Review of Burn! (1969) by Nik B — 11 Sep 2011

In the Nineteenth Century, the professional mercenary Sir William Walker (Marlon Brando) arrives in Queimada, a Portuguese colony in the Antilles, to instigate a revolution by the slaves in order to help improve the British sugar trade. He finds his candidate for the slave revolt leader in Jose Dolores, a man who stands up for himself. And eventually the Portuguese troops are expelled from the island and President Teddy Sanchez assumes the power with the support of the British government. Ten years later, Walker is hired by the Royal Company who owns the sugar cane plantations and the Queimada government to hunt down Jose Dolores, who is now disturbing Englands economical interests in the sugar cane production with his army of rebels..

With Brando you never knew what you would get. Either a magnificent movie or something that was not even worth hanging in the X-Mas tree. "Burn" is the latter. I assume he was pulling reporters legs when he once said that this film contained "the best acting I have ever done". This is just a mess in terms of direction, editing (apparently United Artists rapidly lost faith in the film as the budget spiraled out of control. And the movie was re-edited by an editor who specialized in putting trailers together.), acting, dubbing! and structure. "Burn" just do not work. I can not give it more than a weak 2. A disappointment.