Drama/comedy about unhappy events happened during Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in which a museum guard becomes involved into difficulties and problems when he takes a Goya painting . After the Spanish Civil War breaks out, the Prado Museum is being evacuated . One of the janitors (Gabino Diego) encounters a painting being left by the operators , it is a wonderful auto-portrait , a real work of art , which was painted by the great master, Francisco De Goya Lucientes who was born in Fuentetodos , Zaragoza , and takes it to prevent damage by bombing . In the interim , he finds a young woman (Leonor Watling) with whom he falls in love . Assisted by her and family members, aunt (Adriana Ozores) , her son and grandfather (Luis Cuenca) , the museum guard tries to save Goya's masterpiece intact amidst the fights , shots and blow-up .
¨Hora De Valientes ¨(1998) results to be other of the innumerable stories to deal with dramatic deeds regarding the Civil War background . A familiar topic about the global horrors of a fratricide war , impossible to forget to our cinema . Dramatic picture about Spanish civil war and its consequences , including some comic touches in charge of likable Gabino Diego as a young curator and the old secondary Luis Cuenca as a veteran anarchist . The picture has been defined by Mercero himself as a 'realistic tragicomedy, a romantic history, a historic fresco and a socio-political fable'. Supporting cast is frankly excellent such as Jose Maria Pou , Juan Jose Otegui , Ramon Langa , Hector Colome , among others . Good production design by Gil Parrondo , considered to be one of the best Set designers from Spanish cinema . Atmospheric as well as evocative musical score by Bingen Mendizabal . Colorful and appropriate cinematography by Jaime Peracaula .
The motion picture was professionally written (along with Horacio Valcarcel) and directed by Antonio Mercero though has some flaws and resulted to get a moderated success at Spanish Box office . Mercero is a author of great hits TV series and several award-winning films . In 1970 he started working for TV as he shot several documentaries and some chapters for the series "Crónicas Un Pueblo" or ¨Chronicles of a village¨(1971) , a big hit in Spain despite its deep ideological content, risky for the period it was made in ; and specially successful was ¨the phone booth¨ (1970) (TV), which won 10 national and international awards, including the Emmy Award in 1973. Then he realized ¨Los Pajaritos¨ (1973), ¨Gioconda is sad¨ (1975), the series "Ese Señor De Negro" or ¨That man in black¨ (1975), La Noche del Licenciado (1978), and his three biggest hit smashes : ¨Turno Oficio¨ TV series about advocates in law , "Blue summer , Verano Azul" (1978) which became a sociological phenomenon and "Farmacia de Guardia" (1990) about an Apotheke . Other important film directed by Mercero was ¨Don Juan Querido Fantasma¨ , an amusing comedy well performed by recently deceased Juan Luis Galiardo . Today, he still works for TV as ¨Manolito Gafotas¨ series and some of his latest work in cinema have been ¨Guerra De Papa¨, ¨Esperame en Cielo¨ a parody about a Franco's double , ¨The treasure¨ and ¨Floor 4ª¨ (2002) a film about children with cancer treated with a touch of humor . His last film was ¨? Y Tu Quién Eres?¨ about Alzheimer illness and starred by Manuel Alexandre . Rating : Acceptable and passable , 6 . Well worth seeing .
