Queimada (1969)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Gillo Pontecorvo

Writers:

Franco Solinas (story) &
Giorgio Arlorio (story) ...

Release Date:

21 October 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The man who sells war. The bloodier the battle - the higher the price. He's going to make a fortune on this one.

Plot:

The professional mercenary Sir William Walker instigates a slave revolt on the Caribbean island of Queimada...

Plot Keywords:

Sugar | Island | Portuguese | Rebel Army | Execution

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Marlon Brando	...	Sir William Walker
Evaristo Márquez	...	José Dolores (as Evaristo Marquez)
Norman Hill	...	Shelton
Thomas Lyons	...	Gen. Alonso Prada
Renato Salvatori	...	Teddy Sanchez
Valeria Ferran Wanani	...	Guarina
Giampiero Albertini	...	Henry Thompson
Carlo Palmucci	...	Jack
Dana Ghia	...	Francesca
Joseph P. Persaud	...	Juanito
Álvaro Medrano	...	Soldier (as Alvaro Medrano)
Alejandro Obregón	...	Engl. Major (as Alejandro Obregon)
Enrico Cesaretti

Also Known As:

Burn! (USA)
The Mercenary (Canada: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence and nudity. (2005 re-rating; 1970 rating GP)

Runtime:

Argentina:115 min | Italy:132 min | UK:112 min | USA:112 min | USA:132 min (restored version) | Germany:121 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

English | Portuguese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1971) | UK:12 (video rating) (2004) | South Korea:15 | UK:AA (original rating) | Argentina:13 | Sweden:15 | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:R (re-rating) (2005)

Filming Locations:

Cartagena, Bolívar, Colombia

Company:

Europee Associate SAS

Trivia:

'Evaristo Marquez', who plays rebel leader Jose Dolores in the film, was not an actor. He was a poor villager whom director Pontecorvo discovered while scouting locations and convinced to star opposite Brando. The studio had originally wanted Sydney Poitier.

Quotes:

Sir William Walker: Gentlemen, let me ask you a question. Now, my metaphor may seem a trifle impertinent, but I think it's very much to the point. Which do you prefer - or should I say, which do you find more convenient - a wife, or one of these mulatto girls? No, no, please don't misunderstand: I am talking strictly in terms of economics...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Brando (2007) (TV)

Powerful, Moving and Humane

This is, without doubt, one of the best films ever made which deals with the festering malaise of racism, and, by distancing it into the past, Pontecorvo brings home truths that are entirely appropriate to the present day. He brings an almost psychological precision to his films.

Working in close association with Ennio Morricone who augments so many scenes with his stunning score, Pontecorvo creates a film of ideas presented as adventure, with scenes of breath-taking spectacle which are on a par with those of the earliest silent days of cinema, when one could be overwhelmed by the sheer number of extras employed and the vast panoramic canvases presented to us. In a sense, these images of a collective mass of humanity are in themselves an abstract call to insurrection and rebellion; a fearsome judgement on the over-wheening arrogance of white Christian and colonial culture in the past, and those remnants of it that still echo to this day. As those who read my postings may well guess, I believe music plays a tremendously creative role in film, and is a contributory factor of immense importance, and QUEMADA utilises music almost like a weapon in its armoury!

Brando has said, in an interview published some years ago in `Playboy' magazine, that he and Pontecorvo didn't get on well together during the production of this movie, (one perhaps forgets now that when QUEMADA was made, Brando's career was at a very low point!), and yet there is no hint of this in the movie itself, as Brando turns in one of his most measured, considered and subtle performances. So suave, and so genteelly treacherous! Pretending to `do what's right', but eventually `doing what's white'.

Fine and thought-provoking dialogue is a plus: `Freedom is not something somebody gives you. It is something you take for yourself', and there is a powerful scene where, in an unguarded moment of temper, the character played by Brando, who, up until then has shown himself to be the benign white liberal, suddenly hurls a racist epithet at his prisoner, thus reminding us, that every `brother' ain't always a `brother'!

Pontecorvo's films always seem to manage to upset both the Left and the Right of the political spectrum, (from my own libertarian point of view, a source of deep satisfaction), because he has always refused to traffic in slogans or short-term solutions to complex and long-gestating problems. He knows always that human nature is not consistent, and that, (as Shaw once said), `People don't have their virtues and vices in sets; they come all mixed up, anyhow'.

Finally, mention must be made of the superb title sequence; such a stunning and exciting `overture' to the content of the film to come, which stimulates and excites from the very outset.

Gillo Pontecorvo has not made many films, (and whatever happened to OGRO?), but in my view, he has made three masterpieces, and this is one of them. One could almost get nostalgic for the days when, to show the East how laid-back and freedom-loving we in the West were, we allowed heretics to make the occasional movie that dealt with IDEAS... Now that such fine points no longer need to be made at International Film Festivals, seems like `ideas' as an ingredient in films, have been put on the back burner! No doubt we shall all live to regret it!