Sarentrol Masterful Cinema

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Winifred The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Dalbert Pringle Personally speaking here - I found 1941's "Blood and Sand" (that's "B.S." for short) to be nothing but a laughable cinematic curiosity piece. It was all pure Catholic kitsch heavily spiced with the flavour of Spain (and the psychotic passion for bullfighting, thrown in for good measure).IMO - The sport of bullfighting (like cockfighting) has got to be the absolute, most despicable form of "crowd-mentality" entertainment, imaginable, in the entire world.Within 15 minutes of watching this picture I was already bored to tears with the whole B.S. of "B.S." - But I patiently stuck with it to the bitter end.It wasn't until this film's final moment that the meaning behind its title was finally revealed to the viewer.... But - WTF!? - "B.S." was a major disappointment on all counts.... "Ole!"

TxMike I have been seeking out old Rita Hayworth movies and came upon this one. It is a quadruple treat as it also has Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, and Anthony Quinn in their earlier years.From the time he was a small boy Juan thought only of becoming a famous Bullfighter. His dad was a Bullfighter and died in the ring. But Juan was full of fire and would sneak into places at night where he could practice his budding skill. He was about 15 and he was sweet on a pretty girl named Carmen, who looked about 10. Before he left, with a band of friends, to go to Madrid he asked Carmen if she would wait for him.That young Juan grew up to be played by Tyrone Power. His road to the top was a bit bumpy, but he made it, and was very generous with his money. He did return home after 10 years, and he married Linda Darnell as Carmen Espinosa. They were in love. But one day Juan met a temptation he could not resist, pretty Rita Hayworth as Dona Sol. As Juan turned to his affair, and drinking, his old friend and now rival, Anthony Quinn as Manolo de Palma, began to gain some of the fame.Rita Hayworth was only 23 when this film came out, probably 22 during filming. Linda Darnell was 17 or 18. Both of them look more mature than that.SPOILERS: Eventually Juan came to his senses, after Manolo stole Dona from him, and went back to his wife, Carmen. She still loved him, and he was to fight the bull only one more time, then they would settle down with a small ranch with cattle and pheasant. He was performing well, the best in a while, when he turned his back on the bull, waving to the crowd, got gored and died minutes later in the small chapel near the fighting ring, his faithful wife at his side. The last camera shot shows his blood in the sand of the bull ring.

caa821 Tyrone Power, as handsome as any star in history, with a magnetic screen presence is, however, about as believable in the role of a Spanish bullfighter as Oliver Hardy or Buster Keaton. Rita Hayworth gnaws the scenery like a horde of beavers, but she would be pleasurable to watch just eating a chicken wing. Linda Darnell is so long-suffering she'd depress Norman Bates. Finally Anthony Quinn (and not for the last time in his career), seems to have imbibed a gallon of coffee and taken a handful of downers at the same time, and is undergoing a battle as to which will prevail directing his demeanor.Hayworth and Quinn's paso doble is excellent to watch, yet so "over-the-top" at the same time - but neither of them ever were strangers to "over-the-top." But because, rather in spite of, these aspects, the film is thoroughly enjoyable, and the plot is true to the classic. All of these mannerisms from the cast are outstanding examples of earlier, overdrawn movie drama, from its inception into the 1950's. They provide an added dimension when seeing again films such as this - providing a nostalgic view of this earlier genre, as well as the famous stars of the past.

Deusvolt Even as at a tender age, I found the dialog in this movie pedestrian, mundane and even idiotic. I'll never forget the line Tyrone Power mouthed as the successful toreador who clawed his way to the top: "Now I don't have to ask the price of anything I want to buy" (or something to that effect). Well I have seen millionaires haggle to the last penny and that's how they became millionaires.Sometime towards the end, the makers of the movie inexplicably and without provocation, delivers a punch against Catholicism and feminism. How? By putting lines into the mouth of Tyrone's mother that only befits a bible thumping hack and bigot. Urged by one of the minor characters to pray to the La Virgen de la Macarena for her son's deliverance, the bullfighter's mother said something like: "I don't pray to her anymore. She is but a woman. I now pray to Him!" These lines delivered in an acting style typical of an actress in a zarzuela on a provincial tour.