La hora de los valientes

The story is interesting and well documented, the scenery and costumes are near perfect, the anecdotes are all real. This should have been quite a good movie about one family's engaging experiences during the civil war. However; the directing style fails the movie as it throws back to the paltry directing style so common in Spanish films in the sixties. Rather than plot or character development, the progression of the film is little more than a series of sketches reproducing anecdotes. There is no feeling that what goes on ties together as one story.

The acting leaves a lot to be desired as well and is particularly disappointing given that the four main characters are all portrayed by well accomplished and capable interpretive artists. Although it is sporadically authentic and convincing in some scenes, most of the time the acting is merely caricature. The best performance in the movie is provided by the little boy.

Drama/comedy about unhappy events happened during Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in which a museum guard becomes involved into difficulties and problems when he takes a Goya painting . After the Spanish Civil War breaks out, the Prado Museum is being evacuated . One of the janitors (Gabino Diego) encounters a painting being left by the operators , it is a wonderful auto-portrait , a real work of art , which was painted by the great master, Francisco De Goya Lucientes who was born in Fuentetodos , Zaragoza , and takes it to prevent damage by bombing . In the interim , he finds a young woman (Leonor Watling) with whom he falls in love . Assisted by her and family members, aunt (Adriana Ozores) , her son and grandfather (Luis Cuenca) , the museum guard tries to save Goya's masterpiece intact amidst the fights , shots and blow-up .

¨Hora De Valientes ¨(1998) results to be other of the innumerable stories to deal with dramatic deeds regarding the Civil War background . A familiar topic about the global horrors of a fratricide war , impossible to forget to our cinema . Dramatic picture about Spanish civil war and its consequences , including some comic touches in charge of likable Gabino Diego as a young curator and the old secondary Luis Cuenca as a veteran anarchist . The picture has been defined by Mercero himself as a 'realistic tragicomedy, a romantic history, a historic fresco and a socio-political fable'. Supporting cast is frankly excellent such as Jose Maria Pou , Juan Jose Otegui , Ramon Langa , Hector Colome , among others . Good production design by Gil Parrondo , considered to be one of the best Set designers from Spanish cinema . Atmospheric as well as evocative musical score by Bingen Mendizabal . Colorful and appropriate cinematography by Jaime Peracaula .

The motion picture was professionally written (along with Horacio Valcarcel) and directed by Antonio Mercero though has some flaws and resulted to get a moderated success at Spanish Box office . Mercero is a author of great hits TV series and several award-winning films . In 1970 he started working for TV as he shot several documentaries and some chapters for the series "Crónicas Un Pueblo" or ¨Chronicles of a village¨(1971) , a big hit in Spain despite its deep ideological content, risky for the period it was made in ; and specially successful was ¨the phone booth¨ (1970) (TV), which won 10 national and international awards, including the Emmy Award in 1973. Then he realized ¨Los Pajaritos¨ (1973), ¨Gioconda is sad¨ (1975), the series "Ese Señor De Negro" or ¨That man in black¨ (1975), La Noche del Licenciado (1978), and his three biggest hit smashes : ¨Turno Oficio¨ TV series about advocates in law , "Blue summer , Verano Azul" (1978) which became a sociological phenomenon and "Farmacia de Guardia" (1990) about an Apotheke . Other important film directed by Mercero was ¨Don Juan Querido Fantasma¨ , an amusing comedy well performed by recently deceased Juan Luis Galiardo . Today, he still works for TV as ¨Manolito Gafotas¨ series and some of his latest work in cinema have been ¨Guerra De Papa¨, ¨Esperame en Cielo¨ a parody about a Franco's double , ¨The treasure¨ and ¨Floor 4ª¨ (2002) a film about children with cancer treated with a touch of humor . His last film was ¨? Y Tu Quién Eres?¨ about Alzheimer illness and starred by Manuel Alexandre . Rating : Acceptable and passable , 6 . Well worth seeing .