A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
Queimada
(as known as Burn!) is a 1969 motion-picture directed by celebrated Italian
moviemaker Gillo Pontecorvo.
Queimada is Pontecorvo’s follow up to his critically acclaimed magnum opus, Battle of Algiers—an
epic war movie based on the events surrounding the Algerian War. Queimada stars American
movie-icon Marlon Brando in
the lead role of a mercenary named Sir William Walker. At the time of its release, Queimada failed at the box-office resulting in huge financial loses. The major reason for movie's failure was the elimination of several politically sensitive scenes from the originally shot material. The scenes were cut primarily to appease the political circles in the movie's potential markets. Pontecorvo had initially wanted to structure his movie around a slave-revolt set in an Spanish colonial island. But, Spain's fascist dictator Francisco Franco objected to the imperialistic portrayal of Spain in the original screenplay and threatened to put a ban on the movie. Daunted by Franco's threat, especially considering the Spanish dictator's ruthless reputation, Ponteocorvo decided to change the movie's setting to a Portuguese island. With its anti-war, anti-racist
themes, Queimada serves to be a powerful political drama that gets better with
each viewing.
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Queimada (1969) - By Gillo Pontecorvo |
Our Rating: 9.5
IMDb Ratings: 7.0
Genre: Action | Drama
Cast: Marlon Brando, Evaristo Márquez, Norman Hill
Language: Italian | Portuguese
Country: Italy | France
Language: Italian | Portuguese
Country: Italy | France
Runtime: 115 min
Color: Color
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Marlon Brando as Sir William Walker in Gillo Pontecorvo's Queimada |
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The Captain briefs Sir William Walker about Queimada |
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The Portuguese execute a Guerrilla Rebel named Santiago |
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Santiago's Widow and Children drag Santigo's Dead Body |
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Queimada (1969): William Walker and President Sanchez |
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Queimada: William Walker and Jose Dolores savor English Whisky |
Note: In order to experience Brando's Sir William Walker in all his glory, please stick to the English version only, for the Italian version reportedly suffers from a severe inconsistency of dialogue.
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Brilliant review :) Sadly, I've seen very few movies of Brando and I think its hightime I take out time for this legend. Thanks for this review because now I'm all charged up to watch all his films :)
ReplyDeleteThis obviously is a classic :)
ReplyDeleteIt surely is :-)
ReplyDeleteI am really glad that you find it useful... now we can expect some great reviews of movies starring Marlon Brando from you :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Eric... I feel greatly indebted :-)
ReplyDeleteWe know The Movie Waffler already gave you the Liebster, but we sincerely love your work and learn so much from it, so we wanted to share it with you as well! We hope you come visit to claim it! http://www.twoticketsfor.com/2012/07/the-liebster-award.html
ReplyDeleteThanks... I accept it gleefully :-)
ReplyDeleteAs you know, this is one of my favorite movies and movie soundtracks (I think the latter is more than poignant).
ReplyDeleteNot a bad choice for a movie, I must say!!! The score is indeed up there with Morricone's very best :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing this movie through your wonderful review. I recently watched Queimada and liked it very much (may watch it again soon). The movie is a brilliant study about Colonialism and Capitalism. And really a excellent performance from Brando. It is one of his most measured, considered and subtle performances. I read that the film crew gone through lot of troubles but thank god it was made and released, since we can make many parallels with current events concerning globalization and the role that Multinational Corporations play. Have u seen the 132 minutes restored version?
ReplyDelete