While at War

A great film. Not only for acting, for stories, for portraits of characters or atmosphere but for the feeling to see a warning. And for a form of naked honesty reflecting not only the vulnerability of the main character, but ours. A film about illusions against reality. About courage, friendship and about Spain as result of ambiguous energies. And, sure, a film about Miguel de Unamuno proposed, in admirable manner, by Karra Elejade. A film about sides of power and about vulnerabilities. About fear, wars, doubts and power from roots and cynismus and murders and deep loneliness as refuge and cage. No doubts, it is not the best Amenabar. But, for many, many reasons, it is one of the most useful.

But what i do know ,and do know how, to appreciate a marvelously made and brilliantly acted movie like this, don miguel is just fantastic. my next mission in life are to devour all i can find on the subject spanish civil war, it mustve been a quagmire like the balkan story in the 1990's.

the grumpy old man gives a 10 with a recommend

This is a very simple story and I think Amenabar wants to warn us about the dangers we are facing today. Our intellectuals, not only academics, are watching, without any big unrest, the rise of fascism in our countries and aren't clearly going against it. Miguel Unamuno was one of them, he thought their current regime (the republic) wasn't going good enough and he believed that those right wingers bringing some force and order could solve the problems of Spain. He even financed them! Meanwhile, he closed his eyes to the reality, despite warnings from very close friends, and all the signs around him, but then, when he woke up, it was already too late. See any resemblance to what is happening today? What are our intellectuals doing? Think about it, soon it might be too late again.

Violence may win a fight, but it does not win hearts. It does not persuade. During the first months of the Spanish civil war a senior professor and famous writer, Miguel de Unamuno, doesn't take the uprising too seriously. Cooler heads will prevail he believes. Yet as his friends and colleagues disappear, Miguel realizes he made a great mistake.

While at War is based on real events and the belief that Franco has not really died. "He is a ghost that haunts Spain to this day," said Alejandro Amenabar "the same events could happen again anywhere." Spain made great again. I was fascinated not only by the character of Miguel de Unamuno, but also by the portrayal of Franco. He avoids the inflexibility that brought down other dictators of the time. Franco is quiet, patient and wise in a devious - not moral - sense. He learns from others and changes as needed. It is fascinating to see some aspects of how the fascists and Franco came to power. It is not how I imagined. In my ignorance I even imagined the wrong character to be Franco through half the film. While at War is not merely a good story, it is well made and acted as well. Seen at the Toronto international film festival.

Great story, great acting, great direction. Maybe it did not happen exactly as it is told (it is a film not a documentary) but the portrait of that Spain, of those days, of Unamuno, of the militars is perfect. The reasons of the caracteres, of all of them, not only Unamuno or Franco but also Millán Astray, the friends and family of D Miguel are a perfect mirror tonlook at and think over. After enjoying this film I started reading again some of Unamuno's books I had already read many years ago when I was younger.