With “Cesar Chavez” and “Cantinflas,” movies about famous Latino figures have taken flight this year. The latest of these is about Simón Bolívar, who liberated Latin America from the grip of its Spanish colonizers in the early nineteenth century.
“They massacred and enslaved this continent for 300 years,” shouts Bolívar in one of the many heroic speeches in the film. “This is not a war nor a rebellion. It is a revolution that means to erase the boundaries that the Spaniards set, to unify the continent.”
“The Liberator” is a Spanish-Venezuelan production with an estimated $50 million budget, a film that outspent the $10 million American-produced film “Cesar Chavez,” and the $3.5 million Mexican-produced “Cantinflas.” The film is Venezuela’s Oscar candidate for best foreign film.
Armed with a formidable budget, the film boasts high-value production—aerial shots, great battles scenes, 10,000 extras, 6,000 different costumes and 69 days of shooting in American and European countries.
Directed by Alberto Arvelo, “The Liberator” is a sober interpretation of Bolívar by Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez, who bestowed us with his memorable role starring as ‘El Chacal’ Ilich Ramirez Sanchez in the TV miniseries “Carlos” (2010). The film also showcases an epic and grandiose musical score by composer Gustavo Dudamel, director of the Venezuelan Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Bolívar united men and women, rich and poor, creoles, Indians, blacks and mestizos during a historical period that saw the American continent yearning for emancipation, a desire that was inspired by the recent French and American revolutions.
“We must bring a torrential rain to sweep away the arrogance, the claiming, the extortion, the indolence and indifference of those who
have oppressed us for so many years,” said Bolívar. “This continent is waiting for a flood, a flood that eventually flow towards freedom. And we are the ones who will bring that flood, and that flood begins today.”
Over the course of two hours, “The Liberator” compresses Bolívar’s epic liberation campaign from 1800 until his death in 1830—including his comfortable upbringing that was influenced by the master Simón Rodriguez, his brief marriage to a Spanish aristocrat, the first battles alongside General Miranda, his exile to New Granada, the British invasion of revolutionary enterprise, and his campaign through the Andes.
After engaging in more than 100 battles, the victorious Bolívar presided over what came to be known as the “Great Colombia” for 10 years—comprising the current countries of Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia and parts of Guyana, Brazil, Peru and Nicaragua. But the Pan-American dream was wrecked as a result of regional strongmen and their personal interests.
“The Liberator” has a typical commercial film structure—a narrative cut short with the constant succession of planes accompanied by music¬—and feels like fruit that was cut green and pretty, but has no taste.
The film seems intended for foreign audiences more so than those of Latin America. Its primary objective is to entertain and look pretty, which it achieves. The secondary objective is to inform others on who Bolívar was.
For the San Francisco public, “The Liberator” should help in recognizing the statue of the man mounted on a horse that sits next to the main branch of the public library where every year the Latin American consulates located in this city offer flowers commemorating their country’s independence and to honor their liberator: Simón Bolívar.
“The Liberator” is showing at Century Theaters in San Francisco, San Rafael and Sacramento, as well at Maya Cinemas in Pittsburgh and Salinas.
