The Legend of 1900 (1998)

• Year: 1998
• Released: 28 Oct 1998
• Country: Italy
• Adwords: 22 wins & 10 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120731/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/legenda_nimeltaan_1900
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-legend-of-1900
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, French, Italian
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Drama, Music, Romance
• Runtime: 169 min
• Writer: Alessandro Baricco, Giuseppe Tornatore
• Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
• Cast: Tim Roth, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Mélanie Thierry
• Keywords: ship, ocean, child prodigy, fondling, pianistin,

	8.0/10
	58/100

The Legend of 1900 Storyline

Shortly after the Second World War, Max, a transplanted American, visits an English pawn shop to sell his trumpet. The shopkeeper recognizes the tune Max plays as one on a wax master of an unreleased recording, discovered and restored from shards found in a piano salvaged from a cruise ship turned hospital ship, now slated for demolition. This chance discovery prompts a story from Max, which he relates both to the shopkeeper and later to the official responsible for the doomed vessel, for Max is a born storyteller. Though now down on his luck and disillusioned by his wartime experiences, the New Orleans-born Max was once an enthusiastic and gifted young jazz musician, whose longest gig was several years with the house band aboard the Virginian, a posh cruise ship. While gaining his sea legs, he was befriended by another young man, the pianist in the same band, whose long unlikely name was Danny Boodman T.D. Lemons 1900, though everyone just called him 1900, the year of his birth. Abandoned in first class by his immigrant parents, 1900 was found and adopted by Danny, a stoker, and raised in the engine rooms, learning to read by reading horseracing reports to his adoptive dad. After Danny’s death in an accident, 1900 remained on the ship. Increasingly lured by the sound of the piano in the first-class ballroom, he eventually became a gifted pianist, a great jazz improvisationist, a composer of rich modern music inspired by his intense observation of the life around him, the stories passengers on all levels of the ship trusted him enough to tell. He also grew up to be a charming, iconoclastic young man, at once shrewd and oddly innocent. His talent earned him such accolades that he was challenged by, and bested Jelly Roll Morton in an intense piano duel that had poor Max chewing paper on the sofa in agonies of suspense. And yet for all the richness and variety of his musical expression, he never left the ship, except almost, once, in the aftermath of his infatuation with a beautiful young woman immigrant who inspired the music committed to the master Max discovers in the pawnshop. Max realizes that 1900 must still be on the ship, and determines to find him, and to find out once and for all why he has so consistently refused to leave.

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The Legend of 1900 Movie Reviews

A simply beautiful film.

After seeing this movie I went straight to my video store to buy their copy. Unfortunately, they had only the one copy and wouldn’t sell it to me. This movie affected me deeply. It tells the story of a musical prodigy who is born, lives his entire life, and dies on board a cruise liner. The scene where the pianist, named 1900, and his friend “ride” the grand piano around the ballroom as the ship rolls brought me to tears. There is a palpable joy in this scene : captivated by the music, they care not where the piano takes them. And take them it does, through the glass wall of the ballroom and down a corridor where they are confronted by ship’s the Captain. He does not admonish the pair, just accepts the situation. When 1900 is challenged by jazz great Jelly Roll Morton to a piano duel, he meets the challenge and annihilates Morton with a performance that left me shaking. I replayed that scene over and over. As a pianist myself, I was entranced, thrilled and amazed by the playing. When 1900 delivers the coup de grace, I literally cheered! You must see this film. It is a very special experience.

a character without a compelling story

Max Tooney (Pruitt Taylor Vince) is pawning off his trumpet and recounts his life on an ocean liner with the legendary 1900. At the turn of the century, a baby is found by the crew of SS Virginian. There are no parents to be found and the crew raises him with the name 1900 (Tim Roth). He never sets foot on land and starts playing the piano. The ship brings immigrants and transports the wealthy. In wartime, it is turned into a hospital ship. It is now being demolished and Max pleads to have the work stopped until they find 1900.

It wants to be a personal epic. However like 1900 himself, it feels like the movie is traveling a lot without getting anywhere. There is little drama and no tension whatsoever. It’s an idea for a character but it lacks a compelling story. The sets are beautifully made and the movie looks good. This is a man in the background of great history but his story has no drive.

A Good Story Worths More than an Old Trumpet

After the Second World War, the American musician Max Tooney (Pruitt Taylor Vince) comes to a pawn shop to sell his trumpet and asks to play one last song with the instrument. The shopkeeper (Peter Vaughn) puts an old record with the same song to play, and Max asks him where he found it since it is an unreleased unique song. He tells that he bought a piano from a scrapped ship and found the pieces of the record inside the piano. Max tells that on January, 1st 1900, the stoker Danny Boodmann (Bill Nunn) of the Steamship “Virginian” finds a baby boy over the piano of the first class in a cradle carved T.D. Lemon and he decides to keep the child. He gives the name of Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred and raises the child in the boiler room of the passenger ship. Years later, an accident kills Danny Boodmann and the boy leaves the boiler room for the first time and discovers that he is a natural born pianist. When Max is hired to play trumpet in the ship, he becomes a close friend of 1900 (Tim Roth) and witness his life, including the duel with the arrogant “man who had invented the jazz” Jelly Roll Morton (Clarence Williams III) and when he falls in love for a girl (Mélanie Thierry) and almost leaves the vessel in New York. When Max left the ship on August, 21st 1933, he lost contact with 1900. Now he decides to go to the junkyard and find his missing friend. In the end, a good story worths more than an old trumpet.

“La Leggenda del Pianista Sull’Oceano” is a sensitive, poetic and tragic fantasy about music, missing love and friendship, with magnificent direction of Giuseppe Tornatore; top-notch performances of Tim Roth and Pruitt Taylor Vince; and haunting music score of Ennio Morricone. The cinematography, costume design and art direction are wonderful and the dialogs are intense and delightful. This film was released in Brazil on VHS in the 90’s by Warner, but deserved at least a DVD. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): “A Lenda do Pianista do Mar” (“The Legend of the Pianist of the Sea”)