Customer Reviews

Blessed By Fire

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I fall between those who see this as a near masterpiece, and
those who dismiss it as overly familiar and done better before.

An intense, fascinating look at the Falklands war, from the Argentinean
soldier's POV, it begins with the attempted suicide of an ex-solider,
which throws his war-time buddy into remembrances of the hell these men
endured.

While the war may have seemed a silly little flare up about a bunch of
rocks to most of the world, to the Argentinean draftees who lost their
lives their limbs and their sanity in a futile, under equipped attempt
to hold off a wildly more powerful British force was as real to them as
Vietnam or Iraq or the coast of Normandy was to the men who suffered
and died there.

Indeed, through this film's eyes it was worse, because it was an
absolutely pointless and quickly forgotten war, drummed up by the
generals back home as a nationalistic exercise to take the country's
mind off its faltering economy,

And then, in the ultimate ignominy, the men are sworn to silence about
their defeat (and, presumably, abusive treatment by their own
officers).

Any war where more of the soldiers die of suicide in the years after
than on the battlefield itself is indeed worth examining.

The film succeeds in capturing the horror, confusion, and fear,
although it doesn't quite get under the skins of the characters enough
to make us understand on a visceral level. I was never bored, but
nowhere near as deeply moved as I wish I had been.

--mild spoiler ahead--

Still, I would have rated this higher except for a stumble in the very
last seconds of the film, where suddenly a burst of sentimentality and
latent nationalism in the form respectively of a pop song, and a last
screen graphic made me question if I had been giving the film too much
credit for having an enlightened point of view.

A survivor from that brutal War in Argentina against UK, best known as Malvins War in order to restore the domain in 1982. A teenager by then, is now a man of 42 who reminds those awful experiences with another survivor and a missed friend, killed in action.

A realist drama that surely will shock

A must see to understand what these poor Arjentinian soldiers went through during this island war.
They were closer to this island then the british, but sure the brits were more orgenized and supplied better.

Blessed By Fire was much more than I expected, what I thought was going to be an overglorified propaganda film turned out to be one on the best films I've seen. Being a former U.S. Marine, I'm not one enjoys your basic "shoot'em up" war is nothing to make light of. Blessed By Fire is one of those special films that shows war and its effect on those who go through it, as well as a tragic and horrible waste of young lives. There is no real way to show war as it really is, but if you're looking for a movie with the effects and realism of battle, this is the one for you. Not a film for just the "Lovers" of War Movies, but a film that shows that in war there is no glory only survivors

"Iluminados por el fuego" (= "Blessed by fire") is a wonderful Argentinian film, directed by Tristán Bauer and loosely based on the real experiences of some young Argentinian soldiers that fought in the 1982 Malvinas' war.

One of the main characters is Esteban Leguizamón (Gastón Pauls), a journalist who is informed that Vargas (Pablo Ribba), one of the men he served with in the Malvinas' war, attempted to commit suicide. Vargas suffered from depression, and couldn't live with his memories any more. Esteban visits Vargas at the hospital, and that situation prompts Esteban to remember what it was like for him and his friends to fight a war they were not prepared for.

The screen is flooded by images of Esteban, Vargas, and Juan (César Albarracín), young Argentinian men fulfilling their compulsory military draft, men that in a matter of hours saw themselves in a life and death situation, in the middle of a war for the Malvinas Islands. These young men didn't want to be soldiers, they were forced to try to behave likeones. They had many enemies, not only the English soldiers, but also the cold, the lack of proper clothing and food, and military leaders without sensible ideas. It is astounding to see how young they seemed, and how unfair the whole situation was...

"Iluminados por el fuego" talks about the Malvinas' war, but also tells us about the suffering that all wars bring about, and the toll they take on survivors. We should take that into account, and care. No military action should be taken lightly, ever. Even if the justification for a war is good, negotiation should always be the first option, and the use of force only a last resource, certainly not a decision to be taken due to political opportunism.

It is not easy to watch this film, but I think everybody should. It makes you care.

Belen Alcat

I saw this film thinking that because it won an award at the Tribeca Film Festival it would be good. The cinematography was ok and effective in bringing you to what it was like in the Falklands war. However, the acting was pretty mediocre. The actors portraying the Argentine soldiers would have had a more genuine portrayal if they went to boot camp even for a week, e.g. Capt. Dale Dye's boot camp for actors (Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, etc.). The fact that the actors never went to boot camp does show on film (inexperience, lack of training, weird reaction in the midst of battle, etc.). I am not familiar with how the Argentine Military Junta treated their soldiers but in this film, it's as if they treated them worse than their British attackers. There was also a scene wherein the soldiers were crouching as if they were attacking an enemy position which turned out they were only attacking a herd of sheep. This brings me back to a Band of Brother's episode where one of the soldiers made fun of his buddy: "Why are you crouching? Afraid that the deer will shoot back?" They should have given the Tribeca Best Film award to Paul Verhoven's "Black Book" instead or even Korea's "Tae Guk Gi."