I saw this 1982 miniseries on the famous medieval Venetian explorer of the Far East as a teenager and I loved it. The great story of Marco Polo done in this international co production with a great cast, great locations (in Italy, Morocco and Inner Mongolia in China), great historical reconstruction of the era, great storytelling, faithfulness to the original material. The little known actor Kenneth Marshall stars as Marco Polo. Denholm Elliot is his father Niccolo. Anne Bancroft is his mother. John Gielgud has a cameo as the Doge of Venice. Burt Lancaster is Pope Gregory X. Despite its many virtues, this miniseries has become quite hard to find and it is not usually aired on TV on reruns.

This was without a doubt one of the best movies I have ever seen. I agree with some of the others that it either should have been released at the theater or on VHS a long time ago (and by now, on DVD as well). These people (meaning the film's owners) do not realize the gold mine they are sitting on. I am certain that with only a minimum of advertising this re-release could surpass all expectations. I have initiated inquiries into what it would take to unearth this fine product from the dust heap it is apparently under. I will keep this website posted concerning my efforts on a regular basis. I think it needs to see the light of day once more so that others too young to remember can enjoy the majesty and pomp of truly great cinema. In the meantime, if anyone discovers a decent copy, please let me know.

The expanded version of this score (over 120 minutes of music) is available at the following link. However, right now it's out of stock. Perhaps if you write to Douglass Fake (I've known him for more than 30 years and is my oldest friend) and ask if he's getting anymore in, he'd appreciate it.got to www.intrada.com. then click on catalogue by composer. then click on Ennio Morricone, then scroll down to Marco Polo.There could actually be a third disk added to this to bring out just about all the music from the mini-series, but this 2-disk set is glorious.I'm a huge Morricone fan, have been one since "A Fistful of Dollars" first hit these shores in 1966 (and he wasn't even credited as Morricone in the credits, but as Dan Savio, because the producers were afraid of being taken as an Italian movie since Italy had made so many sword and sandal movies, and we know how critics loved those, right?), so for me to say this is one of my favorite Morricone scores is really saying something. Another score that is very high on my list is his rejected score to "What Dreams May Come". Someone recorded about 28 minutes of that score and released to. I have a copy, and it is magnificent.But if you can get "Marco POlo", do so!

Soon after finding out what IMDb was, only about a year ago, one of the first things I did was to look up Marco Polo in an attempt to find out something about this series on video. How surprised I was to find various contributors bemoaning the fact that they had not been able to track down any version of this magnificent production. For this is what Marco Polo – beware! 1982 version – is. A wondrous work of art; a beautiful piece of story-telling based on this medieval traveller's experiences as he followed the silk route caravans deep into Persia, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and reaching China. Although nearly twenty years old and with no way of seeing it again since then, memorable scenes from this tremendous production still come to my mind, accompanied by that glorious music – one of Ennio Morricone's crowning achievements. Haunting, exciting scenes, so beautifully filmed by Pasqualino de Santis you could almost smell the thronged streets and cooking turms, the obstinate camels and ragged beggars, and through it all one of the best scores to have ever been written for any TV series.Oh, how I wish I had had VHS back in those days!Superb directing by Giuliano Montaldo, who for me is a complete unknown, such that the acting is of the best to be seen anywhere. And what a surprise to see further down the list names such as Anne Bancroft, Sir John Gielgud, Burt Lancaster, Leonard Nimoy and even F. Murray Abraham, could you ever believe that?Marco Polo in this production was a gigantic production by the Italian RAI. This superb work should be repeated, like any other great work of art; it should be made available on VHS and DVD; it should be shown in cinemas; this fine epic is not like Kleenex – to be used once and thrown away.Some paltry excuse of copyright would seem to be the problem. But I argue that if other TV mini-series are repeated, why not this one? The only other magnificent TV mini comparable to Marco Polo that I can recall was 'Nostromo' (1996), another European co-production, based on Joseph Conrad's exquisite novel of the same name.At last, now in 2005 I have managed to get this wonderful series on DVD: more than twenty years waiting for it!