A new generation might not know how to take this film, since the production values are sometimes threadbare and the screenplay is very straightforward, but it's still a movie worth watching if you want to understand how the New World (including America) got to where it is today. (No, it's not historically accurate since Portugal never had Caribbean colonies, but it's clear that Portugal is just a stand-in for Spain or England or any other European colonial power.) From the start it is hard not to get involved in the struggles of the Queimadan slaves (who we see powerfully both in close-up and in mass scenes), after we first see the heartbreak and indignity of a widow and her small children forced to cart the headless corpse of their husband/father across the island themselves after he is executed by the slave masters for rebellion. It is also hard not to simultaneously appreciate and loathe the slick operations of Sir William Walker, an English agent provocateur who expertly manipulates one courageous man, Jose Dolores, into fomenting an effective rebellion that is actually planned to ultimately fail ten years later. Marlon Brando gives a masterful performance as Walker. (Even if you think you don't like Brando as an actor, you may be very surprised with him here. He considered this his best screen performance and his judgment was probably correct.) The ideas laid out in "Queimada" may seem old hat to today's audiences, but are also character-driven in a way that escapes most didactic modern treatments of racist imperialism. (Translation: It's a much better movie than BLOOD DIAMOND.) The most important message still relevant for today is that what we think of "freedom" often really isn't "free,", depending on whether we take it for ourselves, or if it is given to us (and who is doing the giving). Still an important lesson for "free" peoples around the world to keep in mind.
Review of Burn!
