Reviews

I don't disagree with the view that the subject is quite appropriate for a movie but displays quite gruesome violence, almost senseless for an artistic product. The scenes leading to the execution of the sentence are particularly distressing are particularly lengthy, the sentence itself is really perturbing for such a kind of movie. Other than that the movie is supposed to accurately reflect the violent times around 1970 in the Western World, and hopefully does achieve that target. Have to admit that, however, good acting and good direction are displayed throughout the movie, the main weakness of the movie can be found in the script only.

The movie is very good, technically speaking. The script, the shooting and the final cut deserves much more attention that it probably had, considering that is an Argentine film.

I disagree, however, with Mrs. Velazquez comment in what it concerns the subject of the movie in relation to the last dictatorship. I think no link between the subject of the movie and the dictatorship could be made, except for what regards the old couple that hired the services of one of the female protagonists for shooting out scenes of the everyday life with a camera, and herself being a daughter of desaparecidos. But that is in itself not the main stream of the subject the movie is meant to address. Rather, the movie is a portrait about everyday life in a Buenos Aires overwhelmed by the dramatic shift in values, decadence, domestic social (and somewhat racial) non-resolved issues, and people's spirit of survival against all odds, as result of the profound social and economical crisis that -though the economical side of it was not particularly evident at the time the film was shot- it could be seen it was coming up.

I wouldn't disagree with the previous comment by a fellow Argentinian, but I think that beyond the scarcity of the script I'd rescue from it the director's attempt to show how life can be so different 100 Km away from the big city. The entire plot is quite predictable and extremely simple, and it almost end up in being a movie for nostalgic. However, I'm still thinking it is a good go to portray Argentine life outside the Argentina's "common subjects for foreigners" (Buenos Aires, Desaparecidos, Tango, Football and Patagonia) and to make good cinema without falling in the easy trading side of it. This and other recent somewhat independent films make some resemblance with the Italian Neo-realism of 1955-1965, possibly not that shinny or innovative from the direction's point of view but yet remarkably good scripts, and performances: Pure form of art achievable with limited budget.

Impossible not to recognise much of the idionsincrasy of the Argentinian people in Olmedo's characthers, in addition I would say he was one of the few who actually foresaw one of the darkest periods in the recent socio-economical history of Argentina. Among "Esperando La Carroza", "La clinica del Dr. Cureta" and others of this genre, El Manosanta is a must see.

I do also believe that people tend to think Olmedo was only a public clown but his sense of humour and accuracy to represent the Argentinians to cinema was an ability shared by a very very few number of people. In that sense, I also think the posterity has misregarded him as a valid exponent of what it should have been more than a laugh about themselves.