Review of Burn! (1969) by Afzal S — 13 May 2008

Burn! is a mix of socialist polemic and historical melodrama. Made in the political foment of the late 1960's, and at the lowest point in Marlon Brando's career, he plays a mysterious English adventurer, William Walker, sowing discord among the slaves of a Caribbean Island in the 1800's- but does he have an ulterior motive?

The mix of politics and melodrama never quite comes off, and yet Burn! somehow avoids being a failure due to Pontecorvo's sinuous, fluid, and humanistic direction, Morricone's stirring, rhythmic soundtrack, and Marlon Brando's Walker, never more personal and self-reflective (except perhaps in Last Tango).

Instead of going through the motions like usual, it seems to me that Brando really related to his role, and so worked his hardest to create a marvellously contradictory character, a man of serious depth and doubt covered up by a wolfish smile. The effect is rousing and deeply intriguing, and Burn! is therefore a must for everyone, not just his many fans.

But what should not be forgotten is Evaristo Marquez's supporting performance as the Toussant L'Overture-like freed slave Jose Dolores, taken under Walker's dubious, chimerical wing- Marquez's transformation from naive, trusting youth to world-weary martyred revolutionary, and his passionate and eventually poisoned relationship with William Walker, stand alongside Brando's at the heart of the film. I am surprised he did not become as big an actor as Sydney Poitier- incidentally Poitier was the first choice to play Dolores.