Captain from Castile (1947)

Fresh and Exciting

A Masterpiece!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie starts out with Pedro De Vargas getting into a conflict with the Spanish Inquisition. Very interesting start really. And to escape he joins conquest of the new world. I had no problem so far and it was interesting.But what was fast showed was that Pedro (Tyrone) did actually not really have a problem with the inquisition. Only if it was his own family that was the target. There was no problem for him treating the Indians the same way.The movie was more a love story where Jean Peters did the best effort in the movie and was the only really likable person. Unfortunately the movie also started to drag or show no sense of direction.In the end the movie just fizzles out without any grand battle or true conquest or even tying the Inquisition story or conquest story together.I would not recommend this movie as none of the aspects in the movie besides the Romance is really followed through.

I usually don't review 40's and 50's Technicolor Blockbuster Star Vehicles, unless they really stand out for some reason. Captain from Castile does just that - the last scene, with Cortez assembling his forces for an assault on Tenochtitlan, begins mildly enough - a natural extension of the plot - but, as the forces begin marching and the pep talks start, the rails start shaking.First the Spanish Priest begins extorting his small congregation with classic American values: equality, the sanctity of the individual, etc. and then Cortez, well-played by Cesar Romero, suddenly jumps character and starts sounding like Lincoln at Gettysburg, as though his goal is to empower each and every one, both native and Spaniard, with their inalienable rights as human beings.What?!!!It's been a long, long time since I first saw Captain and I certainly didn't remember this final coda or the irony of characters based on some of the most barbaric citizens of the most hypocritical, top-down and dysfunctional Monarchy in Europe laying claim to 18th Century liberal humanistic values.I did remember it as a typically well done Technicolor extravaganza: Tyrone Power as an attractive hero navigating a culture antagonistic to his personal, innate humanistic values. Prince of Foxes and The Black Rose come to mind.In Captain, that conflict is downplayed in favor of 'Epic Scope' and Power's character actually seems to like and approve of Cortez as an admittedly greed-driven but basically decent good-guy whose heart is in the right place, once you get past his greed, genocidal tendencies and psychopathology.For most of the movie that actually works thanks to Romero's performance and the script's soft-soaping of Cortez's negative personality traits. But those last five minutes ...How in God's name could you even try to elevate Spain's or Cortez's trampling of the New World as a positive expression of liberal or humanistic values? That's where the one star comes from: the offensive and virtually obscene attempt to characterize someone like Cortez as a hero rather than the pathetic psychopath he and his fellows really were.Hollywood has always played fast and loose with (factual) history in favor of dramatic impact, The King's Speech being the latest of brilliant examples, but Captain from Castile's script is a script too far.

I first saw this film as a child, around 1950, and was bitterly disappointed when it ended just at the point where it was getting interesting. Like most reviewers, I found that too much time was wasted on the melodrama and introduction of the characters, at the expense of the action. To end the film without the siege of Tenochtitlan and the battle along the causeway cheated the viewers who had sat through two hours of the build up. The whole reason for going to the New World was to escape Spain, and make their fortune, and in the case of Hernan Cortez, conquer the New World and get very, very powerful. As the film was made just after WWII and one would have expected a victorious war film set in 1518, but for whatever reason, they just cut the story short and created an anticlimax.The Technicolor was excellent and the locations added authenticity, but I was puzzled by all the native people with beards and mustaches. I had always thought that they lacked facial hair and the 26 years since the New World was first sighted was hardly enough to have resulted in a Mestizo population, especially as the first settlements were in the islands. We were told that the Mexicans worked closely with the filmmakers to ensure authenticity, so maybe they did have beards! I was almost prepared to see sombreros! The film at least addressed the conflicting motives for conquest, God and Gold! We also have to remember that Mexico was a long way from Spain, and Cortez was out for what spoils he could grab, the acceptable way to make one's fortune since time began. The fact that other peoples' possessions are not fair game to grab is a problem that we are only just beginning to recognize, and even today, pity the people who find themselves living on property standing atop an oil field or in the way of progress of one form or another.I would like to see Samuel Shellebarger's book remade in the form of a Mexican Telenovela where they have no problem with taking 100 hours to tell the story. Perhaps then we would also hear the events from the native perspective about how hard they fought, rather than the impression we are given that they surrounded at the first sight of the Conquistadores.

I don't have all that much to add to what you've read here in the comments already, but for what it's worth here are a few more impressions: *Tyrone Power was quite good. Fine fine actor and believable in the swashbuckler role.*Lee J. Cobb as a good guy(!) in tights(!!)--one of the best parts in the movie. Very good-if unexpected.*Jean Peter-very young and pretty eye candy.*Cesar Romero as Cortez, not shown as being anything but what he was-a pirate, a soldier and a greedy one at that. The Joker in one of his best roles.*I loved the score, scenery and Tonto as the escaped slave Coatl, too. All good.*Snidely Whiplash Da Silva and the Padre are quite well acted, too. Mowbray as the astrology-based hump-back was unique, shall we say.Only reall problem I had is that they take Forever to get to the actual point of the mission-the attack on Montezuma himself. The movie drags in the second half and spends too much time on the intrigue.But overall, it's well worth seeing, check it out.*** outta ****