Queimada [Burn!] **** (1969, Marlon Brando, Evaristo Márquez, Renato Salvatori) – Classic Movie Review 7962

Director Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1968 Queimada [Burn!] [Battle of the Antilles] is part epic adventure-drama, part critical account of British colonialism.

Pontecorvo’s sequel to his 1965 The Battle of Algiers tells the story of the British professional mercenary agent Sir William Walker, who is posted to the Island of Queimada in the Caribbean in the mid-1800s to open up trade with Britain and sparks a slave revolt. Much later he is sent again to deal with the rebels, who have now gained enough power to threaten British sugar interests.

Marlon Brando’s riveting performance as Walker, the intelligence of the screenplay by Franco Solinas and Giorgio Arlorio, the beautifully photographed scenery shot in Technicolor by cinematographer Marcello Gatti, and Ennio Morricone’s score all combine to make up for some slow and fairly dull patches that recall dull history lessons from school.

Brando claimed it was ‘the best acting I’ve ever done’.

It runs 132 minutes (now restored) but the US version is cut to 112 minutes.

Also in the cast are Renato Salvatori, Norman Hill, Evaristo Marquéz,
Dana Ghia, Carlo Palmucci and Tom Lyons.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7962

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