When Criminals Become Admirable...

10 months ago

You know it's a great movie when you feel inspired after watching it. Unfortunately I just watched a Spanish film about a criminal. 😂 How's that for Netflix huh? 😆

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

🎥 The Trailer & Synopsis

Un hombre de acción (A Man of Action) is a story based on a real-life anarchist, a poor guy against the authorities, specifically banks. He starts off poor but ends up living a life stealing from banks for a seemingly revolutionary cause.

👓 The Cast

Here are some of the movie cast members.

Juan José Ballesta plays Lucio Urtubia
A Spanish youth who eventually became a bank robber "expert" in France. He was a bricklayer/construction worker too.
Miki Esparbé plays Quico Sabaté
Lucio's "maestro" who taught and inspired him. Francisco Sabaté y Llopart was an anarchist guerrilla against the Spanish dictatorship of then Head of State (Caudillo) Francisco Franco.
Liah O'Prey plays Anne
Lucio's wife. She started out as a student activist in college.
Alexandre Blazy plays Inspector Costello
The one who always catches Lucio.

_{Screenshot from the trailer. See above.}

😉 Artgirl's Review

I wasn't expecting to watch this movie today but I found it because of another film. Dune is finally on Netflix but unfortunately it doesn't have Spanish sub or dub. I've been slacking off with self-studying Spanish so thought I'd watch the film in Español. Alas, nada. Only English sub and dub. And so I typed Spanish in the search bar and voila! I found something new!

◙ Characters and Story

Is there a trend of Spanish bank heist movies on Netflix? I dunno. Seems like it but this is only the second one I've watched after La casa de papel (Money Heist). Un hombre de acción is definitely a movie worth watching!

I've never heard or seen anything about it before and so I watched without expectations, as usual. Apparently this 2022 movie is really good! I was definitely entertained!

Heck surprisingly it comes off as inspiring because the man is truly dedicated to his life of crime. No sense of God or government here, only humans living life the way they see how it should be. Definitely a character driven film with true to life dialogue.

This movie clearly shows how a man took matters in their own hands, thinking wrong is right. Thus Lucio acts and eventually leads, stealing from banks to compensate for poverty and to fund the anarchist movement. It has enough action going on to make it quite exciting 'til the end.

_{Screenshot from the trailer. See above.}

In the end, the protagonist and his group thinks they beat the enemy (American financial system) and the big ol' bank (which turned out to be Citibank) thinks they won against something insignificant. That seems like a Win-Win situation even if both believed it's Win-Lose. 🙃 Now that's a great story indeed.

Too bad the movie producers/writers did not share the political/government situation for people to understand the story better. At the time, Spain was under a dictatorship until 1975. No wonder then people like him embraced anarchism. A dictator always creates "rebels with a cause" out of any country, just like what happened in our nation too.

Dunno about France back then but the Spaniards against the dictatorship were exiled there. It turns out many other exiles (caused by themselves or otherwise) lived in Paris. Not surprising then that Lucio was not the only person who became an anarchist guerrilla. And so eventually he joined one of the groups that fought against the powers-that-be from where they were.

_{Screenshot from Wikipedia page on Lucio Urtubia.}

I know being a criminal is bad and yet as a movie watcher, we can be captivated by something we can only imagine. Just like how spy movies seem cool and everything until the protagonist/s gets shot at, punched, drugged, jailed or whatever. Nope, newsflash, it's a dangerous life if you actually live it. Which is why I admire how this was based on a real person's life.

Turning bad guys into some kind of relatable hero seems to be the trend in the last few decades. We all have movie or TV series villains we admire but this was based on a true story. Perhaps because some consider him a modern Robin Hood we begin to side with him as we watch. At least, based on the scenes, they didn't advocate killing anyone, just lying and stealing.

Art imitates life and what a wonderful piece of film it is because it doesn't end quite badly for Lucio. I also like the character of the inspector the best. Outwardly at least we see him change and obviously age well throughout the movie too.

◙ Acting

They all did a good job on this one. It's just perfect. Everybody did their part to make the film the way it is.

I'm not familiar with many Spanish actors but they all seem exemplary to me. For example, I love this shot of Anne's facial expression in one scene. Full of emotion fit for the scene!

_{Screenshot from the trailer. See above.}

◙ Cinematography, Production Design & Music

What I like about it is this is a period movie based on part of the life of Lucio Urtubia. That's from the 1940's to 1982. We see a bit of his younger years and how he started as a bank thief.

Eventually it also showed how forgery were done back when the technology we have now was just a figment of imagination. Of course without the internet and smartphones everything was done manually and by hand. I love that. Haha.

Set design, props, costume and everything looked great in my eyes. Hey I'm not European so it all looks fitting to whichever time to me. 😆

The only thing that lacked for me was aging the lead actor and his "wife". I mean, they didn't really bother much with making the actors look young enough or matured based on the character's age. They looked just the way they are at whatever age.

As for the music, I didn't notice it that much. Nothing stood out to me while watching. Cinematography didn't seem outstanding to me too but it's fine.

_{Movie poster from IMDb.}

♠ Rating

If I was to rate the movie, here's the breakdown:

Characters & Story: 9
Acting: 10
Cinematography, Production Design & Music: 7

Well it all still comes down to a rating of 8.6 out of 10 stars. I like everything about it except the little bits I mentioned.

Of course it's a must-watch despite the flaws. Just don't go being an anarchist after watching it okay? 😉 It doesn't help unless the government is extremely corrupt like when under a dictatorship. But of course the saints of the Catholic Church would probably disagree to any kind of rebellion.

As we all should know, following the 10 Commandments of God is the best for everyone. That plus daily prayers, going to Sunday mass without fail and frequent confession prevents the devil from making our life on Earth a living hell. Otherwise, as evidenced in this film which is based on a true story, suffering is caused by you and me.

XOXO,
@artgirl