A 19th century British diplomat instigates a revolution on the island of Queimada in the Caribbean between the black slaves and the Portuguese colonials in order to break Portugal's hold on the sugar market. An odd bit of political rabble-rousing and quasi-history from director Gillo Pontecorvo, who also worked on the story but seems far more comfortable gazing at the vistas and landscapes of the region rather than staging a riot. Marlon Brando (grizzled, and with a precarious accent) gives a necessarily unsympathetic performance and has some amazing bits and pieces, yet the picture really only comes to life during the montages, sweeping panoramas as scored by Ennio Morricone (whose work deserves the highest praise). United Artists, afraid of offending the Spanish movie market, changed the nationality of the villains from Spaniards to Portuguese in an eleventh-hour move designed for box-office; it was a misguided decision, particularly since U.A. hardly distributed the picture after the critics' reviews were less than enthusiastic. It has only recently acquired a cult following, mostly due to Morricone's majestic music. ** from ****
Review of Burn!
