Spara che ti passa

This is definitely a drama, downbeat, depressing, gloomy poignant drama, and not a thriller nor a crime action flick. It is not a Spanish MS .45; remember, the Abel Ferrarra's movie from the early eighties, describing a young woman, raped by hoodlums, who then begins a bloody rampage spree. Here, OK, the basic plot looks very like it, but only the scheme, not the development. It is impossible to stay iced, cold blooded, in front such a story. It is painful for anyone deeply focused on it. Superb directing, cast, acting.... Anyway, director Carlos Saura has nothing to prove. Excellent Spanish drama.

In Madrid, the journalist Marcos Vallez (Antonio Banderas) is writing an article about a circus and he schedules an interview for the next day with the lead attraction Anna Meltzer (Francesca Neri) a.k.a. the Amazon Queen Guiditta, who simultaneously rides a horse and sharply shoots in balloons in her performance. After the interview, they feel attracted for each other and they spend the rest of the day and the night together. In the morning, Marcos travels to Barcelona to cover a concert and promises to meet Anna on the next day and follow her to hell. However, three men gang rape Anna during the night after her performance with extreme violence and the disturbed Anna takes her rifle and ammunition to chase the rapists, but with tragic consequences.

"Dispara!" is a depressing and heartbreaking travel to hell of a sweet character magnificently performed by the extremely beautiful and talented Francesca Neri. This movie is great but the plot is not simply a revenge of a woman brutally attacked but a very sad, realistic, dark and quite unpleasant drama, reason why it is not among my favorite movies. The character of Anna Meltzer is very well developed in the beginning; therefore when the rape happens, the viewer is entirely connected feeling empathy for her nice character. The attitude of Marcos Vallez is despicable, mixing feelings with his profession, telling his suspicious about Anna to his editor without any evidence. I regret that the DVD released by Brazilian Distributor Spectra Nova is awfully dubbed in English without option to the original language (Spanish). My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Dispara" ("Shoot")

The story follows Ana (played wonderfully by the beautiful Francesca Neri) as a sharp shooter performing in the circus. She falls in love with a journalist named Marcos (Antonio Banderas). After a brutal rape and several murders later, she finds herself on the run with Marcos chasing after her.

The DVD story would have you believe that this is a typical Rape/ Revenge flick where the rape occurs early on and the rest of the film is the woman seeking vengeance. But the rape doesn't occur until 40 minutes in giving the viewers plenty of time to get to know Ana and like her character. She looks like Rachel Weisz and is quite impulsive and quirky. Her character is very likable and you will find her emotionally honest even when she is lying. This will make watching her downfall a little difficult to bear.

You watch Ana fall in love with Marcos, make love with him, and then you see the excitement in her eyes when she runs to her door one fateful night expecting Marcos on the other side. The gang rape is brutal, but most of the violence (outside of the rape) is implied. The revenge part takes place very soon after. The rest of the film is Ana and Marcos trying to reach each other one last time, making several mistakes along the way, and a very climactic reunion at the end.

Where the story veers into stupidity, is when Marcos sees the news story of the rapists murders, assumes Ana is the killer without even speaking to her, and then proceeds to rat on her instantly. That amore'. Soon after, Ana visits a doctor for her excessive bleeding (ahem, vaginal, due to the "bottle assault"), the doctor immediately calls the police on her the moment Ana leaves the room. Rape Advocacy, yeah! And get this…the doctor then goes on the radio giving the victims name and detailing her vaginal wounds! Ethics? We don't need no stinking Ethics!

Ultimately, this film is incredibly depressing and bleak. The ending will not make you feel any better about what transpired before hand. The victim gets no justice and she is punished for being victimized. A cop even refers to her as "the bitch."

Favorite Quote: "I said I'd follow you to Hell, well, here I am," spoken by Marcos to Ana after he finally catches up to her at the end.

DVD Extras: Scene Selection and brief Film Facts. There is an Italian and English dubbed version. The dubbed version is terrible and takes away from the atmosphere. Plus, I know what Antonio Banderas sounds like and I can assure you that was not it.

Bottom Line: Very dreary film with not much to recommend here except Francesca Neri's great performance.

Rating: 6/10

Molly Celaschi www.HorrorYearbook.com MySpace.com/HorrorYearbook1980

A young man, a journalist, interviews a talented performer at the circus in Madrid. Her speciality, marksmanship on horseback. The two people feel a mutual attraction and things move fast. He leaves for another assignment, just overnight. Alas, things can change in a person's life in just a day. New faces in the audience the next night, and it's not her horseback riding that is being admired. Blossoming joy turns to acrid despair, and worse is to come.

Outrage in the English dub, Dispara (Shoot!) in the original. Bad decisions, impulsive actions, the cruel smile of Fate. This is a movie that invites us to ask ourselves, would we really have done things differently had it been us? We think that we would, make more sensible decisions, but then again we're sitting comfortably merely watching a movie, and everyone is different, let's face it.

Marcos didn't want to go to Barcelona, and what if he hadn't? Ana shouldn't have shot at that beer can, right? Why did the policeman needlessly insist on inspecting her handbag? Did Mario really need to use that wine bottle the way he did? If only the doctor had respected her wishes, yes? The wheel of fortune turns, the thread of existence snags on a sharp stone, and things happen. The show must go on, but the circus is a dying institution.

Some nice landscape photography and beautiful scoring by Alberto Iglesias. This is a revenge tragedy, not a revenge exploitation movie.

Utter nonsense, absolutely worthless based on a stupid scenario