Dispara!

This film is a fine drama about a woman who gets raped by three men then hunts then down one by one with a cold determination of a professional assassin. After years of being an equestrian circus performer, Francesca Neri meets Antonio Banderas, a journalist, and romance seems to be in the offing but fate is unkind to them and sets in motion the tragic events of the story. The pursuit and revenge plot is straightforward with no surprises but the drama really builds when Neri herself becomes the hunted when an all-points alert is issued by Spanish police. Neri's role of a woman who takes the law into her own hands is one-dimensional but she sells her character well and manages to generate sympathy because of what happened to her. Neri and Banderas do have a certain chemistry between them and they make the premise work in spite of the unpleasant subject matter.

The story follows Ana (played wonderfully by the beautiful Francesca Neri) as a sharp shooter performing in the circus. She falls in love with a journalist named Marcos (Antonio Banderas). After a brutal rape and several murders later, she finds herself on the run with Marcos chasing after her.

The DVD story would have you believe that this is a typical Rape/ Revenge flick where the rape occurs early on and the rest of the film is the woman seeking vengeance. But the rape doesn't occur until 40 minutes in giving the viewers plenty of time to get to know Ana and like her character. She looks like Rachel Weisz and is quite impulsive and quirky. Her character is very likable and you will find her emotionally honest even when she is lying. This will make watching her downfall a little difficult to bear.

You watch Ana fall in love with Marcos, make love with him, and then you see the excitement in her eyes when she runs to her door one fateful night expecting Marcos on the other side. The gang rape is brutal, but most of the violence (outside of the rape) is implied. The revenge part takes place very soon after. The rest of the film is Ana and Marcos trying to reach each other one last time, making several mistakes along the way, and a very climactic reunion at the end.

Where the story veers into stupidity, is when Marcos sees the news story of the rapists murders, assumes Ana is the killer without even speaking to her, and then proceeds to rat on her instantly. That amore'. Soon after, Ana visits a doctor for her excessive bleeding (ahem, vaginal, due to the "bottle assault"), the doctor immediately calls the police on her the moment Ana leaves the room. Rape Advocacy, yeah! And get this…the doctor then goes on the radio giving the victims name and detailing her vaginal wounds! Ethics? We don't need no stinking Ethics!

Ultimately, this film is incredibly depressing and bleak. The ending will not make you feel any better about what transpired before hand. The victim gets no justice and she is punished for being victimized. A cop even refers to her as "the bitch."

Favorite Quote: "I said I'd follow you to Hell, well, here I am," spoken by Marcos to Ana after he finally catches up to her at the end.

DVD Extras: Scene Selection and brief Film Facts. There is an Italian and English dubbed version. The dubbed version is terrible and takes away from the atmosphere. Plus, I know what Antonio Banderas sounds like and I can assure you that was not it.

Bottom Line: Very dreary film with not much to recommend here except Francesca Neri's great performance.

Rating: 6/10

Molly Celaschi www.HorrorYearbook.com MySpace.com/HorrorYearbook1980

OUTRAGE, or "Dispara!" in Spanish gives us a glimpse of the real Antonio Banderas. If subtitles get in your way, then you cannot judge this movie, directed by the legendary Carlos Saura. The female lead is the versatile Francesca Neri ("Live Flesh") who has made some of the most daring European films of the 90's, switching easily from Spanish to Italian in her prolific 15 year or so career. This trio of great talent delivers a revenge drama/love story worth watching only for the lead actors' performances. Here you see the real Antonio Banderas, who went back to Spain at the height of his Hollywood crossover, to do what he had always done: ACT, and take a break from the tough guy/action hero/Latin lover Hollywood has made of him. The real Banderas is a sensitive actor, who actually has played mostly frail, bi/homosexual and mentally-challenged characters. Though OUTRAGE is not his best performance by any means, it is a rare look into the real actor. His character in OUTRAGE is possessed by the beauty and talents of a mysterious circus performer (Ms. Neri). The two start an unusual relationship and after a fateful night's event, both main characters go down a destructive path of revenge. Check it out. I bought it from Amazon.com, not to plug them, but because it is available from them at a very good price.

It's hard to catch the nuances (that I hope are there) in a subtitled film. Francesca Neri is the star of this film, even though Antonio Banderas is featured on the U. S. release. It has an exotic (to me) location, a circus in Madrid. Neri's character suffers a brutal rape (Not an easy scene to watch) and the rest of the film deals with her method of dealing with the wrong done her, and its unintended consequences.

In Madrid, the journalist Marcos Vallez (Antonio Banderas) is writing an article about a circus and he schedules an interview for the next day with the lead attraction Anna Meltzer (Francesca Neri) a.k.a. the Amazon Queen Guiditta, who simultaneously rides a horse and sharply shoots in balloons in her performance. After the interview, they feel attracted for each other and they spend the rest of the day and the night together. In the morning, Marcos travels to Barcelona to cover a concert and promises to meet Anna on the next day and follow her to hell. However, three men gang rape Anna during the night after her performance with extreme violence and the disturbed Anna takes her rifle and ammunition to chase the rapists, but with tragic consequences.

"Dispara!" is a depressing and heartbreaking travel to hell of a sweet character magnificently performed by the extremely beautiful and talented Francesca Neri. This movie is great but the plot is not simply a revenge of a woman brutally attacked but a very sad, realistic, dark and quite unpleasant drama, reason why it is not among my favorite movies. The character of Anna Meltzer is very well developed in the beginning; therefore when the rape happens, the viewer is entirely connected feeling empathy for her nice character. The attitude of Marcos Vallez is despicable, mixing feelings with his profession, telling his suspicious about Anna to his editor without any evidence. I regret that the DVD released by Brazilian Distributor Spectra Nova is awfully dubbed in English without option to the original language (Spanish). My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Dispara" ("Shoot")