Gillo Pontecorvo, a radical, brilliant, frustrating director has died. I won’t discuss his masterpiece, The Battle of Algiers, at any great length. Enough ink has been spilled, and will be spilled over this film. Suffice it to say that his realistic, in-depth portrait of the Algerian insurgency, with its detailed recordings of the techniques of cellular revolution, bombing and counter-terrorism tactics make it one of the most relevant (as well as one of the most beautifully made and fascinating) films of the last 50 years. Criterion has released it in a three-DVD special edition - I encourage everyone to see it, your cinematic education is incomplete without it.

Rather, I’d like to focus a little more attention on his Queimada (American title -”Burn!“), a lesser-known film which is nonetheless my personal favorite of his works (though I acknowledge that Algiers is a clearly superior film). Queimada is set on a small Caribbean plantation island. Marlon Brando, an agent of the British government, arrives to replace the Portuguese government with one more favorable to British trade interests. To do so, he befriends and uses a local slave Jose Dolores to foment unrest, and then turns that unrest his advantage. Mission accomplished, he departs the island. However, when Dolores realizes that the promises made were utter lies, and that his people are no better off under the new government, he revolts again. Brando is brought back to crush the new revolution, which no longer suits England’s interests.

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