Reviews
El Capitán Trueno y el Santo Grial (2011)
Does Killian Mean Thunder in Gaelic?
The box doesn't tell you, but the DVD contains English subtitles for the Spanish- language soundtrack of this Spanish movie. I don't know which version the other reviewers watched, but the acting didn't bother me all that much with the actors' original voices sound-synched in Spanish. If you watch it, try the Spanish version first. I'm not exactly sure why the protagonist's name, Capitan Trueno (Captain Thunder), gets translated as "Prince Killian" in the subtitles and on the DVD box. No one calls him "Prince" on the Spanish soundtrack, and even the subtitles leave in all the references to thunder in dialogue meant to explain his name. (And more than half the time the subtitles correctly translate "Captain" when other characters are addressing him, so the occasional mistranslation, "Prince," like the use of "Killian," is a distraction.)
This is the kind of film I'd have enjoyed as a kid in my early teens: lots of sword- swinging male bonding, a sexy blonde heroine whom the hero eventually gets to kiss, a wizard, a monster, a Bud-Spencer-type strongman with a funny "midget" sidekick, and an assortment of villains, some with magical powers. And for modern kids, despite the Third-Crusade setting, there's a positive friendship that quickly develops between the nominally Christian Captain and a nominally Muslim prince.
The film looks great, shot as it is on the same Spanish locations where classics like EL CID were filmed, and it has a lush orchestral background score reminiscent of those old historical epics. The script, however, is definitely on the level of a 1960s kid's matinée "second feature." Yes, the Spanish text on the comic-book frames of the end credits indicates that there will be a sequel. If the same cast returns, I'll watch it - but only in their own language.
Ruggine (2011)
The tragic summer when 13-year-old Carmine, Sandro, and Cinzia lost their dreams - forever.
Three troubled adults in contemporary Turin look back on the summer in the late '70s when their childhood – and their dreams – came crashing to an end. Children of poor immigrants from Southern Italy, 13-year-old Carmine, Sandro, and Cinzia spend their summer playing with their friends in and around the abandoned warehouse of a scrap metal company. Worldly-wise and adventurous, the children form their own little society, with budding bully Carmine the stick-wielding chief, and paramours Cinzia and Sandro parental figures to the youngest. When one of their number turns up murdered, the children spring into action – at first attacking the developmentally challenged man who interrupts their play, but then, after another child disappears, coming to understand that the murderer is a well respected adult whom their parents consider beyond reproach. And when Carmine's little sister goes missing, the children make moral choices that will scar them for life.
Valerio Mastrandrea, Stefano Accorsi, and Valeria Solarino are superb as the lost souls who, even in their 40s, have yet to find any grounding in their lives. Equally superb are Giuseppe Furlo, Giampaolo Stella, and Giulia Cocellatto as their younger selves. Filippo Timi is memorable as the local doctor whose a-Capella singing of opera arias will make your hair stand on end.
Watching Ruggine is a difficult experience. While the abuse and murder of children is kept off-screen, writer-director Daniele Gaglianone nevertheless has his camera linger, too long for the viewer's comfort, on images of adults and children that make more than just the murderer seem like potential abusers. The English-subtitled Italian DVD is rated "T," which is the equivalent of our "G" or "PG," but a minimum "R" would be required here – if this deeply disturbing film ever gets released at all.