I don’t think I heard about Captain Alatriste: The Spanish Musketeer when it was released in 2006, but it’s intrigued me just because 1) why is Viggo Mortensen in a Spanish production, and 2) the images look good, but why haven’t I heard more about it? I’ve been on a 17th century Spanish dress kick (which, if you’ve never geeked out on, you really should, because ALL KINDS OF WEIRD but fabulous things happen! Sorry but THIS IS AMAZING), so I thought I’d give it a whirl. Hey, I don’t always make good choices!
The film adapts a popular modern series of books about the fictional “Captain Alatriste,” a Spanish soldier who fights in the Eighty Years War (1566/1568–1648) who took place in the Spanish-occupied Netherlands. I’ll say, if you’re a war/battle nerd, you might love this so long as you’re not looking for plot. Because while it’s gorgeously filmed (and mostly decently costumed, as I’ll discuss below), particularly with Extremely Long War/Battle Sequences that seem very realistic…
Do you want to read all of this review (with over 2,000 words and over 60 images) of Alatriste (2006)? The full post is here!
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It’s funny to see how Spanish court fashion in the 1650´s (giant hoops) would resurrect 70-80 years later and shaped a signifiant part of fashion in Europe for decades
I’m not going to lie, the fact that Mr Mortensen was raised in Argentina reminds me of the old description of Argentinian Spanish as “Espanol spoken with an Italian accent” which never ceases to amuse me.
Also, I seriously want to watch this but have yet to stumble across it on any service I have access to – might one please ask where you watched it?