The film, which is based on a stage monologue by Alessandro Baricco, is about a man who is born, lives and dies on board a Trans-Atlantic ship at the turn of the last century. The morning after the New Year's celebration an engine room worker (Bill Nunn) finds a baby in the ballroom on top of a piano. The worker takes him down under the ship, shows him to the workers, gives him a long name (which he shortens to '1900') and becomes his adopted father.

1900 (played by Tim Roth) grows up to become a virtuoso piano player who entertains the rich passengers with his own unique brand of jazz and classical compositions. He is a sweet natured somewhat simple man who has an unpretentious outlook on life and very kindly lets everyone know that the ship is his home and that there is no reason for him to ever leave or set foot on land.

1900 is befriended by a trumpet player named Max (Pruitt Taylor Vince) – who narrates the story of 1900 which we see unfold before us in a flashback. Max, along with many others, tries to get 1900 to leave the ship and seek fame and fortune with his piano skills. Otherwise not much happens to him as the years pass until one day - while recording a beautiful piano piece - he looks out the window and sees a beautiful young woman just outside his window. She turns out to be an emigrant (who is the daughter of someone he once knew) who becomes his muse.

The film has some well directed and edited scenes. One is in Chapter 7 on the DVD when 1900 plays piano during a raging storm. He loosens the piano's wheels and rolls around the dance hall - with a nauseas Max at his side, playing with ease. The film's best scene is undoubtedly in Chapter 12 when 1900 has a piano duel with the legendary Jelly Roll Morton (played by Clarence Williams III). Both scenes by themselves self would make a good short film.

Tornatore has nice touches too with some of the non-dialogue sequences but the fact that the film is a fable seems to give him license to give us a lot of schmaltz. To heighten this the score by Ennio Morricone rises and falls like the ocean surrounding the ship.

What keeps the story going is wondering what will happen to 1900 both in Max's flashback story and on the ship (in the films' present date years later) where he may or may not be still be hiding. In the last half hour the film captures a certain amount of whimsy that almost works.

Audio:
There are three channels of audio. One seems to be mono, another is 5.1 Dolby Digital Dolby and the other is DTS Surround Sound. The 5.1 is loud and really emphasizes the musical score, which is half good (the piano jazz) and half bad (Ennio Morricone doodling). The dialogue and voice-over narration comes across very good.

Video:
The DVD is presented in 2.31:1 aspect ratio and looks very good. The film has a slightly natural blue and brown color scheme, which lend credence to the early 20th century time period. There is some compression artifact especially on long shots that have reflecting light. Overall it looks clean and sharp.

Extras:
There are no extras. The Disc has 12 chapters.

Overall:
The Legend of 1900 is a fairly well directed fable by Guiseppe Tornatore about a man who lives his entire life on board a ship where he becomes a piano playing legend. The film has an almost zen-like premise (where the ship represents a microcosm of the world) and is awash with sentimental ideals. This all makes it eligible to be a rather popular film, which makes it doubly odd that it received a miniscule release late last year. The DVD looks very good but features zero extras. It's worth renting if you can handle a dapper, childlike Tim Roth moving around the ship with a maudlin Ennio Morricone score accompanying his every step.