Customer Reviews

The Disappearance Of Garcia Lorca (1997 Film)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I picked this movie up on several different excursions to the video store. Finally, I risked bringing it home, having never before heard of Federico Garcia Lorca. The opening sequence, where Garcia recites an English translation of Lorca's "Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejias" over footage from the Spanish civil war, ignited something for me that the rest of the movie couldn't put to rest. Who was Lorca? What happened during the Spanish civil war? The hints dropped in the movie weren't enough. I now own the movie, books on the Spanish civil war, and Lorca's poetry, both in Spanish (which I read poorly) and English (some translations are more poetic than others, but he's providing plenty of impetus to polish my Spanish).

(Lorca was a homosexual Spanish poet & playwright, whose work is well worth reading, even in translation. Death, nature, and the indomitability of the human spirit were central themes to his lyrical, almost Zen at times, poetry. The Spanish civil war is much to complex to explain here. Orwell's "Animal Farm" gives an allegorical point of view, his "Homage to Catalonia" gives a more autobiographical perspective.)

The movie invents the story of Fernando, the child of a bourgeois Spanish businessman, who idolized Lorca as a child. In his early 30's, living with his family as expatriates in Puerto Rico, he cannot seem to bring a book he's writing about Lorca together. He sets out for Granada, his home town, to discover "The Truth" about Lorca's end.

During the movie, he discovers many "truths" about Lorca's final moments; not all of them support each other. He encounters a girl pal of his from childhood and develops that relationship. He also must deal with the harsh realities of fascism and censorship. Perhaps at its deepest level, this is a movie about the problem of History—sorting out which history to tell, since The True History is not available.

Andy Garcia plays a noble Lorca, a character easy to idolize. He's larger than life--mythic, really, and that fits well with Fernando's quest for a childhood hero. In this age where most celebrities can propel a ball in some special manner, make popular sounds on the radio, or enact trivialities on a screen, having a poet for a hero is a pleasant change. Throughout the movie, Garcia narrates Lorca's poems.

Nobody feels safe telling what they witnessed, not even Colonel Aguirre, a friend of Fernando's family. Beneath the seemingly normal veneer of this portrait of Franco's Spain, violence...looms. When the State fails to preserve individual rights, terror inevitably becomes woven into the very fabric of society.

Lines from Lorca's "Llanto" show up at different places in the movie. The "Llanto" was a poem written after the death of Lorca's friend Ignacio Sanchez Mejias in the bull arena. Mejias had retired, had joined the world of the arts for a time, then returned to the ring, only to die after being gored by a bull. This helps tie the opening of the movie together with some of the climactic scenes towards the end.

The movie could have been more artistic, more poetic. Although Lorca wrote some great love poetry, the love interest in the movie does not live up to Lorca's romantic words. More could have been done with Lorca's theme of death throughout the movie, explicitly contrasting the life affirming ending. Although a powerful movie, it had room for improvement—perhaps explaining less and dancing more poetically with the viewers.

Five star subject matter with four star execution. I found the story far more powerful after having read Lorca and learned more about the Spanish civil war. Get a copy of the movie, get Lorca's "Selected Verse: a bilingual edition," edited by Maurer, read Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" and Bookchin's "The Spanish Anarchists: The Heroic Years." You'll never experience the world quite the same way again.

(If you'd like to dialogue about this movie, click on the "about me" link above & drop me an email. Thanks!)

A stellar performance by Andy Garcia and other American actors of Hispanic descent. The opening scene has Garcia, playing Lorca, reciting one of the Lorca's most moving poems "Death in the Afternoon" that sets the stage for the entire movie. It is an artistic film, but with drama and tension. I use it in my upper level university history course, and students, accustomed to mindless shoot-'em-ups, sit transfixed. Characters you can identify with, a history shrouded in mystery, dialog that has meaning, and scenes that capture the imagination. Film making like I thought we forgot how to make in the USA. Great stuff!

Marcos Zurinaga's "The Disappearance Of Garcia Lorca" has style and talent, if the script were a little stronger this would surely have been an exquisite masterpiece. Still, it's always interesting, intriguing and sometimes romantic. And yes, it's entertaining. But "The Disapperance Of Garcia Lorca" is important in another area which is that it brings to the screen the mystery behind the murder of one of the best known poets. Though it doesn't come alive as it would have with a director like Oliver Stone or Michael Mann, Zurinaga captures a romantic poetic feeling here, and a dark conspiratorial one too. Andy Garcia gives a convincing performance. The film itself is elegantly mounted in the sets, cinematography and costumes. This is good filmmaking with the promise of being greater. Like "American History X," "The Disappearance Of Garcia Lorca" would have benefited from being a 3 hour movie rather than try to cover so much in only two. Especially considering it's sources being two books by Ian Gibson, "The Assassination Of Garcia Lorca" and "Federico Garcia Lorca: A Life." Still, the movie is full of great performances and style. It's important because of it's history (though the ending leaves a lot of questions of it's theory of who killed Lorca). I recommend you read the Gibson books after watching the film or before, because to an extent the film can't survive without them. Some polishes to make a longer script and this would have been great cinema. It works, but doesn't reach it's peak of greatness. The real film of the conspiracy to kill Lorca is still yet to be made. Let's hope Oliver Stone's conspiracy juices start spinning again, this film by him would surely win Best Picture. In the end, "The Disapperance Of Garcia Lorca" is worth watching. Good film.

Strong, subtle work from a very adult, and altogether appealing Esai Morales is reason enough to see this film. He's one of the least appreciated actors in Hollywood. But the rest of the cast is impressive too: Andy Garcia as Lorca, Edward James Olmos, Miguel Ferrar, etc. etc. Stylish and elegant, poetic and evocative (the film was shot in Spain), it probably could have been better, but it was, for me, the best kind of film: One that never strays from the plausible, and one that has stayed with me, if not haunted me, since I saw it. Visceral, authentic, lovely, frightening, sad, with a tragic climax and extraordinarily true ending. Who killed Lorca? Who knows? This film helps keep him alive.

The story line was bad as everyone seems to agree but what they are overlooking is not the political conflict or the murder mystery that it was not. But more the influnce of the period and the writer that I seriosly doubt the average american could even begin to understand. Not that they are stupid, far from it, more that in a translation of a great poets works, the entire meaning is lost and it is left up to interpeation. The scenery was great the period was perfect but the poetic translations were very selective. Not once did anything Lorca do in the movie suggest any reason as to why he was killed. Why was he a threat, why was he feared and loved, nothing in the film even give a clue to the answers of these questions. More than likely not a good review because of the lack of violence and nudity and for to much power in the words of a great poet that truely loved his land and was one with the magic of his words and the splendure of the Spanish countryside. Read his works, understand his thinking and then the movie will be better to watch. Three stars for the outstanding job Andy Garcia did playing the controversial poet. Morales acted more than the role called for but Edward James Olmos was as always right on the money.

This film tells the story of a young Spanish journalist whose family has fled the chaos of the Spanish Civil War. Having met the brilliant but subversive writer Federico Garcia Lorca (well-played by Andy Garcia) as a child, the young man returns to Spain in the 1950s to investigate Lorca's mysterious disappearance and death in the early years of the War. He meets with a wall of resistance from the Fascist authorities, who are determined to keep him from uncovering the secret. Edward James Olmos plays an enigmatic former Fascist whose offer of help may be a trap. There is a dark, brooding quality to the film, which tells Lorca's story in flashbacks, and the tension builds steadily until the startling conclusion. All the performances are convincing, and the film effectively communicates the atmosphere of underlying tension and danger of a fascist state. An entertaining thriller that keeps you on the edge of the seat. END

Zurinaga's The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca is a stunningly brave film that captures the clash between a despotic government and one of the world's greatest poets. Andy Garcia's impassioned performance as the Spanish poet is brilliant and has been surprisingly undervalued by film critics. Esai Morales and Edward James Olmos also turn in Oscar-level performances. On the whole, this is an extremely important film for its penetrating portayal of despotism, its sensitive characterization of Lorca, its captivating plot, and its achievement as film art.

This attempt at explaining the fate of a great poet is just awful. Good period detail and a solid cast are assets, but the script does them all in. Unbearable!

Poor script and weak work from the usually strong Morales pretty much tank the film, but it's beautiful to look at and Garcia jubilantly recites Lorca's poetry. The good thing about this film is that it really made me aware of Lorca, an artist whose name I had known but whose work I had never read before seeing this movie. That alone is worth a star or two. I've discovered in my reading that Lorca was not as politically involved as this film intimates. See it, do some reading, make up your own mind.

Since this film was an intro. of sorts for me to Lorca, I am not in the position to comment, like some more knowlegeable reviewers are, about the historical accuracy or the adherence to the spirit of the man in the film. Nevertheless, here is my "twenty cents-worth":

Andy Garcia`s performance:

moving...I wish he had been given the chance to recite Lorca`s poetry in the original Spanish, with English subtitles provided...

The film in general:

Although I was pleased to see some familiar faces (Morales, Olmos, etc.) given meatier roles, I couldn`t help but feel that something was lacking. Does a man and woman hooking up in a film ALWAYS have to be treated as the crucial part of a film in order to hold the interest of the viewer, I tell you (after all, Morales` character was fictional, and Lorca was homosexual)?! The film, for me, couldn`t decide whether it was a coming-of-age story centering around Morales` character, or a mystery centering on the pursuit of the truth about the life and death of Lorca himself. Either path could have been pursued further and stand on its own, even, but I can`t help thinking that the twisting of the storylines would have been more richer if the characters had been fleshed out more. Having said that, I did find intriguing and heart-wrenching moments in the film, and it has peaked my interest in finding out more about Lorca-about both his life and his works. If the latter of the two was the purpose of the film, it has fulfilled itself to that extent for me.