I had such high hopes for this movie, remembering it from television in my childhood. Sadly, what suited a child does not suit the adult. It's a stage play, based on the interaction between two men. Take away the scenery - mostly BBC-style indoor shots of stone walls and odd-shaped windows that you just know look out onto nothing - and you might as well have two men on chairs on a stage, chatting to each other. It may look good on a small stage, with a hushed audience dwelling on every word as other bit parts come and go around the main characters, but on the big screen?
The strangeness of the Incas is portrayed quite well; their actions and society may seem ludicrous to us but they lived with a god and dwelt on his every word. Take away that reverence, that awe for what to us is really only another man, and it seems almost laughable to an outsider. This is what fails to work for me - we find the Incas funny. There is no seriousness, no depth to their culture, no sign of their barbarity or rigid social structure, just men in funny clothes who act as either madmen or slaves. Atahualpa himself talks gibberish, and then, magically, almost fluent Spanish / English.
The Spanish themselves are too well fed, too cleanly dressed. Well groomed, clean clothes, not a hint of stubble or greasy hair. Contrast with Pizarro in 'Aguirre Wrath of God' and you'll see the more accurate version of sweaty, filthy, underfed men, greedy for gold in a foreign land. It just doesn't work.
There is one scene of violence - I hesitate to call it a battle as the Incas do not fight back - set to jaunty Spanish flamenco music; no drama, no accuracy, no tension, in fact no real danger, just a little throwaway scene where we get rid of a few hundred extras and then back to the dreary interaction between Atahualpa and Pizarro. There is no sense of the threat faced by the Conquistadors as they hold their prisoner, surrounded by the entire Inca nation, just the certain knowledge that they'll do nothing, which suits the entire mood of the film.
I bought the DVD version which has utterly terrible picture quality and spent a lot of the movie in fast forward, during which nothing moves other than the jaws of the main characters in their interminable dialogue. As a fan of historical movies I had high hopes for this one but sadly it's just a long, and boring, play, given grandeur beyond its' station.
The strangeness of the Incas is portrayed quite well; their actions and society may seem ludicrous to us but they lived with a god and dwelt on his every word. Take away that reverence, that awe for what to us is really only another man, and it seems almost laughable to an outsider. This is what fails to work for me - we find the Incas funny. There is no seriousness, no depth to their culture, no sign of their barbarity or rigid social structure, just men in funny clothes who act as either madmen or slaves. Atahualpa himself talks gibberish, and then, magically, almost fluent Spanish / English.
The Spanish themselves are too well fed, too cleanly dressed. Well groomed, clean clothes, not a hint of stubble or greasy hair. Contrast with Pizarro in 'Aguirre Wrath of God' and you'll see the more accurate version of sweaty, filthy, underfed men, greedy for gold in a foreign land. It just doesn't work.
There is one scene of violence - I hesitate to call it a battle as the Incas do not fight back - set to jaunty Spanish flamenco music; no drama, no accuracy, no tension, in fact no real danger, just a little throwaway scene where we get rid of a few hundred extras and then back to the dreary interaction between Atahualpa and Pizarro. There is no sense of the threat faced by the Conquistadors as they hold their prisoner, surrounded by the entire Inca nation, just the certain knowledge that they'll do nothing, which suits the entire mood of the film.
I bought the DVD version which has utterly terrible picture quality and spent a lot of the movie in fast forward, during which nothing moves other than the jaws of the main characters in their interminable dialogue. As a fan of historical movies I had high hopes for this one but sadly it's just a long, and boring, play, given grandeur beyond its' station.