Seabiscuit

(2003)

Storyline - It's the Depression, and everyone needs to hold onto a dream to get them through the bad times.

Car maker Charles Howard is no different, he who is trying to rebuild his life after the tragic death of his only child and the resulting end of his first marriage. With second wife Marcela at his side, Charles wants to get into horse racing and ends up with a team of underdogs who are also chasing their own dream.

The first is trainer Tom Smith, who has a natural instinct to spot the capabilities of horses.

The second is the horse Tom chooses for Charles, Seabiscuit, an unconventional choice as despite his pedigreed lineage, Seabiscuit is small at fifteen and a half hands tall with a slight limp. But Tom can see something in Seabiscuit's nature to make him a winner, if only Seabiscuit can be retrained from his inbred losing ways.

And third is the jockey they decide to hire, Johnny "Red" Pollard, so nicknamed because of his hair color.

Like Tom, Red has always shown a natural way with horses, but a difficult upbringing due solely to the Depression has made Red an angry young man, which has gotten him into trouble both on and off the track. And he is large for a jockey, and thus he always feels the need to battle the weight issue. Another common trait between Tom, Seabiscuit and Red is that they have been called crazy by those in traditional horse racing circles.

Against the odds, Seabiscuit, with his human team behind him, does show his winning abilities and captures the imagination of all those others wanting to believe in a dream. But Seabiscuit's victories are at smaller races.

As such, Charles aims high and wants Seabiscuit to race Triple Crown winner War Admiral, who by all accounts is a winner and should be a winner. If given the chance to race against War Admiral (whose owner doesn't want to race as he feels he has nothing to prove), will Seabiscuit and his team continue to keep the dreams of the common Americans alive?

Through the good and the bad, especially as Red and Seabiscuit face mirroring problems, they all have to decide what is in their collective best interest.

Seabiscuit is one of my all time favorite movies. Along with many others I would imagine seeing as it is the only film I've seen where in the theatre the audience actually applauded at the end.

I especially enjoyed the scenes that took place in the border town Tijuana. One of which was at the Tijuana plaza de toros where Charles Howard has his first conversation with his soon to be second wife, Marcela.

A Matador's Mistress

2008

Storyline - "A Matador's Mistress" is a tragically eloquent dance of the cold brutality of uncommitted love and the high stakes of the Bullfight. Immerse yourself in the culture of Spain surrounding the age old traditions of the Matador. While the bullfight is controversial by today's standards, the ancient art-form is depicted with unflinching realism. The story is of man against beast, the bullfighter's zen, if you will; his nightly dance with death. A world-class lover enters his world; their code is their truth. Life being lived, edgy, relentlessly flirting with disaster, untamed, beautiful.

         
Staring Adrien Brody as Manolete (the best bullfighter to ever live some say,) and Penelope Cruz as his lover Lupe Sino, this film got quite a bit of hype I remember because of these two actors.

Sadly, I don't think the film ever lived up to they hype.

I did buy the DVD when it came out though and I watch it every once in awhile, I think it is a decent movie.

The problem the film seems to have, at least to me, is it doesn't know what it wants to be. A film about bullfighting, a love story, a documentary of sorts, what?

Good example, the final bullfight scene where Manolete is gored, and ultimately dies from that injury, the bullfight scene is interrupted by scenes of him and Lupe having awkward sex, and then there are also scenes of Lupe driving away in her sports car but crying as if she knows what is happening to Manolete in the plaza.

It was hard to watch, a very well filmed bullfight scene was being interrupted by weirdness.

Oh well, it is what it is.

I still recommend it for the bullfight fans out there.

City Slickers

1991

 

Storyline - Mitch is a middle aged big-city radio ads salesman. He and his friends Ed and Phil are having mid-life crisis. They decide the best birthday gift is to go on a two week holiday in the wild west driving cattle from New Mexico to Colorado. There they meet cowboy Curly who not only teaches them how to become real cowboys, but also one or two other things about life in the open air of the west.

 



I saw this film in the theatre with my friends and we loved it, it was well made and very funny throughout.

The opening scene takes place during the Pamplona bull run. Of course to anyone who knows anything about the running of the bulls you can easily tell that the scenes with the actors took place on a back lot somewhere in Hollywood and the bulls they were running with were not toros bravos.

But I do give them credit for filming an entertaining scene and they did weave actual encierro footage to add to it's realism.

And I don't know how many days they had to film to get one particular shot but as you can see in the above photo they actually had someone dressed in a New York Mets uniform and hat run perfectly "in the horns" for an unforgettable addition to the scene.

One final hats off to the film is a classic line that actor Bruno Kirby says describing Jack Palance's character Curly.

"This guy is a cowboy, one of the last real men. He's untamed, a mustang. We're trained ponies, it will do us good to be in his world for awhile."

Trailer for documentary "Gored"

I recently watched this documentary, which is currently available on Netflix, which covers the life, career, and retirement of Antonio Barrera.

It wasn't bad, it wasn't great, but it was definitely worth the time.

It does have an amazing scene of a "portagayola" Antonio performs at his last bullfight which took place in Leon Mexico on December 12th, 2012.

At times it tries to be too "artsy" when I would rather just see some well filmed bullfight action or maybe some rarely seen behind-the-scenes action.

But if you are a student of la corrida like I am then it is a must see since we don't too often get to see bullfight material here in the US.

The Mask of Zorro

1998

 

Storyline - The original Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega, is captured and imprisoned just as Spain concedes California to Santa Anna. 20 years go by and his mortal enemy, Don Rafael Montero, returns to California with a plan to become wealthy at the expense of the peasants. The original Zorro escapes from prison and trains a new Zorro to take his place. Much swashbuckling and derring-do ensues.

 

 

One of my all time favorite movies.

 

One reason, I always thought Antonio Banderas would make a perfect Zorro and he did. And two, I was introduced to Catherine Zeta-Jones who I immediately fell in love with. And the sword fight scene in the stables between Zorro and Elena is Hollywood gold.

 

No real tauromaquia in this film but there is nice painting on the wall of the stables of a Mexican cowboy and a horse and bull.

 

And when Catherine Zeta-Jones says "Andalucía" in the above scene it absolutely melts in your ears.

 

 

 





Arena

 





Encierro

 

(sanfermin.com 12-16-12)

 

The web RTVE has issued some advanced information in a promotion of the film Encierro - Bull Running in Pamplona. This film shows the running of the bulls and the Sanfermin fiestas in 3D and it has been listed for the Goya Awards of 2013 in 8 categories. According to what the web page states, this "spectacular feature-length documentary narrates the running of the bulls from the viewpoint of the runners who take part in the annual event in Pamplona during the fiestas of San Fermín (from the 7th to the 14th of July) /.../ with Miguel Ángel, Paco, Miguel, Joe and Noel, five fanatics of the running of the bulls and who allow us an intimate look at what it means to them to run in the event as they share their reasons, their fears and their experiences." In addition, we can see some of the images used to promote the feature film and which we can absorb, but which belong to the work of the RTVE national channel.

The critical reviews from RTVE about the content states that he Running of the Bulls is a "documentary full of action and emotion, filled with tension but also of beauty, with a spectacular narrative sequence and some images never before captured and all provided by the latest cameras of High Velocity 3D. A special camera was also used which was hung at a height of 270 meters across the center of Estafeta Street as it filmed the bulls and runners below. In order to transmit the spectacular images in the most impressive manner possible, the film was shot in 3D stereoscope, which proved to be a technological challenge for the cameramen. In addition, due to the fact that the running only happens over eight days annually and the difficulties presented by the 3D technology, the shooting was carried out over the years 2009, 2010, 2011 y 2012."

The film has been produced by Enrique Urdánoz, Manuel Cristóbal, María Cabanas, Salvador Puig and Jose Luis Rubio from D4D Ingeniería Visual and REC, under the director, Olivier Van der Zee.

 

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Update

 

The film, at least at the moment, can be seen here on YouTube:

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpMj7_tMPTI&t=3901s



The Quick and the Dead

(1995)

Ellen, an unknown female gunslinger rides into a small, dingy and depressing prairie town with a secret as to her reason for showing up. Shortly after her arrival, a local preacher, Cort, is thrown through the saloon doors while townfolk are signing up for a gun competition. The pot is a huge sum of money and the only rule: that you follow the rules of the man that set up the contest, Herod. Herod is also the owner, leader, and "ruler" of the town. Seems he's arranged this little gun-show-off so that the preacher (who use to be an outlaw and rode with Herod) will have to fight again. Cort refuses to ever use a gun to kill again and Herod, acknowledging Cort as one of the best, is determined to alter this line of thinking ... even if it gets someone killed ...

A classic film in my book, directed by Sam Raimi and staring Sharon Stone and Gene Hackman.

What does this movie have to do with bullfighting? Nothing.

Although the movie does somewhat stir up the same emotions as a bullfight with it's "quick-draw competition" and the possibility of death if one is not quick enough to survive. Plus, the film is set in the 1800's on the Western frontier, a place where bullfights did occasionally occur.

But I wanted to save this photo from my favorite scene and part of an interview of Lance Henriksen who played Ace Hanlon, one of the characters from the film that really steals the show.

This article is from John Kenneth Muir's blog "Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV"

Here is the link to the full article;

http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2011/05/lance-henriksen-interview-on-quick-and.html

On his first day working with Gene Hackman:

HENRIKSEN: There were some very funny moments on that set.  I believed that I was this guy so much that when Gene Hackman and I did our first scene together, Sam put the camera on the ground and said to Gene, "you step up in front of the lens like this, with your legs spread."  Through his legs, you see Ace Hanlon standing there, taking a bow for what he just did. 

And Hackman said, "What is that?  What's that mean?  That's just a camera shot, right?"  He says, "I'm going to walk to him."

And I said, "Gene, wait a minute."

I'd never worked with Hackman before, and I waited twenty years to work with him, and I said, "Gene, don't walk to me.  Let me walk to you.  It makes you stronger.  If you walk to me, you're weaker, so let me walk to you."   And then I did that little turn where I said "I'm the best you'll ever see." 

But I remember after the day was over, I said, "what the fuck did I just do?  You don't tell Gene Hackman where to walk!"  But he held his ground.  It was that kind of environment where I was so much "the guy" that there was no ego involved.  If he'd told me to fuck off, it would have been all right.

Bullfight films



 I'm always on the lookout for anything bullfight related when it comes to movies, documentaries, etc.

 

Sadly there is not much out there, at least here in the US.

 

But anything I do find I will post it here in this section for everyone to see and check out on their own if they so wish.