Jonathan W
If this was meant to be a lesson on the "universality of faith", it fails immensely. It instead depicts the brainwashing and eventual Stockholm-syndrome-gone-sideways of a Mexica (not Aztec; "Aztec" is what the colonizer misnamed us) scribe. While it is refreshing to hear Nahuatl being spoken in a movie, hence the 2 1/2 stars, that's about it for redeeming qualities. It fails to depict the actual scale of brutality inflicted by the Spanish; one minute we see the immediate aftermath of a massacre, the next we see the majority of Mexica meekly accepting the role of peon except for one pesky holdout. It's ridiculous, historically inaccurate, and insulting, made even more so by the "kind friar who just wants to understand the savages" trope. Oh, and OF COURSE they had to trot out the ol' human sacrifice saw when depicting my people. Because that was our whole shtick, right? One trick ponies, that's us. This whole movie felt like Church propaganda from the beginning, but it was subtle about it at first. Toward the end, it was just blatant.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/12/23
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Audience Member
Spanish conquerors destroyed the language, religion and history of the Aztec.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
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Before Apocalypto was La Otra Conquista
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/05/23
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Audience Member
The budget really affects the story in a heavily negative way in that it prompts me to say this: If you do not have the money to tell a story about subject matter that could be incredibly exciting, then there's no sense in telling it. The Aztecs are such a rich and beautiful culture but they are misrepresented here and portrayed as short weakling dummies. The movie was shot on location in probably Teotihuacan which has nothing to do with the Aztecs with the exception that the Aztecs highly praised and thought that Teotihuacan was the city of gods. Most likely this city was inhabited by the Olmecs. This concept needed a large Hollywood sized budget to make the sets and generate special effects shots that would take us into the time period when scumbag Cortes destroyed an amazing culture....I'm sorry this looks like a great student film that can't cut the mustard as a professional production and because of this cannot immerse it's audience into it's boring slow paced overly dramatic story.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
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This is a beautifully-made film with some striking features and a unique story. It is the best film made on the Spanish conquest of Mexico, combining rich storytelling with powerful images and memorable performances.
Director Salvador Carrasco focuses on the human side of a major historical event, presenting characters that transport us back in time to a moment where radically different cultures met, clashed and molded together to form a new society. Damian Delgado is unforgettable as the Aztec scribe Topiltzin, who finds his world changed forever when the Spanish arrive, smash the old empire and impose a new religion. Elpidia Carrillo is full of strength and heartache in her portrayal of Tecuichpo, sister of the fallen Montezuma, now the trophy wife of the conqueror Hernando Cortes who is wonderfully resurrected by Inaki Aierra with presence and hubris. Embodying the religious invasion of the Aztec world is friar Diego de La Coruna, played with great sensitivity by Jose Carlos Rodriguez.
What Carrasco does so masterfully with these characters is use them to not just tell the story of the conquest, but to make us feel it intimately. The script does not cop out with senseless violence or dime novel theatrics, Carrasco is seriously trying to explore the human cost of a world which radically changes both culturally and in its religious makeup. Gone are false heroics or cardboard characters in this film, the performances never make us doubt for once that these are human beings experiencing powerful events. The dialogue is both elegant and fierce, clear but intelligent.
Carrasco and his team also re-create the world of the conquest with stunning art direction, costume design and lush, elegant cinematography. "The Other Conquest" was made on a small budget and yet contains images and shots worthy of Kubrick or Kurosawa. There is a delicate attention to detail in every frame, Carrasco manages to create a world that we can inhabit while experiencing the movie. The masterful score by the late Jorge Reyes and Samuel Zyman is a lush mixture of indigenous and classical music, providing a beautiful rhythm to the film.
There is a group of historical events which are endlessly mined for films, particularly World War II and Ancient Rome, yet few films have been made in our hemisphere about one of the key events in the history of the Americas. "The Other Conquest" doesn't just use the story of the Spanish invasion of Mexico for entertainment, it is indeed the only serious cinematic study of the cultural, social impact of this event. And in this age of war, culture clashes and new debates about language, religion and their places in society, a film like "The Other Conquest" provides much more than any of the big budget films hogging the rental charts. This is a unique work that should not be missed.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/25/23
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Audience Member
No me encantó, sin embargo creo que es una obra bastante propostiva. Parece una tragedia o incluso podrÃa ser una tragedia en tono de pieza porque aparentemente no sucede nada y sin embargo al final del camino encontramos a un Topiltzin bastante cambiado que parece aceptar esta condición de combinar sus tradiciones ancestrales con las nuevas tendencias eligiosas que trajeron de España los conquistadores del pueblo mexica. Quizá, puede ser, la alargaron un tanto o quizá simplemente tenÃamos que conocer esta lucha tanto externa como interna en la cual Topiltzin se negaba a aceptar esta nueva idea de abandonar a Tonatzin y aceptar a la Virgen MarÃa, como seguramente sucedio. Si bien no me fascinó la fotografÃa, creo que todo esfuerzo por exponer la desigualdad y la intolerancia, asà como la opresión, vigente hasta el dÃa de hoy, es bien visto y pudo haber sido una gran obra. Por cierto que se veÃa super falsa la iconografÃa de la vÃrgen. ParecÃa de papel maché, pero esa es ya otra cosa.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/20/23
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