The Castilian (1963)

This is How Movies Should Be Made

Excellent, a Must See

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Wooden acting undermines the spontaneity of Spanish director Javier Setó's "The Castilian," an epic account of a nobleman, Fernán González (Spartaco Santoni), who emerges from exile to unify a deeply divided Spain against its treacherous Moorish invaders. Tenth century Spain constitutes the setting for this sprawling historic peplum which was lensed on location in Spain on the actual battlefields where the bloodshed took place. After the death of his older brother, González enters the city of Lara with his long-time mentor and companion, Jerónimo, (Caesar Romero of "Donovan's Reef"), and lays claim as the rightful heir to the throne. Earlier, the future Count of Castile encountered Don Sancho's lovely daughter, Sancha (Tere Velázquez of "Stray Bullet"), as she and her contingent are riding through the countryside. Sancha admires the handsome González but prefers to have nothing to do with him until he halts the ignominious tribute of a hundred maidens to the barbarous Moors. This is the most interesting part of this two-hour plus saga. Initially, the Moors remove the hoods from a couple of prize maidens, but they realize too late that the rest of the gals are guys bristling with weapons. If the invading Moors didn't pose enough of a problem for our valiant hero, González must clash swords with one of his own countrymen, principally, the merciless King of Navarre, Don Sancho (Broderick Crawford of "All The King's Men"), who has nothing but hatred for Castilians. González kills Sancho at a pitched battle at a river. In an effort to mitigate their differences with Navarre, González has the dead on both sides interred together after their battle, and he brings Sancho's embalmed body home to his grieving family. No sooner has González delivered Sancho's body than he finds himself imprisoned by Navarre at a remote dudgeon. The love that González shares with beautiful Sancha prompts our daring heroine to engineer his escape. González desperately wants peace with both the King of León (Fernando Rey of "The French Connection") and Sancho's vengeful heir Don Garcia (Ángel del Pozo of "Catlow") so they can join forces and run Abderramán (Germán Cobos of "Reverent Colt") and his Moorish army out of Spain. "The Castilian" takes on a supernatural flavor in the last quarter hour when the two patron saints of Spain, Millán (George Rigaud) and Santiago, with flaming swords show up at our hero's side and convince Don Garcia to ride with González rather than against him. During the slightly gory battle, González's friend Jerónimo is mortally wounded. Eventually, a saddened González' watches with happiness as Jerónimo rides away alongside Millán and Santiago to be taken up into Heaven.The supporting cast is first-rate. Indeed, Caesar Romero, Broderick Crawford, and Frankie Avalon are all put to good use. Surprisingly enough, they don't appear to have been dubbed. Avalon is cast as a non-combatant minstrel named Jerifan who strums the yarn on his lute. Unfortunately, leading man Spartaco Santoni generates not so much as a modicum of charisma, while actress Tere Velázquez, appears as just listless as his queen. Luis de los Arcos and Paulino Rodrigo penned the screenplay with director Javier Setó based on the anonymous poem "Poema de Fernán González." Inferior dubbing of the principals and some lackluster battle scenes with extras milling around amateurishly don't help matters.

It is not often that I come across a old historical???? film, that I haven't seen before. Until yesterday "The Castillian" was one such film. The reason for its obscurity is obvious from the start. Everything about the film is ridiculously bad. The combat and romance scenes are so terrible that they do make you laugh occasionally, when they are not making you cringe and groan. Such amusement is more than nullified however by the inappropriate theme of islamophobia, that turns history on its head.In this film the Muslims are presented as aggressive, murderers, rapists and barbarians, at a time when any historian (outside of Spain) will point out that the reverse was true. Muslim Andulsia had in fact been the most civilised culture on the planet before the time of the story. Christian Europe only slowly emerged from its Dark Ages, by acquiring the knowledge that the Andalusian Muslims had previously safeguarded from the destructive forces of Rome. The bad dubbing also grated. I couldn't find anything at all in the plot, characters or dialogue, that I liked. This film is sure to be compared with the acclaimed "El Cid". Despite sharing some of this film's major historical falsehoods and strong Christian bias, El Cid does at least not demonise all Muslims. El Cid is in fact a much better film in every way and one I enjoy watching. Frankie Avalon's next film role was entitled "Operation Bikini", which pretty much sums up what producers felt about his ability to convince in a straight acting part.

The Castilian, about a nobleman leading his people against invaders, takes a look at the medieval Spanish wars between the Moors and the Christians. It tells the tale of a hero, Fernán González, who comes out of exile to become Count of Castile and overthrow the grip of Moorish tyranny with his mighty sword. Gonzáles was one of Spain's greatest heroes and a pioneer of guerilla warfare. Cult star Soledad Miranda has a small part as Maria, a Castilian woman who is to be given to the Moors to appease them. Interestingly enough, this drama was filmed at the actual sites in Spain where the events unfolded. The film might not be entirely accurate historically, but the actors are good and the movie overall is enjoyable to watch.

While it tells an ostensibly historical story about the rise of Castile as the predominant power on the Iberian peninsula, this period film is filled with stilted acting, raging anachronisms, poor dubbing, and ridiculous scenes. Someone without any knowledge of the history involved, might find it passable as a love story. Any knowledge of the history makes it worthwhile only as a farce.