Alatriste's story is not a household name in Spain, but it is indeed a very popular novel. Its author Arturo Pérez-Reverte also has a lot of backgrounds. In addition to novels, he also writes columns discussing current abuses all the year round, and has decades of journalistic experience. He also worked as a war correspondent.
As for the choice of Viggo Mortensen to play Alatriste, it turned out that it was due to overseas box office considerations, and there was even news that it could not be released in North America without his participation. Now this film has successfully bid for the Olympics, together with Volver, alas, let Volver win, long live the traditional drama film!
Despite these commercial factors, this film is worth looking forward to. Although the accent of the protagonist was ridiculed by the Spanish domestic media, although the director's brain was hot, he filmed the five stories together for more than 2 hours, resulting in a time span of more than 20 years, and Alatriste was not old. I still have to say, after all, this is a blockbuster with an investment of 20 million euros, and it is always right to look forward to it. Although I can't see where the money is going.
Having said so much, my heart is still conflicted. Why don't films that cost a lot of money tell a good story? Volver and the Spanish films that have won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film n times before, or better to say Almodovar films, have proved that some Spain can tell stories. Why spend a mountain of money to prove that the technology of Spanish films is mediocre? ? So breaking into Hollywood is the only goal.
In terms of the plot, since I haven't read the original book, I can't make any comments on the quality of the adaptation. Of course, the five books are turned into one story, and its condensedness is evident. Among them, the two love stories of Alatriste and Iñigo are not clear enough, which may be caused by too short time. So judging from the content of the two stories now, the women all betrayed the men, and they all ended tragically, which is really a bit surprising. . . bored. Oscar still choose Volver, let the machismo stand aside. I can understand that the era mentioned here is Spain during the reign of Philip IV in the 17th century. It is estimated that there will be more than n people who use this article to find reasons for these two stories. Even so, Angelica has changed when she grew up. A person's personality completely lacks the toughness of her childhood, and this inconsistent personality seems to be just to make the plot that she didn't go to the appointment in the end more reasonable.
Although I have been saying that this film is not, but I have been looking forward to it, in fact, this is a historical film made by Spain itself. Although the main characters and stories are fictional, the historical figures involved and the social environment at the time are real. Filmed by the natives themselves, the perspective represented is relatively authoritative and can attract more attention. In addition, the photography of the whole film is very good, and it reminded me of a certain oil painting several times. Dilapidated walls, a ray of sunlight slowly leaking from the side windows, or the corresponding portraits before and after the combination of virtual and real. . . To be honest, in a film with many war scenes, it is really difficult to find such quiet and layered oil painting scenes, Alatriste is everywhere.
So, this also seems to prove that the director starts to decorate his film as soon as he has money, and the decoration fee is deducted from the screenwriter's draft fee when the decoration cost is too big. . .
In the end, I chose "recommendation", although I didn't understand why I recommended it in the end. I think this is also the ambivalence of most people when they treat blockbusters.
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