era almost leaves a taste in the mouth. A fairly graphic sex scene involving Slater and a peasant girl caused something of a stir at time of release, and the overall theme of the picture is definitely adult, dealing with murder, treachery, and torture. I loved this movie, and am glad to see the DVD release for exceptional picture and sound quality but have one concern. The movie is such a great thriller that keeps you involved (and guessing) right up to the final frame so much, that you probably won't watch it again once you know how it ends. Visually stunning movie, but not much on the repeat viewing scale. Enjoy

The Name of the Rose

The DVD was very good, however the first time service with Amazon.com was not good. The DVD showed up 9 days after I ordered it. You may want to think of another service than USPS, this should not be happening.
I have a son in CA and I get regular mail in 3 days from him as I discussed twice with your customer service people.

Thank you,
Barbara Huss

The Name of the Rose

One of the better mysteries I've seen in a while

moody historical whodunit

Faithful to the book by Umberto Eco, this film is a lot of fun -- dark labyrinthine passages and strange characters populate this isolated setting. Sean Connery is terrific as the visiting cleric, and a very young Christian Slater plays his companion. I wasn't sure a film could do justice to the remarkable denoument of the book, but everything here is great, and makes you appreciate the Middle Ages in a less-than-romantic way.

If you like mysteries, this is a good one. If you like history come alive, you will enjoy this.

Dull and disappointing adaptation of Eco's masterpiece

A dull and disappointing adaptation of Umberto Eco's masterpiece by the mediocre French director, Jean-Jacques Annaud. If you have only seen the movie, you will have no idea of the richness of Eco's novel. The movie only deals with the murder mystery (and it does this poorly) leaving aside all the philosophical debates and the esoteric minutiae that made the novel so compelling. The reconstruction of the era makes it look grim and depressing, and I don't think that was the feeling in the book. It's hard to think of a novel so poorly translated to the screen as this one (Reportedly, Eco is of the same opinion, and this is why he hasn't let other books of him be filmed). Connery (a fine actor) is indifferent here, while a young Christian Slater is totally out of cast as Adso (he has a "what the heck am I doing here" look). Skip the movie and read the book.

A monastic Holmes, sort of

A complicated murder mystery set in a monastery in the 1300s, monks are being killed and Sean Connery, in a role very much in the style of Sherlock Holmes, sets about figuring it out. It finally boils down to an ancient Greek text, a comedy, that is hidden away in the secret library. I won't reveal any more than that. At 130 minutes it's way too long, and much of it has the feel of a hodge-podge. Filmed in Frankfurt and Rome; the library of hidden treasures was "burned" using special effects.

An involuntary comedy

WARNING! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!


"The name of the rose" is a movie featuring Sean Connery and a very young Christian Slater. It's mostly known for a steaming and completely unexpected sex scene involving Slater and a young girl. Me and my buddies at high school sure talked about that one!


Otherwise, I consider "The name of the rose" to be an involuntary comedy. The plot is set during the 14th century, and heavily stereotypes the High Middle Ages as a period of complete and utter darkness and superstition. The main character, William of Baskerville, is a Franciscan monk who investigates a murder mystery at a Benedictine monastery. It soon turns out that every monk is more or less crazy, some are homosexual, others visit prostitutes, and still others are religious fanatics. William realizes that the murders at the monastery are connected to a lost work by Aristotle, known as "The Comedy". Naturally, everyone who reads the work starts laughing. This is disagreeable to one of the elderly monks, a certain Venerable Jorge. He believes that laughter is of the devil, and therefore poisons the pages of the book, so that everyone who reads it dies! And no, the plot is not this straightforward: it contains several subplots and other twists, making the movie near-incomprehensible. I think I had to watch it five or six times before I got it. One of the subplots involves the love affair between Adso (Slater's character) and the girl (who is nameless).


In the end, the Inquisition arrives and starts accusing all the wrong people for the murders, including The Girl, whom they believe is possessed by the Devil himself. The Girl and two heretics are condemned to die at the stake, but in the last minute, The Girl is saved when the local peasants storm the monastery. The evil inquisitor (based on a real historical character, a certain Bernardo Gui) attempts to escape, but is spiked on his own torture instruments. William and Adso then leaves the monastery.


"The name of the rose" does include both violence, action, unexpected twists, and the previously mentioned sex scene. Sean Connery is excellent as usual. Still, the monks, inquisitors and heretics are so stereotyped that the whole things becomes almost funny. Who knows, maybe that's the point? The key to the whole murder mystery, after all, is "The Comedy" by Aristotle...

I'm not sure how many stars to give this production, but for old times sake, I give it four.

Great period film and more entertaining than the novel.

Umberto Eco's novel, of the same name (which the script was pretty closely derived from), is a tedious, bloated, manuscript, that can't decide whether it's a murder mystery, a treatise on the state of European and the Catholic Church societies and politics of the early 14th century, or just a way for Eco to show off what a great scholar he is, and how proficient he is in latin. (If you read the book, have an Latin-English dictionary handy - or just skip a lot of paragraphs and/or pages, as I eventually ended up doing.)
The film, on the other hand, is a marvelous murder mystery, set in a prosperous abbey in northen Italy in 1327. The atmosphere is dark, the production design, costumes and make-up, excellent. The cast is international and they all deliver. I highly recommend this film.

One of the GREATEST films I ever seen!! Definately!!

I really LOVE this film SO much!! It describes the 13th century, and the monks and the abbey so good, that it almost feels like your in the movie. I've seen it over and over again, and it never stops fascinating me. Has to be seen!!!!

Name fo the Rose

A delightful presentation of mystery and murder set in the very real cesspool that was the time of the Inquisition. Connery and F. Murray Abraham *are* their respective parts.

We need more like this!

This was one of the most underrated movies of the 80s; underrated because not many movie fans know how to appreciate an intelligent movie. While most movies grow more boring each time you watch them, this one gets better everytime.

Aristotle Beckons Your Misbegotten Soul.....

Staircase gothic concubines of Escher weave a web of medieval mystery, as monastic murder paves the road to enlightenment, and heretics rape the halls of the divine. Grand Inquisitors light their pyres, and misshappen monks shift in the shadows, as the night air tickles the imagination. Instead of coke-sniffing harridans and violent thugs, we have men of the cloth embroiled in intellectual conspiracy, and the highest level of arousal is derived from books. Yes, "Name of the Rose" is for those who cherish the printed word, not mediocre music and Playstation. Sean Connery is delight incarnate as William of Baskerville, the Sherlock Holmes of the Franciscan Order. Christian Slater as the impressionable apprentice radiates a youthful intelligence, and F. Murray Abraham holds scant screen time clenched in his teeth. Jean-Jacques Annaud, I formally commend you for offering an alternative for those for who've advanced beyond "Dick and Jane".
And Ron Pearlman does Quasimodo proud.

Great atmosphere, weak resolution

Sean Connery is a Sherlock Holmes-like Franscican monk who, accompanied by his novice (Christian Slater), investigates murders in a remote abbey where the Devil is rumored to stalk the halls. The story builds slowly on a solid foundation of strong performances and wonderfully gloomy and forboding atmosphere. Unfortunately, the plot vaporises just when it should intensify, with the introduction of F. Murray Abraham as an inquisitor who has had dealings with Connery's character in the past. Another distraction is the awkward introduction of a beautiful peasant girl whose major role in the film seems to be to inject a little T&A into this world of cloitered monks.

The Name of the Rose

Truly brilliant!
It is a tale of monastic mystery and 14th century catholic inquisition inevitably leading innocent people (...and truth) to the flames.
Great acting, even by young Christian Slater.
I don't know why it took so long for such a great film to make it to DVD. (...)

Wonderful movie and read the book!

Next to Braveheart, this is my favorite movie, and the book by Umberto Eco is the best mystery novel I've ever read, personally. It's a mystery drama in a setting of the dark ages of Europe in an ancient Abbey of the Italian Alps, 1327. Brother William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) finds himself investigating murders that happen over a seven day and night period. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, and the empirical insights of his own master; Roger Bacon. During his investigations he discovers that the Aedificum, is not only a massive towering library of the Abbey castle fortress, but a labyrinth of rising and falling staircases worthy of the hand of M.C. Escher. This labyrinth of books, hidden away from mankind, is a dangerous threat to the Church, so closely guarded, that he and his young novice, Adso Melk (Christian Slater) must first find their way into the library in order to find clues of the murders, but then must find their way back out with hard evidence of the killer, before the arrival of the infamous Spanish inquisitor, Benardo Gui (F. Murray Abraham). All at once exiting, intriguing, and horrific, The Name of the Rose will have you on the edge of your chair!!!
This is also, one of Ron Pearlman's first acting film rolls as Brother Salvatore`, the Hunchback of the Abbey, and his performance is outrageous! If you didn't know it was he, you might not recognize him because he's so ugly! It's his best performance to date.

excelente!!!!!!!

es un clasico............a todos en mi casa amantes del cine les gusto, inclusive a mis hijos...............no hay mas palabras

Medieval Murder among the Monks

The Name of the Rose, based on the novel by Umberto Eco, is a dark historical drama set during The Inquisition. Full of suspenseful atmosphere and medieval hardship, this moody film brings to life the brutality of the time. The feel, cinematography, dialogue, and soundtrack all provide the audience a unique view of the Middle Ages. A murder has happened among the monks, and William of Baskerville called on to solve the mystery. William and his young novice make an excellent investigative team for this world of the Inquisition and it's suppression of knowledge.

This rather quiet, quirky little film features the talents of Sean Connery as William, a very young Christian Slater as the novice, and F. Murray Abraham as Bernardo Gui. Additionally, there are a number of recognizable character actors in the supporting cast. The murder mystery whodunit plot develops at a slow, leisurely pace, continually building the intrigue through to the end.


Overall, The Name of the Rose is absorbing film which I found surprisingly interesting. I recommend it for fans of Sean Connery, Medieval history, murder mysteries, or period drama. It is just the thing for a quiet yet unusual evening at home.

What's in a name?

This film is a fascinating combination of modern and medieval elements. The setting is an abbey, whose name according to the narrator, 'it seems pious and prudent to omit'. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Umberto Eco, a semiologist and intellectual I had the pleasure of meeting twice - once at my university in America, and then again a few years later in London. Semiotics is a study of signs - in many ways, my theological training parallels, and it is this kind of parallel that is at the heart of the novel.


There is a debate about to be had at the high, inaccessible abbey. This debate, according to the leading Franciscan participant, is one that can determine the theology of the church for generations to come. So pivotal was this issue that papal envoys and monastics from around Christendom have gathered to determine the answer to the question - did Christ, or did he not, own the clothes he wore.


This is a play on the kind of theological musings that, then and now, distract the church from its proper functions of being a witness to the world. One could imagine the question of how many angels dancing on the head of a pin being used by Eco, except that that would be far too obvious a silliness.


However 'pivotal' this conference may be to the future of Christendom, it is in fact incidental to the storyline of the film. The real story revolves around the happenings at the hosting abbey, a Benedictine community whose vocation involves the preservation and transcription of a major library (libraries being full of books, written in language, full of signs and symbols). However, two things become immediately apparent - there don't seem to be any books around, and the transcriptionists are dying one by one.


Enter William of Baskerville (the name an obvious homage, a sign of respect, to Sherlock Holmes). William is a Franciscan journeying to the abbey with his novice, Adso, to take part in the upcoming conference. The Abbot enlists William's assistance in discovering how the monks are dying, which he does with Holmesian technique and precision. Analysing data such as footprints, fall-patterns from hillsides, and other such observational information, he comes to a few conclusions, but these distress the head librarian, who has seen it as his task to protect the world from blashphemous books (ironically, while maintaining their existence within the confines of the great library's labyrinth).


While William and Adso do their Holmes and Watson in a scientific manner, one of the other Franciscan visitors decides to apply a different interpretation to the happenings, preferring to see in the murderous environment of the abbey the signs of the apocalypse, particularly worrisome given the nature of the pivotal conference soon to take place.


Unfortunately for William, just as he is getting close to the truth, the Inquisition is called (no one expects the Spanish Inquistition), and in the figure of Bernardo Gui, the Inquisition descends upon the abbey with full force and terror. Gui accepts neither William's rational explanations nor Ubertino's end-times interpretations, preferring a more common staple of Inquisition deciphering - it must be the work of the devil. Finding a black cat and a woman smuggled into the abbey only help confirm this, particularly in an environment that sees little value in either.


Ultimately, however, the interpretation is wrong. William and Adso finally discover a way into the library, and make the further discovery that the key text the librarian is trying to hide is one by Aristotle, his work on Comedy, for he fears that in the Scholastic environment of the church, in which Aristotle is seen as the rational side of God's wisdom, that a book by Aristotle that permits laughter would be the undoing to the world.


In the end, the library burns with few books saved, the conference ends without a resolution, the Inquisition gets a judgement leveled against itself in a very 'just-desserts' fashion, and William and Adso depart.


But what of the name of the rose? We never learn the name of the rose; indeed, the rose is yet one more sign, a symbol for the love of Adso's life, the woman accused of being a witch. As the final credits fall, we learn that in the midst of all the tumult, Adso never learned her name.


The performances here are solid and gripping. Sean Connery plays William of Baskerville with aplomb. A young Christian Slater is a good novice, with still enough innocence to his performance to be believable. The abbot is played by Michael Lonsdale (not too many years off of playing a James Bond villain). Special mention goes to Helmut Qualtinger, who played the librarian Brother Remigio, who died just hours after filming his last scene, and was frequently in pain from the illness he was suffering during filming. William Hickey plays Franciscan Ubertino with an air of strangeness and mystery. Finally, F. Murray Abraham plays the dreaded Bernardo Gui, in every way as psychologically beguiling as in his starring role in 'Amadeus', but unfortunately with a much smaller role in this film.


Despite not making an Oscar bid, this film won numerous awards throughout Europe, including the BAFTA best actor award for Connery. It also was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe award for mystery film.


The sets are dramatic, the costumes are perfect (particularly the contrast between the simplicity of the Franciscans, the durability of the Benedictines, the opulence of the papal envoys, the flair of the Inquisitors, and the rags of the peasants - all signs of a stratified society). The film is done in a cinematographic style that gives an overall feel of isolation; the abbey is isolated from the world, and the people are detached from each other for the most part.


This is a remarkable film in many ways, and one that I frequently turn to again to see what new signs I missed the last time through.

Great film, correct aspect ratio

Everyone moaning on and on (and on and on) about the 'incorrect aspect ratio' have got the facts wrong.

The facts are that the film was shot in 1.85:1. The dvd's ratio is (you guessed it) 1:85:1. Therefore the dvd (as it states on the box!!!!) is the correct ratio. And it's a great film. BUY.

One of the best dipictions of medivel life

Sean Connery is wonderful as a man of science in a world filled with closed minds. The setting and costumes are so well done you feel you are at the abbey. Ron Pearlman once again shows that he is a great character actor. A "who dunnit?" for the ages.