Juan Moreira

The name "Juan Moreira" evokes in an Argentinian the same feeling "Jesse James" does in an American. This is the fourth movie (the first three in 1913, 1936 and 1948) made in Argentina about Juan Moreira, a gaucho that lived in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina in the second half of the nineteenth century. The script by Jorge Zuhair Jury (brother of director Leonardo Favio) and Favio's direction aim to capture the feeling of a dime novel or a radio soap opera (there were quite a few about Moreira). This is achieved, with some clumsiness here and there. Moreira's interaction with "honest" politicians is given due weight. A minor point: one would like more about Moreira's beginnings as a law-abiding small landowner and family man.

Moreira is played excellently by Rodolfo Bebán. The supporting cast ranges from adequate to very good. The reconstruction of Moreira's times and places is convincing. A movie well worth watching.

This is an adaptation of a 19th century novel, which was in turn based in a real story. It's also the first Leonardo Favio film that I've been able to find. It tells the story of a 'gaucho', the rural population of the Argentinean provinces that in the nineteenth century are beginning to be swept by the expanding 'civilization', and who turns into a criminal, a 'bandido', and then starts to get involved in politics. The film's been beautifully shot, with very carefully thought compositions and a photography tending to the poetic or the picturesque. The story is romanticized and epicized, the acting is quite unsophisticated, but all in all, is an enjoyable film. 7 out of 10.