Long Live Death (1971)

Overrated and overhyped

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Viva La Muerte does what it says - Celebrates the idiot class (most humans) and their obsession with death. It shows how far we will go to show our egos, believe in our lies, propagate our savagery. This film shows that despite our belief in sophistication and civility, we are a barbaric species from A-Z. I've read the other reviews on this film and am glad some people found meaning in this portrayal of the lies we perpetuate on ourselves. I believe Arrabel should have been more severe in his depictions of love, lies, hate, nationalism and other bullshit human values. One review said it was a waste of film. I'll tell you what is a waste of film: things like American Beauty, Porky's, Heat, Top Gun, those inane baseball films, and generally most early black and white films. What a load of crap those films are!! Full of snivelling humans crapping on about nothing. Pathetic wastes of time for a pathetic race. Viva La Muerte!!

Contains spoiler Finally, the most celebrated film of playwright / filmmaker Fernando Arrabal has come to DVD! Arrabal's works have inspired many other great filmmakers, especially his protege, Alejandro Jodorowsky, who made a semi-sequel to Viva La Muerte called Fando & Lis.Viva La Muerte (Long Live Death) is set in 1930's Spain (Arrabal had to flee to France to avoid arrest) just after Franco's fascists won the Spanish Civil War. 11-year-old Fando lives with his mother in a small village. His father is a heroic communist revolutionary who was arrested and executed by the fascists.Fando's life changes forever when he learns that his father was turned in to the authorities by his fanatically religious mother who despises communists. What's more, his father may still be alive and imprisoned, despite his mother's insistence that her husband is dead. Fando sets out to find the truth.The movie opens with a montage of violent images that appear to have been drawn by a child. During this opening credit sequence, a cute French song plays that is sung by children. The DVD producer elected not to subtitle this song in English - a bad decision, because the song sets the tone for the whole movie, and parts of it are replayed throughout the film.Basically, this is a surrealist allegory equating organized religion with fascism, both of which the filmmaker finds perverse. Indeed, organized Christianity is inherently fascist in nature, especially Catholicism, which is Fando's mother's religion. The Catholic Church preaches a doctrine of blind obedience to the clergy, and it has conducted its own genocidal holocausts - the Crusades and the Inquisitions.Viva La Muerte mixes straightforward narrative with color-tinted surreal dream sequences, although there are a lot of surreal images throughout the entire film. Many of these images are quite shocking, and resulted in the movie being banned in several countries and heavily censored in others. This DVD features the complete, uncut version of the film.Fando's mother - who symbolizes organized religion - dotes on her son and thinks of herself as a saint for suffering through a marriage to a godless communist. She believes that she did the right thing by turning in her husband. But it's obvious that she has incestuous desires for her son and may have betrayed her husband out of sick jealousy - in flashbacks, we see that Fando's father was a good man who had a close relationship with Fando.In one truly disturbing scene, Fando's mother strips topless and orders him to flog her as atonement for sin. At first, Fando can't bring himself to hurt his mother, but when she insists, he beats her, and her reaction is almost orgasmic. Then, as if subconsciously avenging his father, Fando keeps increasing the intensity of the beating, and won't stop when his mother tells him to. Finally, she grabs his crotch and he shrieks in pain and stops beating her.That's just one of many shocking images in this film. The surreal dream sequences veer from hauntingly beautiful to ugly and disgusting. One sequence finds Fando imagining that his mother is tormenting his father in prison. She laughs at him, spits on him, then tops it off by defecating on him.I could go on forever describing the images in this film, their symbolism, and allegorical meaning, but that would take away from your viewing enjoyment. Ultimately, this is a film about searching for truth in a world of lies. It's also about how tyranny lurks everywhere - in government, in religion, and even in a mother's love. And, like the saying goes, the truth will set you free

Whether you like them or not, the images are haunting. I saw this film 31 years ago and still remember some sequences vividly. You might argue that the anarcho-surrealism is intellectualised, a pose. But you cannot deny that it is effective. The message gets across, even if a sledgehammer approach is required. But it also is very poetic: the poetry of cruelty. I suppose this kind of establishment bashing was considered very chic in those days. Now it looks dated, unfortunately. But at the time, it shook me profoundly.

After seeing this film my reaction was - who is this guy and what other films has he made? When I was told it was his first, I could hardly believe it. (I saw it when it first opened in 1970.) He was a writer in his 40's and the maturity shows. It's surprising that this has not become a mainstay of the Art House cinemas. The use of allegory, childhood memories, repressed sexual desires, dream-like sequences (all those thing which evoke a visceral reaction in the viewer) are combined in a well directed, thought provoking, cinematic experience.