I could only stand two thirds of this three hour mess of a movie. Now, granted, the last hour may in fact be dazzling and may tie all the stories together and give them greater meaning. Yes, this may be true, though, I'll never know for sure, because, no matter how brilliant the last hour may be it couldn't possibly make up for the dull, rambling bore of the first two hours.
There is lots of promise in the characters, situations and some of the moviemaking but none of it is compelling enough or dramatic enough to sustain ones interest. The lead character, Alfonso Van Warden, wanders around the Spanish country side and stumbles into this immaculate hide away where he possibly meets two evil ghosts in the form of two very beautiful and sexually aggressive women. This quickly leads to Van Worden waking up in a field next to a couple of dead bodies. Then he meets this old, wise man who seems to know where Van Warden has been and warns him, then Van Worden gets captured by the Spanish Inquisition then rescued, then meets up with the old, wise man again, blah, blah, blah. Praising a bad film like this only serves to mislead and discourage movie buffs like myself, who are endlessly searching for those little-known, forgotten films that truly deserve one's attention and raves--films like "Seconds", "Scarecrow", "Gun Crazy", "I am Cuba" and the poetic and truly humanistic "Ballad of a Soldier." See those instead!
There is lots of promise in the characters, situations and some of the moviemaking but none of it is compelling enough or dramatic enough to sustain ones interest. The lead character, Alfonso Van Warden, wanders around the Spanish country side and stumbles into this immaculate hide away where he possibly meets two evil ghosts in the form of two very beautiful and sexually aggressive women. This quickly leads to Van Worden waking up in a field next to a couple of dead bodies. Then he meets this old, wise man who seems to know where Van Warden has been and warns him, then Van Worden gets captured by the Spanish Inquisition then rescued, then meets up with the old, wise man again, blah, blah, blah. Praising a bad film like this only serves to mislead and discourage movie buffs like myself, who are endlessly searching for those little-known, forgotten films that truly deserve one's attention and raves--films like "Seconds", "Scarecrow", "Gun Crazy", "I am Cuba" and the poetic and truly humanistic "Ballad of a Soldier." See those instead!