{"id":24682,"date":"2014-10-06T17:10:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T00:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/?p=24682"},"modified":"2014-10-10T15:06:07","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T22:06:07","slug":"bolivar-biopic-is-well-produced-but-lacking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/en\/bolivar-biopic-is-well-produced-but-lacking\/","title":{"rendered":"Bol\u00edvar biopic is well-produced but lacking"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fotograma
Still from\u00a0‘Libertador’ courtesy Cohen Media Group.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With \u201cCesar Chavez\u201d and \u201cCantinflas,\u201d movies about famous Latino figures have taken flight this year. The latest of these is about Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar, who liberated Latin America from the grip of its Spanish colonizers in the early nineteenth century.<\/p>\n

“They massacred and enslaved this continent for 300 years,” shouts Bol\u00edvar 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.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Liberator\u201d is a Spanish-Venezuelan production with an estimated $50 million budget, a film that outspent the $10 million American-produced film \u201cCesar Chavez,\u201d and the $3.5 million Mexican-produced \u201cCantinflas.\u201d The film is Venezuela\u2019s Oscar candidate for best foreign film.<\/p>\n

Armed with a formidable budget, the film boasts high-value production\u2014aerial shots, great battles scenes, 10,000 extras, 6,000 different costumes and 69 days of shooting in American and European countries.<\/p>\n

Directed by Alberto Arvelo, \u201cThe Liberator\u201d is a sober interpretation of Bol\u00edvar by Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez, who bestowed us with his memorable role starring as \u2018El Chacal\u2019 Ilich Ramirez Sanchez in the TV miniseries \u201cCarlos\u201d (2010). The film also showcases an epic and grandiose musical score by composer Gustavo Dudamel, director of the Venezuelan Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.<\/p>\n

Bol\u00edvar 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.\"\"<\/p>\n

“We must bring a torrential rain to sweep away the arrogance, the claiming, the extortion, the indolence and indifference of those who
\nhave oppressed us for so many years,” said Bol\u00edvar. “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.”<\/p>\n

Over the course of two hours, \u201cThe Liberator\u201d compresses Bol\u00edvar\u2019s epic liberation campaign from 1800 until his death in 1830\u2014including his comfortable upbringing that was influenced by the master Sim\u00f3n 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.<\/p>\n

After engaging in more than 100 battles, the victorious Bol\u00edvar presided over what came to be known as the \u201cGreat Colombia\u201d for 10 years\u2014comprising 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Liberator\u201d has a typical commercial film structure\u2014a narrative cut short with the constant succession of planes accompanied by music\u00ac\u2014and feels like fruit that was cut green and pretty, but has no taste.<\/p>\n

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 Bol\u00edvar was.<\/p>\n

For the San Francisco public, \u201cThe Liberator\u201d 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\u2019s independence and to honor their liberator: Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar.<\/p>\n

“The Liberator” is showing at Century Theaters in San Francisco, San Rafael and Sacramento, as well at Maya Cinemas in Pittsburgh and Salinas.<\/p>\n