Salvador (Puig Antich) (2006)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

I don't disagree with the view that the subject is quite appropriate for a movie but displays quite gruesome violence, almost senseless for an artistic product. The scenes leading to the execution of the sentence are particularly distressing are particularly lengthy, the sentence itself is really perturbing for such a kind of movie. Other than that the movie is supposed to accurately reflect the violent times around 1970 in the Western World, and hopefully does achieve that target. Have to admit that, however, good acting and good direction are displayed throughout the movie, the main weakness of the movie can be found in the script only.

In 1974 the young anarchistic bank-robber Salvador Puig Antich is executed after spending some time in jail. His death starts a period of unrest in Spain, at that time still ruled by the dictator Franco. That unrest is the beginning of democracy in Spain.This film plays the last months in the life of Salvador. It gives a short insight into his life, his why and what and the choices he makes. It then rolls on to his time in jail and all that follows.Biographic pictures like this one stand or fall with the capability of the actors to play their real life counterparts convincingly. This film stands. It does a very good job at dramatizing the actual events and left me with a giant lump in my throat.9 out of 10 accidental heroes.

I was lucky to get into a screening of "Salvador" at a German film festival and saw it with English subtitles. This movie transports us back in time to the era of the Spanish Franco dictatorship. Yet, it's not so much a history lesson as a universal plea against death penalty – one of the most powerful ones that I've ever seen in cinema. The film tells the story of Salvador Puig Antich, one of the last political prisoners to be murdered by the Franco regime in 1974. Salvador certainly isn't an innocent victim. He is an anarchist involved in armed bank robberies and when they finally catch him, a policeman dies in a shootout. However, he never receives a fair trial and the method of execution they apply for him is nothing short of barbaric. The garrotte, once a standard device for execution in Spain, resembles a medieval torture instrument where the delinquent is strangled with an iron collar. Salvador's execution is shown in the movie, but it isn't done in a sensationalist way. Much more haunting to watch is the period before it happens – the desperate tries to save Salvador's life by his lawyer and the last visits by his sisters. It's largely thanks to the protagonist that the film works so well on the emotional level. Daniel Brühl, one of the finest actors working in Europe today, is wonderful when it comes to convey the feelings of the doomed young prisoner. He says more with only a look or a small raise of an eyebrow than many an actor could with a long speech. The scenes when Salvador realizes that he'll be facing death, when he bids farewell to his sisters and first sees the murderous machine are especially powerful and exquisitely acted. By then, of course, you'll be in tears already, like the rest of the cinema.To cast Daniel Brühl (who is half Spanish and speaks the language perfectly) as Salvador certainly was a brilliant coup by director Manuel Huerga. The star of such German gems as "Good Bye Lenin!" and "The Edukators" here makes a triumphant debut in Spanish cinema. After this performance, even more doors should be open for him throughout Europe. The rest of the cast is also very good, especially Leonardo Sbaraglia as the prison guard who gradually develops something like a friendship with Salvador. If you get the chance, go and see this movie. And bring tissues!

I was disappointed with this film. The first half is boring, unengaging and very poorly shot. The nervous hand-held camera and the fast editing are very irritating, and completely unnecessary. It really put me off. It might seem very cool and trendy, and you can tell the director might have shot lots of music videos and commercial spots, but it's poor storytelling. Cause it doesn't allow you to sink your heart into the film, to feel it. It might be appropriate for films like Moulin Rouge, but not for a drama like this. There's no depth in the construction of the characters, and there is nothing special about Salvador's character, there's nothing about him that makes his tragic death special save for the fact that it is horrendously brutal. We don't get to know his foibles, his weaknesses, his dreams. It's funny how the death of the protagonist of 'Dead Man Walking' -a true murderer- is far more moving and affecting than this one. And the second half is more engaging, although it has a TV movie feel to it. Leonardo Sbaraglia's character is the most interesting of them all, the only one who has some kind of evolution arc. But even the ending, which could so easily have been powerful and touching, given the extent of the tragedy, is somehow rendered bland and anticlimactic, due to the intercutting of a sentimental scene in which the youngest sister runs to the place where the execution is going to take place while we overhear in voice-over the corny words that Salvador dedicated to her the last time she saw him,and also due to poor camera-work at the moment of the execution. Again the camera can't stand still and starts going in unjustified circles in a moment where we should all be holding our breaths.