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Cover for Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus, The: Collector's Edition
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Columbus: The Lost Voyage

DVD/APPROX. 91 MINS./2007/US NR
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You’d think that discovering a new continent would put you on easy street
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DVD REVIEW
By Christopher Long
FIRST PUBLISHED Feb 24, 2008
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In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. It was pretty much all downhill from there.

Christopher Columbus was a visionary. The fact that his vision did not include the sight of an entire continent between him and his goal of a Western passage to China doesn´t diminish that fact. His vision also included a lifetime of fame and fortune, and after his historic 1492 voyage took him to Bermuda, Cuba and several neighboring islands. On two subsequent voyages in 1493 and 1498, Columbus also explored Hispaniola, and Trinidad. Returning to Spain each time, he brought back many exotic treasures such as gold, spices and syphilis.

You´d think that discovering a new continent would put you on easy street, but a mere decade after his celebrated first voyage, Columbus languished in prison awaiting execution. A control freak and a religious zealot, Columbus had ruled with an iron hand, punishing his own men almost as savagely as he punished the natives, and he was no longer welcome in the very land he discovered. After being returned to Spain, Columbus was eventually set free by his former patrons King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who funded Columbus´ last and most dangerous voyage.

This time Columbus would have to get by with old ships and a shoestring budget; he was no longer considered a sound investment. He had also been surpassed by a host of other explorers who had horned in on what he considered to be his own personal trade routes. Columbus wanted to make his fortune back, and had not yet abandoned hopes of discovering a Western passage.

"The Lost Voyage" of Columbus isn´t exactly lost; you can even find it summarized on Wikipedia. However, it´s fair to say that most people know little of the explorer´s final mission and his final failure. This feature-length documentary retraces Columbus´ final voyage in meticulous detail. I will leave you to discover the particulars for yourself, but some of the highlights include the mother of all hurricanes, a catastrophic shipwreck, a ship´s clerk turned hero, and a remarkably well-timed solar eclipse.
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