Death in Granada (1997)

The fate of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca under the brutal Franco regime is the subject of this political thriller. Esai Morales plays an expatriate writer named Ricardo who returns to his hometown Granada in 1954 to find out what happened to Lorca (Andy Garcia), his boyhood hero. With Franco's forces still in power, Ricardo meets a lot of official resistance, takes a few beatings, and defies the wishes of his own host (Jeroen Krabbé), an army colonel who was thickly involved in the torture and assassinations of the 1936 revolution. The closer the intrepid journalist gets to the truth of Lorca's disappearance, however, the more gray that truth becomes, and the more obscure the line between heroism and villainy. This film by Marcos Zurinaga suffers from a bit of miscalculation--Morales's character is simply not interesting enough to hold the center of the story and be our window into the great Lorca--but it is nonetheless startling and tragic in its revelation of complicated truths. As Lorca, Garcia is the picture of nobility, and supporting roles by Krabbé, Edward James Olmos, and Miguel Ferrer add a great deal of dramatic texture. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

Wonderful movie

This was one of the best movies I have seen. The flashback technique was somewhat like Mulholland Drive, but the viewer was allowed to achieve total understanding at the end. (Although it might take a couple of viewings to really understand.) Every actor and scene contributed to the mystery which gradually illuminated complicated political, social, artistic, and psychological truths in the search for the answer to a seemingly simple question. The acting was fantastic as were the music and the settings, and the dialogue. Each complimented the other. There was some gestalt in the ending and Andy Garcia's portrayal of Lorca was courageous, sad, intelligent, and sensitive. It definitly inspires a second or third viewing, purchase of the soundtrack and Llorca's poetry. Also politcally pertinent even today. October 3, 2006

Informative

I loved the movie "The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca" mainly because of its respect for its subject matter, which is the great Spanish poet, Garcia Lorca. I had just read some of his poetry while taking a World Literature course, and I absolutely fell in love with this poet. Therefore, I wanted to know more aobut his life and the circumstances revolving around his suspicious death. The movie answered a lot of my questions in an entertaining, yet informative manner.


September 10, 2005

Very Moving, if not completely historically correct

This movie was very good. Given that, yes, some of the lines were cheesy and there were some questionable characters(the cab driver and Gabino). Nevertheless, this movie did bring to life the lives that Lorca touched and the beauty of his work. Andy Garcia gave a wonderful performance and his acting was so touching. The only thing that irritated me was that there was a sex scene. I know the old saying,"Sex sells" but come on! This was not a pornographic movie. This was about a poet and his death. I didn't particularly want to see Esai Morales "get it on" with a childhood friend. That was unnecessary. Otherwise, I was moved and inspired by this movie. I bawled my bloody eyes out at the end. Good movie. Please watch it. April 11, 2004

Useless Song

This is one of those movies where everybody shouts, weeps, cries and overacts in all sorts of ways in order to mask a lousy script. If you look beyond the politically correct platitudes, there's lots of worn clichés to be acknowledged:

* There's the Fairy Godmother disguised as a friendly local serviceman -a consierge, a doorman (Bob Newhart in "Legally Blonde 2") or, in this case, a cab driver- who happens to know everything and everybody, and who's always there to assist the young hero in times of trouble.
* There's the mysterious villain who's not what appears to be, and there's the helpful character who will show his evil colors in due time.
* There's the gorgeous unknown actress who'll perform the pre-requisite nude scene to pay for her shot at stardom.
* There's the habitual scene where the girl discovers her beloved dad is actually an unspeakable monster.
* There's the mandatory bullfight -present in all political movies set in Spain or Mexico- with the ensuing parallel scenes between the bull being killed and the victim being murdered.
* And there's the awful final scene, complete with its ridiculous plot-twist, where everything comes out in the open. Quite predictable, really.

If you're interested in who Lorca was and how was he murdered, allow me to save you some time (perhaps even money):

At the time of his death, Federico García Lorca was an international superstar; Spain's most renowned avant-garde poet. Contrary to what is shown in the film, he was not a political writer. In fact, he had lots of friends and fans in both sides of the conflict precisely because he wasn't, including one José Antonio Primo de Rivera, head of the Falange -the Spanish fascists. Politicians everywhere paid Lorca lip service and hoped to have him on their side. The Left even considered him a national living treasure.

The Spanish Civil War was the long bloody aftermath of a failed coup d'état attempted by the Right in 1936. Although it did not overthrow the legitimate government overnight, it caught everyone off guard: people were astounded as to the magnitude of the conspiracy and no one was above suspicion.

On the eve of the uprising, Lorca made a surprise visit to his hometown Granada, deep in the south of Spain -a zone that would turn for Franco from the very begining. That journey raised a lot of eyebrows among the intellectual circles of Madrid: What was Lorca doing there? And why? And why just now? Was he against the Republic? Had he joined the traitors?

Rafael Alberti, a communist writer and personal friend of Lorca, hotly denied such gossip, going as far as to say on the air that Lorca not only had always been a commited revolutionary, but that he was actually doing some work there for the loyalists. That broadcast sealed Lorca's fate, for he was arrested that very night (at the house of a fascist friend) and promptly assasinated in secrecy (a common practice to both sides of that war).

No side rejoiced over that murder. Certainly not Franco's, for it was a heavy PR setback to his cause. Later on he would even exploit the Lorca cult to suit his needs, leaking that the falangists (no longer in high favour) were to blame for the crime. They in turn blamed the Catholics, and the Church blamed "the war". To this day no one knows for sure who did it or why.

There were no witnesses to come forward, no anonymous account of what happened. The movie's (preposterous) execution scene is somewhat based upon the poem Antonio Machado composed on Lorca's wake:

"Se le vio, caminando entre fusiles,
por una calle larga,
salir al campo frío,
aún con estrellas, de la madrugada.
Mataron a Federico
cuando la luz asomaba.
El pelotón de verdugos
no osó mirarle la cara..."

These few lines do Lorca more justice than two wasted hours of fake eulogy. Read the guy, skip this bomb. August 27, 2003

Lorca fan

This film is a complete failure. The film never seems to commit itself to taking an actual stand on Lorca's death. The charectors are a banal typecast and hypothesis of what Spain suffered under the Franco regime. The actors are miscast as Spaniards. First Lorca was just over feet tall and pretty ugly by his own accounts. Andy Garcia is tall and handsome, kind of misleading no? They could have at least used some camera tricks to disguise this. The film's holds little historical accuracy and is unengaging. If one wants a better perspective on Spain durring the civil war, I woulds say "Silencio Roto," or even the Orwell inspired "Land and Freedom." June 24, 2003

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