19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
beautiful, June 17, 2004
By A Customer
A very beautiful and well-acted movie about a rural town in Spain where the Civil War didn't end after Franco took Madrid. A young woman returns to her family town in the mountains to live with her aunt and finds herself in the middle of a bitter revenge-filled guerilla war between the "dead-ender" republicans in the mountains and the Franquist Civil Guard. All the people she loves seem trapped by destinies they can't or won't escape, ending either in front of a firing squad or living without hope.
In a time when most american movies seem filled with violence and sadism and computer glitz, it's great to find a movie like this that tells a story well and deeply.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Movie, especially for 'left wing' europeans, June 18, 2005
This review is from: Silencio Roto [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I loved this movie so much. I did not know much about 'los maquis' but I knew a lot about 'partigiani' which are the Italian fighters against the Mussolini's men. I thought that, since Spain had had a civil war to get rid of Franco, and did not make it, that was it. Watching this movie I learned that that was not it. Brave men and women had tried to resist the Spanish dictator, as Italians, and to a less extent - whatever it is believed outside Europe- French people had done, Hiding up in the mountains and fighting for their ideas, fighting to get their friends free.
Montxo Armendàriz has done a great work again. Maybe a little slow for American people, it flows perfectly for European eyes. Very realistic, the story is very believable.
The actors, most young, did an excellent job. But, as two of them Juan y Marìa Botto, were trained by the actress who also trained Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, this comes as no surprise. Lucìa Jimenez, the main character, and Carmen Sanpietro, who plays tha aunt, render the feeling of fear and suspect almost touchable. You feel the pressure they had to feel those days. Juan Diego Botto gives the idea of being thorn between fighting for what he believes and living the joys of family life very well in the scene that takes place in the kitchen, and his siter Marìa, which usually is a very talented comedy actress, demonstrates she is great in dramatic roles as well, showing how the desire of fighting for your your ideas can fade away when those you love are sistematically killed.
One last word about the musical score. It's only one piece played differently, but it gives you goosebumps.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
As a substitute for hard-to-find 'Ay, Carmela!', you could do better, May 5, 2007
I went looking for the great Spanish Civil War movie '¡Ay, Carmela!' only to find out (¡Que Lastima!) that there's no US-compatible DVD release of that Carmen Maura film. If you can somehow get your hands on that one, it'll be worth your time and effort to track down.
However, Amazon's recommendation engine suggested I take a look at 'Silencio Roto' which, I guess, strives to be the great post-Spanish Civil War film. As the product description (see Amazon's intro) notes, 'Roto' follows "guerrilla warriors hidden in the mountains, who do not accept Franco's triumph." Given that Franco was firmly entrenched in power until his death in 1975, it's not difficult to predict a denouement not advantageous to the film's protagonists.
'Roto' is a good, not great, film. However, without some historical understanding of the Spanish Civil War, I believe the casual but earnest viewer will lose the plot or their interest fairly quickly.
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