This film is an accurate representation of the volatile Spanish character when a simple discussion on personal differences turns into a heated-up argument and finally into a bloody vendetta. Family feuds, envy, jealousy, political differences, often spiral out of control. Then someone blows a fuse, grabs a shotgun or a knife or a scythe and goes out on a rampage. He makes the 9 o'clock news, and the next day front pages all over the country. It has happened too many times in the past, and it still happens today.
With the use of the barren, bleached landscape, and the economic and very effective b/w cinematography Saura masterly builds up the sweltering hot and oppressive atmosphere in which the characters soon begin to lose their hair and get grouchy by the slightest thing. Friendly discussions gradually turn into serious arguments, voices increasingly get sharper and louder, the guys get bitchy, tearing one another to ribs the moment the other is not around, the buried ghosts of the Civil War begin to wake up, long forgotten scores suddenly surface, the scorching heat, the boredom, the annoying constant sound of the cicadas, the amounts of alcohol they drink throughout the day, the loaded guns, the ecstasy of the kill obtained from the early butchery of rabbits by the dozen, the scars of the Civil War, you are fed up with this loser who has been whining for the last thirty years, you are jealous of that rich bastard who brought financial ruin upon your father and now is your employer, those two fought the war on different sides... It was all a time bomb ready to go off. And when it does, it's Armageddon. An unforgettable film, and to me, Saura's best.
With the use of the barren, bleached landscape, and the economic and very effective b/w cinematography Saura masterly builds up the sweltering hot and oppressive atmosphere in which the characters soon begin to lose their hair and get grouchy by the slightest thing. Friendly discussions gradually turn into serious arguments, voices increasingly get sharper and louder, the guys get bitchy, tearing one another to ribs the moment the other is not around, the buried ghosts of the Civil War begin to wake up, long forgotten scores suddenly surface, the scorching heat, the boredom, the annoying constant sound of the cicadas, the amounts of alcohol they drink throughout the day, the loaded guns, the ecstasy of the kill obtained from the early butchery of rabbits by the dozen, the scars of the Civil War, you are fed up with this loser who has been whining for the last thirty years, you are jealous of that rich bastard who brought financial ruin upon your father and now is your employer, those two fought the war on different sides... It was all a time bomb ready to go off. And when it does, it's Armageddon. An unforgettable film, and to me, Saura's best.