Salvador (2006) Reviews

• Time travel into Spanish Democratical Transition

  enricopg2006-09-15

  By watching Salvador you can move less than thirty years back and discover or remember, depending on your age, Spain during the latest days of Franco's regime. Those were times where things were changing, but to some others of them it had to take longer. Salvador Puig Antich will be forever remembered as the last person to be executed in Spain. In the movie, the anarchist Puig Antich is played by the German actor Daniel Brühl. The fact that his mother is Spanish allows him to act speaking in both Spanish and Catalan. Nonetheless, one of the greatest achievements of the film is that it shows how both languages are used in Catalonia. Daniel Brühl's performance is flawless, you could sense his fears, passions,... The rest of the cast, including Leonardo Sbaraglia or Leonor Watling among many others, adds up quality to the film. "Salvador" is a great movie. 9 / 10.

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• Realistic Story + Perfect Drama

  sempreendavant2006-10-02

  This movie is in fact two movies. The first one tells Salvador Puig Antich's life. Explains how he became involved in the resistance against Franco dictatorship and his beginnings in the criminal life. This way, the movie doesn't try to make him look like a saint, because he wasn't, and at the same time justifies him somehow, realistically showing the cruelty and repression that take place in the last years of Franco's life. The other movie tells Salvador's last 12 hours. The relationship with his family, his friends and his enemies. And his cruel execution. This part is 100% Drama, and very well made one. Its almost 45 minutes of holding tears, jumping from a touching scene to a more touching one. Some of the weak points of the first part are finally justified to help this last devastating dramatization. The main actors make a great job, specially Leonardo Sbaraglia, Daniel Brühl and Tristán Ulloa. Although the last one sounds a little too weird when he talks Catalan. The main problem of the movie is that the plot isn't thick enough. It tells a simple story of a simple boy and don't get to fully explore the characters minds. But it gets close.

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• great movie!!!

  ilaria-52006-12-27

  I was really caught by the story - a story which I didn't know, and which is hardly known outside Spain and even Catalogne, as the director explained in a festival here in Italy where the film was presented. The last years of life of Salvador Puig Antich, the Spanish anarchic activist, who became the last prisoner of the Franchist regime to be executed. The rhythm is fantastic, energetic and dynamic, thanks to a very suggestive photography and the use of vivid images. The music supports the high tone of the events. The last part involves the spectator in a "crescendo" of emotions, slowing down the rhythm while approaching to the inevitable end. No political claims, no moralistic lessons. A well shot, thrilling, emotional movie!

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• The cruelty of one of Europe's last dictatorships

  Lola332007-02-05

  I was lucky to get into a screening of "Salvador" at a German film festival and saw it with English subtitles. This movie transports us back in time to the era of the Spanish Franco dictatorship. Yet, it's not so much a history lesson as a universal plea against death penalty – one of the most powerful ones that I've ever seen in cinema. The film tells the story of Salvador Puig Antich, one of the last political prisoners to be murdered by the Franco regime in 1974. Salvador certainly isn't an innocent victim. He is an anarchist involved in armed bank robberies and when they finally catch him, a policeman dies in a shootout. However, he never receives a fair trial and the method of execution they apply for him is nothing short of barbaric. The garrotte, once a standard device for execution in Spain, resembles a medieval torture instrument where the delinquent is strangled with an iron collar. Salvador's execution is shown in the movie, but it isn't done in a sensationalist way. Much more haunting to watch is the period before it happens – the desperate tries to save Salvador's life by his lawyer and the last visits by his sisters. It's largely thanks to the protagonist that the film works so well on the emotional level. Daniel Brühl, one of the finest actors working in Europe today, is wonderful when it comes to convey the feelings of the doomed young prisoner. He says more with only a look or a small raise of an eyebrow than many an actor could with a long speech. The scenes when Salvador realizes that he'll be facing death, when he bids farewell to his sisters and first sees the murderous machine are especially powerful and exquisitely acted. By then, of course, you'll be in tears already, like the rest of the cinema. To cast Daniel Brühl (who is half Spanish and speaks the language perfectly) as Salvador certainly was a brilliant coup by director Manuel Huerga. The star of such German gems as "Good Bye Lenin!" and "The Edukators" here makes a triumphant debut in Spanish cinema. After this performance, even more doors should be open for him throughout Europe. The rest of the cast is also very good, especially Leonardo Sbaraglia as the prison guard who gradually develops something like a friendship with Salvador. If you get the chance, go and see this movie. And bring tissues!

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• very naive

  sal_paradise2007-03-23

  i can't help wondering what the point of this film pamphlet was. it seemed to veer towards naive heroism in the beginning and at the end again, meanwhile completely neglecting a discussion of what set these people apart from other 'normal' terrorists. and then we get a subplot of the last death penalty dealt in Spain with this kid who of course doesn't deserve to be murdered at the hands of the state, but who does really. it fails on this level as well as a level of human relationship, using the story of the guard merely to make a point of how the revolution lives on. so i felt really ambiguous and detached from the film, which seemed so uncommitted to an involved and deep discussion of its story.

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