Review of Captain Alatriste: The Spanish Musketeer (2006) by Bruno C — 12 Jul 2008

I accidentally caught this on cable the other day, recognizing Viggo and thinking what the heck? Viggo was in a Spanish movie? And they dubbed him?

Duh, I forgot Viggo grew up in South America, and speaks Spanish fluently...which I must say he did a fantastic job in Alatriste, he learned the local accent of Leon region, the area his character is from, and delivered his lines like a 16th Century Leonese.

There is a lot to love about this film....the costuming, the acting/great cast, the fight/war sequences, the music....just the overall atmosphere captured by the director really was amazing in recreating 16th Century Europe....probably thanks also in part to a nice budget.

I also am big on my historic pieces...which unfortunately was also part of the "bad"...I myself need to take a refresher on Spanish/European history...and particularly 16th-17th Century is a pretty complex period of time, the movie went headfirst into a lot of situations without a whole lot of explanation. The film itself was already pretty long...it could've standed to be a little longer for pacing and explanation as to what was going on half of the time. Probably didn't help either that I didn't have subtitles (pinche Megacable doesn't seem to provide captions) to help me follow all the Castillian Spanish dialog.

The highlight for me were the war scenes....extremely well done, and the portrayal of Alatriste by Viggo the director, and cinematographer worked so well....calling back to times of REAL swashbuckling chivalry and honor. Additionally, Roque Baños really outdid himself in scoring this film! Good film that hopefully will be out on Region 1 DVD soon, I'd love to see it again w/ subtitles and extras that hopefully will help out with the historical settings.