El 7º día

A Spanish Western movie!

Carlos Saura is as great in this movie as ever. This movie becomes more interesting when we realize that this movie is based on a true story.

I feel scared when I think this really happened in the real world.

I have seen many movies and stories that show the villagers very kindly. But it can be said that this is completely wrong. People from small villages seem to have more complex relationships than urban communities. And life among them can not be enjoyable.

The extreme violence of the film's characters contrasts with the beautiful nature of the village.

As beautiful and peaceful as the village is, the characters in the film are never peaceful. They can kill each other brutally and go on with their normal lives. The soundtrack of this movie is very beautiful. Carlos Saura is very interested in using singing in his films. I highly recommend this movie. My rating for this movie is 9 out of 10.

I love "La caza" (1965), and "Deprisa deprisa" (1980), both winners of the Berlin Silver Bear. I also did like, in a lesser degree, "Los golfos" (1959) and "Ana y los lobos" (1972). But this?... If it had been directed by someone else, fine. But Saura?... I still remember the real events back in 1990 which were the basis for this film. I was 17 at the time, and it made front pages for days: la Espana profunda (deep old Spain) with its feud crimes and revenges, hot blood genes, anger, jealousy, a hot climate to help things boil up... you name it. It's the Latin character all right. In the deep Extremadura countryside two brothers armed with shotguns one day walked into the village and began firing shots at random, sparing absolutely no one. Men, women, children... they all fell dead under the barrage. That night the whole of Spain was in total shock: what was the cause for this senseless slaughter? What was the motive?... Only the two killers had the answer. I watched this recreation of the events last night for the first time. It looks like a film that could have just been made by anyone: documentary style with modern trendy camera pans, too many close-ups, a sepia-like visual texture... just MTV video-like. Absolutely awful. And to be honest, the good characters are so irritating, such pain-in-the-arse morons that I feel more sympathy for the killers instead. Those three young girls are so ****** ANNOYING!! The two killers almost have an excuse to want to wipe them out of the map, really.

"God created life within 6 days, and on the seventh, he rested. That is why horrible things usually happens on sundays". This quote summarizes both the story, the mood of the movie, and a way, the Spanish way of life/death. As Death is part of life, in Spain. Sangre, Sexo y Muerte (blood, sex and death)make life in that country. We use to figure out that among Greece's daughters, Italy is Comedy while Spain is Drama. Sobre drama, compared to Greek dramas. Saura paints this mood perfectly. We all know from the beginning what will happen. Besides, we are all surprised when "It" happens, but it is not more violent or chocking than other parts of the movie. "In a small village, everybody knows each other. While each one is different, each one is the same anyway." Meaning that a small village lives like bees, without any queen. Sun is burning hearts, souls, camps, farms and reason. From the first violently ended lovestory to the final massacre, through claims on land terminated with knives, global ressent and despair, moquery from a whole village, this movie is about the life of a family of two old couples, avenging from the entire village they were obliged to leave long ago, but they stayed close to it. They are not totally victims, as one member of their family (or "clan") murdered the brother of a family man, the butcher, and tried to murder the brother as well. The latter is father of 3 young girls, one of which is falling in love with a young guy (the "moto-guy" of the village), who finally leaves the village to leave its life. All the story is seen though the eyes of that young girl.

Yes, I praise this film highly. Is it a masterpiece? Nope. The acting (minus the death scenes) were top notch, the cinematography of the wide southern Spain frontier was to die for, and Spanish guitar music score was top of the line. I thought the pacing was a tad too sluggish in a few areas, but then, that's probably what the director wanted us to feel - life moves slowly in remote farming villages. Worth watching if you have nothing else on tap.

Carlos Saura has been one of our finest directors for almost five decades, and, after a bunch of irregular films in the nineties, returns in top form with "El séptimo día". Based on the tragic true events happening in 1992 in Spain, the film captures the essence of the maddening atmosphere that gave way to the slaughter of Puerto Hurraco.

In Spain there is little tradition of portraying real-life events in film. Writers Loriga and Saura were actually heavily criticized by some, as if their film would bring back the painful memories that most people had chosen to forget. However, their film portrays the slaughter and the events that led to it with gusto and with no sign of sensationalism.

In fact, a great part of the film is devoted to depict the summer romance of a young girl (Yohana Cobo, what a discovery) and a lifeguard (Oriol Vila, another breakthrough). Thus, the murderers (outstanding Juan Diego, José Luis Gómez, Victoria Abril and Ana Wagener) are relegated to a secondary subplot for almost half of the film.

Saura managed to assemble one of the greatest casts of the last few years. Apart from the aforementioned, José García, Eulalia Ramón, Carlos Hipólito and, in bit parts, Elia Galera, Juan Sanz and Carlos Kaniowski are worth mentioning for their excellent work in "El séptimo día".

The best: the cast and the good taste in filming a real-life tragedy. The worst: that some people criticized it before they had even seen it. They should not forget that we are bound to repeat our history if we choose to forget it.