Beautiful, moving film.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

. . . moldy, Racist "Suicide Pact" from the 1700s (aka, the initial U.S. Constitution)--under which America still suffered through the early years of the 21st Century--is the core focus of this timely Warning from the Past on the part of the always eponymous Warner Bros. During JOHN PAUL JONES, the title character is thwarted at every turn by fat cat family flunkies thriving in the proprietary seas of their own incompetence. Rich People Greed again and again stymies JOHN PAUL JONES' heroic efforts to build an American Meritocracy based upon Democratic Values. These Evil Trilaterals' insistence upon selfish in-breeding among their own kind even throws up roadblocks in JOHN PAUL JONES' love life, first with "Dorothea Danders;" then with "Aimee Bourbon." Warner's clairvoyant prognosticators obviously are extrapolating JOHN PAUL JONES' sorry state of affairs (and sad affairs of state) to a day in (their) Far Future (i.e., our Present) in which an Oval Office Occupant will appoint First Daughter "Buy Her Stuff" to oversee his industrial-scale child kidnap and trafficking mob, while assigning his sons to initiate a private line to the Russian KGB as his son-in-law continues to launder a stolen TRILLION for the Demon Czar and his Oligarch Henchmen (this being forecast by an equally prophetic "Catherine the Great" in pithy comments too graphic to be subtitled for JOHN PAUL JONES' original 1959 audience, or close-captioned for we Modern People of Today).

Robert Stack, who plays John Paul Jones in this biographical pic, was by all accounts a nice guy, an avid skeet shooter who didn't take his career too seriously. It was a good idea not to. As an actor he was pretty wooden. His expressions throughout "John Paul Jones" is one of firm conviction. There are times, with Marisa Pavan, when he tries to smile, but one can almost hear an agonized creak as unused muscles are called into play. In close ups, he never blinks. It's the kind of role he would parody so hilariously in "Airplane!" The director is John Farrow, who also had a hand in polishing the screenplay. Farrow showed some subtlety in some of his work, such as "Leave Her To Heaven," a soap opera made of venom. Here -- the well seems to have run dry. The first American flag is raised on an American ship, triumphant music swells in the background, the crew stands at attention with its hats off, and a dog sits up in salute. A DOG? Yes, a dog, and this is not a Walt Disney movie.Yet, I'm hard put to recommend that this movie be avoided. It does carry some hard truths. Jones was, after all, captain of a slave ship for a while and this, along with a few other characterological blemishes, is brought up. Moreover, the viewers, many of whom may be presumed never to have even HEARD of John Paul Jones, also get to meet Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin, and a few other historical figures. One of them is George Washington. But Washington only appears in a brief scene at a studio-bound Valley Forge, and is only photographed in silhouette -- and from behind. We never see his face. This is a cinematic convention usually reserved for the Son of God.I presume a certain amount of the material is fictional. Movies have to have romance as well as action. And most of the dialog is conjectural by its nature. Further we have to be really careful in dealing with the Revolutionary War. Since the end of the ill-conceived War of 1812, we and the Brits have been staunch allies in two horrifying world wars and several other enterprises. That means the "enemy" can't be demonized.But all of that isn't very important when compared to Americans' ignorance of their own history. Everybody of high school age ought to see it. A survey on the Fourth of July in 2010 revealed that one in five Americans didn't know which country we'd achieved our independence from. (Wrong answers included France and China.) Yes, by all means, make sure your kids see this. Box their ears if they balk.

JOHN PAUL JONES is certainly a colorful film to look at, but the script is rather stately and dull when it should be tense and exciting and a lot of this may be due to the casting of ROBERT STACK in the title role. He cuts a handsome figure in his period costumes and is certainly a man who can speak forcefully on occasion, but he tends to wear the same solemn expression throughout. His outbursts of anger are sometimes hard to comprehend but he does get things done and everyone seems to bend to his will no matter what the circumstances are--that's the kind of hero he's depicted as being.It's a handsome looking film with a capable cast including CHARLES COBURN as Benjamin Franklin and MARISA PAVAN as Jones' love interest in a rather colorless role. But BETTE DAVIS has fun with her brief scenes and actually brings a lively flavor to the film once she appears as Catherine the Great and falls under the spell of the man with a commanding presence.It may not be accurate as history, but it's spectacular to watch in some of the lushest Technicolor from the '50s with a nice score by Max Steiner that gives the film a lift when it needs it. Under John Farrow's direction, the film is a bit talky at times but comes to life during the battle scenes. Farrow shares credit for the script with contributions from Ben Hecht and others.

After becoming a Revolutionary War hero, Scottish seafaring Robert Stack (as John Paul Jones) wants to hook up with wispy Marisa Pavan (as Aimee de Tellison), upon obtaining the blessing of founding father pal Charles Coburn (as Benjamin Franklin). Although he helped win America's independence, Mr. Stack butts heads with the country's Congress, who send him to Russia, where he has a brief encounter with French-accented Empress Bette Davis (as Catherine the Great).This overproduced and generally uncomfortable-looking "John Paul Jones" biography is loud, stiff, and boring. As if to compensate, the color is turned up so much it appears as if the sea and sky were dyed for the occasion, along with a few of the wigs. There is an impressive use of fire during a sea battle, and Mr. Stack does get to exclaim, "I have not yet begun to fight!" Ms. Davis adds little beside her name to the credits, but Mr. Coburn and a few others help keep it afloat.**** John Paul Jones (6/19/59) John Farrow ~ Robert Stack, Marisa Pavan, Charles Coburn, Bette Davis