Onassis: The Richest Man in the World (1988 TV Movie) User Reviews (8)

Well acted despite looking quite different from the real people

[phd_travel · 7/10 · 5 November 2012]

Watchable and interesting TV movie about the love triangle involving Aristotle Onasis, Maria Callas and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

The casting is tricky here for people so well known. Raoul Julia is a good actor who captures the crude essence of Aristotle. Although physically he is much to big sized, his face isn't too far off so overall he's convincing. Liked Jane Seymour as Maria Callas. She is quite fiery and is the best of the three leads though even skinnier than the real Callas was. Francesca Annis is a strange choice to play Jackie. She does the voice and delicate ladylike quality well but her facial features are too delicate for Jackie who had such overly large features so she just looks too different. She comes across as English despite her efforts.

Overall this is worth watching because the subject matter is good and the actors are first rate despite some physical differences.

Great showcase for Raul Julia, despite miscasting

[fritzfassbender · 7/10 · 13 September 2008]

The death of Raul Julia closed the door to a career still peaking. This film provides one of his great showcases, and fans will savor his powerhouse performance.

Taken as a Citizen Kane-type film about a self-made Greek billionaire, this is very entertaining and would be an excellent story. However, as a biography of Aristotle Onassis it falls flat.

For starters, Julia looks nothing like Onassis. He's the wrong height, build, nationality, and is certainly much handsomer. Though great to watch, he never is able to convince you that he is Onassis. But since Julia was usually cast in showy supporting roles, admirers will appreciate this film for his wealth of dialogue and emotion.

Supporting cast is unimpressive. Elias Koteas is awkward in his first-act showcase as young Aristotle, and I can't see how Jane Seymour received an Emmy for her overblown performance, while Julia was not even nominated. Francisca Annis fairs better as Jackie Kennedy, but the presentation of Jackie is too quaint for it's own good, all information provided can be found in an encyclopedia entry.

Oddly enough, Anthony Quinn as Julia's father looks significantly more like Onassis than Julia, but his hammy appearance indicates why he would not have served well in the main role.

Recommended strongly for fans of Raul Julia, everyone else would probably not be interested.

Well done Drama!

[RodrigAndrisan · 7/10 · 12 August 2018]

Julia Raul is convincing, Jane Seymour is beautiful and even more convincing in the role of Maria Callas, Francesca Annis is less compelling as Jacqueline Kennedy, Anthony Quinn excellent as usual in the role of Socrates Onassis, Anthony Zerbe very good in the role of Livanos. It's not a masterpiece, but it's an honorable film. Waris Hussein, very good director, who directed the excellent drama "Coming Out of the Ice", with the exceptional John Savage in the lead role and the same Francesca Annis in a supporting role.

Great Cast & Story - Magnificent Acting

[Big Jay-2 · 21 December 1999]

I have yet to see a better ensemble of actors/actresses portraying the life around the Great Greek Tycoon & his relationship w/ the Kennedys' & especially Jackie O. Anthony Quinn & Raul Julia are superb in their roles & the many many cast members are simply divine in their realm. It is rather surprising that this movie extraordinare was made for TV & never reached the big screen. But as we all now, there are many great flicks which never made the big Hollywood bucks & which should be remembered for a very long time. I highly suggest that, if you can somehow get your hands on this piece, to really free an evening & enjoy this great movie. **** out of 4

The real Greek tycoon.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 21 May 2023]

It's ironic that in 1978, Anthony Quinn played a fictionalized Aristotle Onassis, opposite Jacqueline Bisset as a fictional Jackie Kennedy. It was a huge bomb, but just a decade later, Quinn was back as a real Onassis, that is as Aristotle's domineering and somewhat envious father. Here, it's Raul Julia as Ari, aging throughout as the film explores his life as ambitious young man, then powerful businessman going through several marriages, and dealing with scandal as he courts the widowed Jackie (Francesca Annis) with interference from her former brother-in-law Bobby.

I didn't feel that Annis looked like Jackie at all, but James F. Kelly and David Gilliam were perfect Bobby and John F. Kennedy lookalike. It's only after Bobby's assassination that Aristotle is free to marry Jackie which brings animosity from his family. Jane Seymour gives a truly strong performance as long time mistress Maria Callas who is resentful of being cast aside for Jackie. The Greek locations are gorgeous, and of course this gives Quinn an excuse to dance. As for Julia, I thought him quite good even if he didn't look like the man he was portraying. Overall a nice try, but nothing really ground breaking or revealing.

Too Little Historical Insight Elapsing Over Far Too Many Years

[Ed-Shullivan · 4/10 · 8 November 2013]

I can appreciate how difficult it must be for a screenwriter and director to try and condense such an interesting man's life story that spans over 50 plus years of history into a two hour time capsule. Having said that, when you have such superb leading actors as Raul Julia and Anthony Quinn (Academy award nominee Best Actor in Zorba the Greek) you have an opportunity many other films do not get for instant credibility.

Even with the benefit of top notch actors like Raul Julia and Anthony Quinn I was not impressed with the movies stop gap approach to how the years (and in some cases decades) progressed in Aristotle Onassis life. In one scene Onassis's hair is jet black, in another scene his hair changes to silver grey, and in the very next scene his hair is completely white. I know life passes us by when we don't expect it, but this bio movie was almost laid out in bullet points, rather than with any depth of character and story basis.

I was very disappointed with the choice of Jane Seymour to play Maria Callas. I like Jane Seymour in some of her other movies, but as Maria Callas? You have got to be kidding? Her accent was so bad and her teary scenes for the love of her life breaking her heart again and again were just not very good.

I know this review is critical but I would have preferred the biography to concentrate on a specific time period in Onassis's life, whether it was as a teenager when his father's wealth and home were taken over by the military and he stayed behind living with the commander as his male geisha, or how he built his shipping empire, or even the time period his passion for both Maria Callas and Jackie Kennedy were in full bloom.

The film Onassis, the Richest Man In the World, is now celebrating its 25th anniversary. Unfortunately it is not one of the greatest films of the now deceased actors Anthony Quinn and Raul Julia's body of work. I prefer to remember these two great actors for some of their other performances such as Raul's Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Anthony's Across 110th Street.

A real masterpiece !

[avlaris · 10/10 · 3 December 2015]

What can someone say about this movie ?... It is a "guide" for what a man can become, when he has money for his "god".. Also, shows the ultimate misery he face when he realize that all the money of the world can not give some "happiness " to him...

Raul is really a master in this movie... As a Greek by myself, it is as if I can SEE ALIVE "our Onassis", living his drama again. Passion and sadness, money and lust, all together mixed in a wonderful way.. You can actually feel the old Onassis, with all his life "painted" on his face, in last scenes, fallen, broken apart and almost dead...

A must film, for every person who loves great acting ~

A good biopic

[m-ozfirat · 8/10 · 28 May 2018]

This production is very well done and scripted based on what his close family and companions thought of Onassis and his actions. The cast is well selected to fit biographically the roles in which they play with good music and costume.

The film in details tells the biography of Onassis without any complications and concentrates on the key epochs and aspects of his life from a humble background in to one of the most richest people in history with his shipping company a role that came with his heritage as greece was the biggest maker of ships in Europe due to its history of a navy heritage Another good aspect was his sad but rich personal life especially his affairs and marriages and relations with his children and the powerful elites he mixed with.

One negative aspect i did not like about this film was that it contained anti-Turkish bias. The Greeks are displayed as virtuous and innocent whilst in a time of occupation after world war one living side by side with the Turks. The Greeks invaded Turkey in 1920 when Onassis was a teenager and acted like the Nazis in Europe during world war two until they were defeated by nationalist resistance in 1923 so how come turks are "religious fascists" Other derogatory terms are that "Turkish Peasant" his own people would of called him Anatolian not Turkish and "Garbage from the gutters of Turkey" to say he was not like the Greeks of the European mainland.