"Alatriste - Movie, books and...miniatures?" Topic

I know there are some chaps on TMP who enjoy Arturo Perez-Reverte's Alatriste stories. What's your take on the film? Irked at it not getting a release in the UK I tracked down a DVD copy on the net and watched it earlier today.

What a disappointment! Where the books are witty, playful, exciting and informative the film was leaden, dull, tedious and confusing. Apart from stringing together some plot points from the books it actually wasn't very faithful to the world Perez-Reverte created. A two hour-plus swashbuckler with only one proper sword-fight and that not including the eponymous hero! It would have been far better to have based the plot more closely on one of the novels than the rambling, overlong mess they contrived instead. Yes, the books are a bit plot-lite and would have needed expanding but they went the wrong way about it.

I'll admit it looked very handsome and Viggo Mortensen made a very good Alatriste but apart from the chap playing Quevedo and possibly Saldana the other actors were completely wooden – characters like Bocanegra and Malatesta are larger than life in the books and should have been played with relish and panache. Instead they came across as pedestrian and too many minor characters looked the same leading to mucho confusion.

Big shame. I do wish someone would do a proper swashbuckler. This was too po-faced and dreary, Pirates of the Caribbean too infantile. Maybe some Hollywood exec will try to resurrect Colin Farrell's flagging career with a re-make of Captain Blood…

Anyway, now I've done such a good job on selling Alatriste to you anyone who wants my copy can have it for £5.00 GBP plus postage – PM me! There's a nice battle at the end which would probably appeal to Renaissance aficionados and the packaging is very attractive.

Now, to more important matters. Does anyone make a suitable mini for the good Captain?

Sounds to me that you saw an edited version. I got the limited edition Alatriste (147 mins) from Spain, and I quite enjoyed it. Granted they shouldn't have attempted to collate all 5 books into 1 film, and it did drag in places, but there were at least 3 or 4 main swordfights, plus the various skirmishes and the Battle of Rocroi.
I did hear (on an earlier TMP thread) that the Spanish are considering a series based on the books.

Maybe the film is worse than the books but AFAIK, Reverte was directly and very closely involved in the making of the film, and he said he was satisfied with the final result…

Huscarle – you hav made me ver depressed! I went to all that trouble for a bowdlerised version? Where did you order your copy from?

I had originally reproduced that Alatriste would be turned into a series but in truth I have not heard anymore on that subject so I cannot, at this point anyway, confirm that this will happen.

I did enjoy the movie, though humwawa's comments on the lack of swashbuckling action seem fair. My favourite scene was the initial one that showed an "encamisada" raid. Rocroi should have been digitally treated to represent a Northern European landscape and quite a few more combatants, though maybe the director wanted precisely that, a classic, theatre style perspective.

To us mean wargamers, the film could have had more troop involvement but the feeling of seeing this era through the eyes of golden-age painters like Velázquez or Murillo was more than welcome.

Bumping into Viggo Mortensen in León -where he was fine tuning his already proficient Spanish for the film- was a plus, and I suppose I'll always have a soft spot for the film.

Having said that, I definitely want more iron and gunpowder in the next similar production.

Oh! and as to the question on miniatures of the Captain Alatriste, I'm sure Andrea Miniatures do a very good one, if I recall correctly in 54mm.

Here's a link to the corresponding page in Perez Reverte's website which in turn has a link to Miniaturas Andrea.

link

humwawa, I finally had to get mine off ebay. I can see only 2 for sale there at the moment. No idea why it hasn't been released to a wider audience than Spain.
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If you can read Spanish, you maybe interested in Perez "The Fencing Master", released in Spain (without subtitles).
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I managed to pick up the original "Pathfinder Olefas" from Amazon Germany, another gem not released throughout R2. It makes me wonder how many more such gems are out there.

One of these days I hope to see it. Thanks for alerting me to the fact that there are two verisons.