Alatriste

2006
6.1| 2h25m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 01 September 2006 Released
Producted By: 20th Century Fox
Country: Spain
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

In 17th century Spain Diego Alatriste, a brave and heroic soldier, is fighting in his King's army in the Flandes region. His best mate, Balboa, falls in a trap and, near to death, asks Diego to look after his son and teach him to be a soldier.

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Reviews

Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever
Wordiezett So much average
Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Steven Capsuto The episodic, incoherent script patches together highlights from FIVE historical adventure novels spanning a 20-year period of the 17th century. This film takes for granted that we already know something of the era's Spanish political, literary, artistic and military history. Even Spaniards found this movie confusing, so what hope do we foreign viewers have? Mortensen is very good in the title role, though the Argentine Spanish of his youth occasionally creeps through the European accent he learned for the film. In fact, the whole cast is good, but they're trapped in a hopeless script that skips and jumps over plot points too fast while still somehow remaining plodding and dull.The visual style works well, and I like the brutality of the battle scenes. (In English-language films, by comparison, war often comes off as a bit too clean and tidy.)The Alatriste novels have a lot to offer, so ideally this should have been made as a TV miniseries.
max-vernon I welcome any feature film which brings History to life. 'Alatriste' presents us with a series of historical tableaux taken from Velazquez and other artists. King Philip IV, his chief minister Olivares, the poet Quevedo, the Surrender of Breda and the Battle of Rocroi are faithfully recreated from their paintings. However, accurate recreations of the past do not always produce a great film. This expensive and lavish work is not mediocre but lacks a dynamic story-line.Many Spanish reviewers believe that it was a mistake to compress 5 novels into one film. I agree. The film is strangely episodic and a little shallow in its depiction of both its characters and the large canvass of history over which it ranges.'Alatriste' can be translated as 'the gloomy one', a name presumably chosen by the author to reinforce the idea of a 'Golden Age' Spain already showing signs of decline. The tenor of the film is unremittingly gloomy with rather too little Spanish sunshine.Spanning the period 1622 to 1643, we are shown a decadent empire already conscious of its own decline. Towards the end of the period Olivares declares, "The honour and reputation of Spain are lost. All is misfortune." The poet Quevedo opines, "We are now a country of beggars who were once the centre of the universe." Is this historically accurate? Were leading Spaniards of this period so acutely prescient that their new-found wealth and power might be slipping from their grasp? Was Golden Age Spain such a self-consciously dark and anxious place? Or is this retrospective anachronism? The film certainly presents a critical view of the period. It is scathing about the Inquisition and its power – several characters become its victims. Leading figures such as the King, Olivares, Secretary Alquezar, Chief Inquisitor Bocanegra are all depicted as intriguers. Alatriste serves their nefarious goals - including an attempt to assassinate the Prince of Wales and a scam to divert gold from paying soldiers to building palaces.The Alatriste character is a Common Man acting as a foil to the system he serves. Dour, uncommunicative, no deep thinker, he ventures few opinions about the world he inhabits. Two decades of loyal service eventually lead him to a verdict on his sovereign, "There are kings and kings and this one should govern." He becomes increasingly aware that he does not serve the best of masters. He is also dismisses the idea that things could be better for ordinary people under different rulers.Alatriste shows his own independence and sense of honour in this murky world by failing to complete his role as hired assassin and by purposely appearing before Olivares in worn boots. Alatriste is loyal to the Spain he serves but he does not always obey orders. It is Alatriste's decency and honour which makes him a hero. Decent acts include adopting the son of a fallen comrade and visiting and kissing the syphilitic love of his life as she nears death. He does not kill all those he beats in duels. Olivares calls him, "brave, discreet, trustworthy." Alatriste is deferent to his social superiors – secular and religious -throughout the film but over time he becomes less so, eventually shouting at Olivares. This (productive) outburst is a metaphor for the rebellions that have broken out by 1640. He is useful to those he serves but cannot hope to enter their ranks or sup at their table.Class distinctions are underlined when an aristocratic comrade from the Flanders war rejects Alatriste's claim that they are 'brothers' –"Not even in combat are we equal. God did not want it so." Brotherhood in arms is not allowed to cross class barriers. Likewise, our low-born hero has the title 'Captain' only in honorary recognition of his fighting qualities. He has no rank. Alatriste's and Inigo's loves both reject them in favour of greater social status and material security.Religion suffuses life. Catholic anti-Semitism is reflected in a vulgar reference to the size of Olivares' nose, an allusion to his 'tainted blood' as a descendant of converted Jews. The poet Quevedo calls him "a tyrant and descendant of Jews who are now sucking Spain dry." One soldier tells another,"You Portuguese are all half-Jews." Inigo is quite happy to say he has been killing heretics in Flanders. A wintry day in Madrid is 'as cold as a Lutheran.' Alatriste calls the 'black sun' of Flanders, "a heretic sun." Interestingly, several characters facing death disavow their belief in the Afterlife. Fear of the Inquisition kept such scepticism in check but it surely existed in the Catholic world.The fighting qualities of the Spanish infantryman provide a straw of pride for modern Spaniards to clutch at. The Battle of Rocroi shows pike-fighting contemporaneous with battles of the English Civil War depicted in the film 'Cromwell'. The siege of Breda shows trench warfare and tunnelling to undermine enemy positions which is comparable to World War I fighting. The initial Spanish raid to spike the Dutch cannon is also very instructive. Soldiers are badly fed, clothed and paid. Booty incentivises. Stoic pride and bravery underpin Alatriste's world.'Alatriste' is remarkably similar in structure to 'Goya's Ghosts' (2006) which is set in Spain two centuries later. Both films have a fictitious central character and story line set against real historical characters and events and over a similar time span. Both are lavish in their depiction of the past and both refer to the work of contemporary artists. Both damn the Inquisition as a monstrous instrument of tyranny. The Catholic Church was, surely, the world's first totalitarian organisation.'Goya's Ghosts' is a better film simply because it is held together by a central narrative. Its characters are fully developed and it is far more focused on the historical tale that it tells. 'Alatriste' is disjointed and produces a rather flat emotional effect. It is less than the sum of its parts.
lefrang Great acting and atmosphere. But somewhere the story got lost. It does feel like 5 books was made into one movie. Which, I believe is what happened here. What a stupid idea! Maybe it's easier to follow for those who have read the books. Despite that, everything else is excellent. Viggo Mortensen is superb. And since I don't speak Spanish, I don't care if his accent may be a bit wrong.Would certainly have been even better in a theater, but it was direct to DVD. That was a shame, too.I give this a 7. With a coherent story it could have been a 10.
m0rg16 The film could have been good. When you find an epic film produced in Spain, you expect it to be lacking in production design. You'd be wrong. This film looks grand and excellent, with action scenes that can rival Hollywoods and sets that will blow your mind away. But it tries to cover 6 books in 2½ hours! The result, as you can imagine, is a lot of incomprehensible jumps.If you're interested in history, it is worth a look but otherwise you might as well skip it. They should have adapted 1 or 2 novels. Not all 3. The result is that none of the characters get any depth and except for Alatriste, no characters are that frequent. Not even his comrades or his lover get that many scenes and they are spread out across the film.Very little is explained. The best example of this is the transition from a scene where Alatriste helps his young apprentice up from a shore to the final battle. Just like that, with no explanation, we're thrown into a battle in Flanders between France and Spain.I very much enjoyed the action scenes however. Very well made. The film was also very gritty and brutal. A testament to this is how many people in this film are stabbed in the throat, or across it. A knife is an effective weapon that can quickly kill a man in a most undramatic way, but it is hard to portray this effectively on film. But here, the filmmakers do not try to glorify their action. They just show it as it could have happened in real life.