Directed By:Richard Thorpe
Written By:Noel Langley, Æneas MacKenzie, Marguerite Roberts, Walter Scott
Ivanhoe
Metascore
Generally Favorable
75
User score
Generally Favorable
6.8
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
100% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
80
Ivanhoe is a great romantic adventure, mounted extravagantly, crammed with action, and emerges as a spectacular feast.
80
The dialogue and script are fatuously Americanised from Scott's original, but these chivalric Hollywood sagas still have a strange poetic quality about them, perhaps partly because of the way they unscrupulously and inaccurately ransacked literature and history for ideas and images.
80
Production of this picture in England endowed it with a rich, distinctive air. It is a grand picture, told in what Sir Walter himself called his "big bow-wow style."
75
Luxe MGM historical ransacking, locationed to the nines, beautiful to look upon, but with energy lapses in the soggy script of Sir Walter Scott's epic classic.
70
Best of a series of lavishly mounted MGM historical yarns made in England in the early 1950s with American stars and British supporting casts. [03 Jun 2012, p.46]
70
No one could say this wasn't a rousing movie. It's also romantic, big, commercial, and slick, in the M-G-M grand manner.
User score
Generally Favorable
60% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
20% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
20% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Aug 18, 2024
10
A childhood favorite. It had all that was entertaining for me. Good villains, great heroes, astonishing visuals for its time and a story that is immersive and entertaining. Only much later I discovered it is based on a book from Sir Walter Scott. Because I did not read it I can give no evaluation if it is a faithful adaptation. The story is set after the third crusade. Richard the Lionheart has vanished on his way home while his brother John Lackland is ruining England. Sir Ivanhoe a loyal knight of Richard is searching for his king. This is the set up for the story. The story is entertaining from start to finish, Sadly I cant spoil why. They have a lot of familiar names played by great actors. The tournament and other battles are intense and immersive. However the character Wambas fate is a traumatizer. I rewatched the movie countless times always hoping for a different outcome as a child back then. The actors for their time are top notch. All fit their roles because I was invested in them. Also I clearly understood their motives which is today not a no brainer anymore (Bad writing is a big Hollywood problem around the time of this review). I love to hate the villains. Visually the movie impressed me back then but I don't thing it holds up. Then again I have seen bad CGI in more modern movies that is inferior to practical effects. Overall I give a 10/10 but also a nostalgia warning. Because it was a childhood favorite I am heavily influenced by it. Bonus knowledge: Richard the Lionheart is universally praised in movies, books and other media. However he had serious flaws. He was bankrupting England and that was not only by the ransom. He also committed things that would today be seen as crimes against humanity. I say not that he was an evil tyrant. I say his bad sides were overlooked / ignored like they did for many other historical figures.
