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…
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As I understand it Mr Mortensen is of partly Latin American descent, so he comes by his Spanish honestly.
Yup! And grew up partially in Argentina.
If you are on a 17th century Spanish dress quest, you could add la Folie des Grandeurs, a classic swashbuckle French film set at the Spanish Court with a mix of 1960’s bouffants and surprisingly good huge court dresses and hairstyle à la Velazquez!
I’ll check it out, thanks!
There is a recent publication on Spanish dress at the court of Velasquez by Amanda Wunder (?) (Yale University Press) and she just gave a talk at FIT (I was unable to go) but they said it will be posted to their YouTube channel … just FYI.
YOU are my new best friend! Immediately going to check out the talk and the book…
I was just going to mention that book too! There are also two episodes on the Dressed podcast about it. The book is Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velazquez: A Tailor at the Court of Philip IV. This is about the tailor responsible for the dresses in Velazquez’ iconic paintings. Truly fascinating!
As a reenactor of the period the movie is somehow a mixed bag.
The novel obviously is a “Three Musketeers for Wannabes” … you should not think too much about plausibility.
The movie tries to press the whole story in a single film, which results in some extreme jumps and too long scenes on the other hand. Costumes and equipment from OK to really bad such as the modern shirt of Mortensen…