source--Hollywood Online
Drawing its basic story from author Ian Gibson's investigation into the real-life murder of Andalusian poet +Federico Garcia Lorca+, at the dawn of the Spanish Civil War, this English-language thriller begins in 1935 as exiled Spanish journalist Ricardo and his family resettle in Puerto Rico. For most of his life Ricardo has been obsessed with the poet. In 1954, Ricardo returns to Spain to look closely into the circumstances of +Garcia Lorca+'s death. His father advises Ricardo not to go, but the writer, who wants to do a book about the poet, disregards him. Ricardo is also driven by his desire to ease his guilt about a close friend who was shot by the Nationalists. While doing battle with tight-lipped government officials, Ricardo is followed by Centeno, a member of +Franco+'s security team. He is also followed by an amiable taxi driver who has an uncanny knack for showing up when Ricardo needs him most.
My comment:
I love this movie with all my heart. Since this movie is badly ignored in North America, I can't help but to write a movie review myself.
This movie is a success in Spain. When Andy went to Granada for the premiere of this movie, he encountered a huge crowd, "like Elvis was coming to town", to meet him, while in America and Canada, things are quite different. I didn't even know when the movie was shown in theatre. When I found out the video was released on Jan.29 of this year, I was so excited and went to rent the tape on that day. To my surprise, I couldn't find the tape in any of the major movie stores. Desperately, I searched almost all movie stores in my city and finally found it in a small store with only one copy. I reserved it and believe or not, I watched the movie three times before I returned it to the store.
I like this movie because the story reminded me of similar experiences I had in my life, though different event, different culture and different time. I shouldn't be surprised for people here not interested in this movie, because they couldn't understand it. I have read a couple of reviews, and found none of them got to the point. People here only view this movie as a thriller, but it is much more than a thriller. It has very deep point of view about the tragedies happened during revolutions and revolts.
The movie is about a journalist and writer Ricardo's investigation of the murder of Garcia Lorca, the greatest Spanish poet who was assassinated by Franco's army in 1936 at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Ricardo looked on Garcia Lorca as his idol and returned to Spain from Puerto Rico in 1954 to find out who actually killed Garcia Lorca. Even after almost 20 years, the truth was still tightly covered. He talked to a couple of people, but different people told slightly different stories. By the end of the movie, it seemed that everyone including Ricardo's father shared the responsibility for the death of Garcia Lorca. I think that is the point of the movie.
The movie tried to tell us that there was no certain individual to be blamed for the tragedies happened during revolutions, revolts and fascist rulings. In such situations, everyone was involved. Even though people didn't want to do those bad things, under those circumstances, they did, for different reasons like hatred, following orders, impressing others, protecting themselves et al. Everyone in the society was a victim and also the tragedy creator. Ricardo's father stained his hands with blood simply because he was drunk. The bullfighter represented the majority of human society, who just watched tragedies happening around them without standing up. No matter the slaughter in Spanish Civil War, the Holocaust in World War II, or the devastation in Chinese Cultural Revolution, they were all caused by the same human weaknesses. The leaders of these revolutions and wars like Spanish Franco, German Hitler or Chinese Mao just created the politic environmental conditions to activate these weaknesses.
This is a decent and delicate movie. Every scene is meaningful. I could feel the pain in everyone's heart. People did terrible things to hurt others, but actually they hurt the hearts of themselves. I specially like the end, when Ricardo and his father looked at each other. I saw repentance in his father's eyes, but in Ricardo's eyes, I saw forgiveness, no hatred and blame. Hatred is the source of tragedy and blame should be saved for ourselves. We should always forgive others and question ourselves. Anything that happened to other people could happen to ourselves. We might do the same thing that others did under the same circumstances, since we have the same weaknesses existing in our human being, no matter what race and culture. Unless we are aware of our weaknesses and ready to fight to overcome them, we cannot say that this kind of tragedies will not happen again.
As to Andy, I think this is one of his best. My heart was grabbed by his nobility and dignity. Especially at the end, when he was killed, faced the pistol, he looked ahead and said "where is my moon". I couldn't breath. He was so innocent and poetic. I believe that nobody can do a thing like this, except him. Andy is definitely the best.
I feel sorry for those who have no chance to see this movie. Most of them don't even know the existence of the movie. I strongly encourage you to find this movie (may be hard, but it is worth trying). Well, I got to tell you that this movie is very sad. It is no fun at all to watch my dear Andy got killed, which he played so well. I still feel pain today when I recall the scene. I guess this sadness will last until I watch his new romantic comedy The Scalper.