In the right hands and under the right circumstances, bullfighting can be a sweeping, graceful, and majestic sport. In the wrong hands, it can be viciously brutal, gory, and mercilessly cruel. Francesco Rosi’s The Moment of Truth shows us both of these possibilities in a film that’s not your standard Hollywoodization of the sport (for superb examples of that, watch either version of Blood and Sand). The ring of truth echoes through every frame of this compelling if somewhat aimless saga, and you’ll never find a more authentic depiction of bullfighting than you have here unless you travel to Spain or Mexico to see one in person.
The Moment of Truth (Blu-ray)
Directed by Francesco Rosi
Studio: Criterion
Year: 1965
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 107 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: PCM 1.0 Italian
Subtitles: English
Region: A
MSRP: $ 29.95
Release Date: January 24, 2012
Review Date: January 21, 2012
The Film
4/5
Tired of working on his father’s wheat farm with no chance of ever having anything other than the bare essentials, Miguel (Miguel Mateo) travels to Barcelona to begin a new life in the city. Without any specific skills, however, finding work is nearly impossible, and he finds himself no better off in the city than he was in the country. He does, however, stumble his way into a torero training school run by Pedrucho (Pedro Basauri) who takes the young man in hand and teaches him all he knows about facing bulls in the ring. Miguel is a fast learner, and when he is taken to his first bullfight as an observer, Pedrucho’s prize pupil Curro bolts while Miguel jumps into the ring to save the day. Impressed by his courage and skill, sports agent Don José (José Gómez Sevillano) begins representing Miguel, and he quickly rises in the ranks of the toreros as the new rising star of Spain. His new-found fame brings him much money and acclaim, but the constant grind of performing with the uncertainties of life and death always hanging over him take its toll on his nerves as he begins to think about retiring, at age twenty-four.
Director Francesco Rosi shows us great chunks of bullfights in the early going, but as the film runs, we see only snippets of Miguel in action put together in rather cursory montages that emphasize his exhaustion and disillusionment. Wisely, the bullfights do not always show Miguel as triumphant. He suffers from occasional gouges by the various bulls’ horns and even injuries that require his being carried from the ring without winning the fight. All of this scores points for the film’s authentic flavor and texture as we see the tremendous effort required of these men during an afternoon’s work. Rosi also places his camera at a high perch and lets us see some of the graceful maneuvers the men-in-training perform in the torero school, an almost hypnotic sequence that could have been sustained to good effect. (Another moment later in the movie when Miguel wanders into an empty arena on the day of a fight also could have been held much longer to emphasize the aloneness he’s feeling at that moment: him against the upcoming vast power of the bull and the overwhelming expectations of thousands of fans who will demand he deliver the goods at the appointed time.) Rosi began the film with no story, and there really isn’t much of one in the final product. This study of the rise and fall of an athlete is about as barebones as a scenario can be.
The performers in the movie are all non-actors (apart from Linda Christian who has a one scene cameo as herself, making a play for Miguel in a sex scene that's not particularly well directed), so they’re basically playing aspects of themselves. Miguel Mateo has charisma to burn as the film’s leading man, and the genuine star power he exudes in the ring as a real matador carries forth outside the ring as well. The film captures his skills in close-up so the thrills that see him going for the kill in dramatic fashion are quite viscerally appealing and tremendously impressive. José Gómez Sevillano cames across very much as an authentic sports agent pushing his “property” to perform to reap the maximum amount of money possible in the shortest amount of time. Pedro Basauri has an appealing, flinty quality as the torero master teacher who knows the craft and how to get the most out of his pupils.
Video Quality
3.5/5
The film’s Techniscope 2.35:1 aspect ratio is faithfully delivered in a 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Using 300 mm lenses allows the camera to put us right into the ring with the bulls and their fighters, but focus is undoubtedly difficult to pull resulting in quite a few shots that don’t have the sharpness and clarity of some of the rest of the film. Color can be very rich, and flesh tones are natural throughout. Black levels aren’t particularly impressive, and a few stray hairs make their presences known on occasion. The white subtitles are very easy to read. The film has been divided into 17 chapters.
Audio Quality
3/5
The PCM 1.0 (1.1 Mbps) sound mix is very typical of its era. The film was post synched, so all of the dialogue has that flatness and lack of resonance that often plagues this process. Criterion’s engineers weren’t able to eliminate the hiss or crackle that’s present though at least the sound level of the crackle has been attenuated somewhat, and the hiss isn’t overpowering. Music sounds rather flat throughout, too, again typical of sound recording on a tight budget from this era.
Special Features
2/5
The disc offers a 14-minute interview with director Francesco Rosi recorded in 2004. In it, he talks about the lack of story going into the movie, how he got his bullfighting and San Fermin Festival footage, his use of non-actors in the roles, and the trouble he had getting a license to release the movie in Spain under Franco. The featurette is in 1080i.
The enclosed 19-page booklet contains the chapter listing, the cast and crew lists, some stills from the movie, and film professor Peter Matthews' examination of the film in contrast to the bullfighting films and stories of the past.
Criterion Blu-rays come with a menu item called “Timeline” which allows the user to see the chapter he’s currently viewing and his progress along the film’s timeline. The user may also use this item to place or remove bookmarks at select locations on the disc by pushing various colored buttons on the remote.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
Ringing with gritty authenticity and genuineness, The Moment of Truth is a much more valid view of the art of bullfighting than any of Hollywood’s more glamorized melodramas about the sport have ever been. The extras are rather paltry in this Criterion release, but one forgets their lack when he’s in the middle of the ring with the bull’s eyes glaring into one's own. It’s really quite something.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
