Goodbye, "Machismo"
Added 4/2/2007
This is a brilliant, if unsettling movie. On its surface, it revels in various sorts of violence, including attempted rape, bullfights gone bloody, and serial killings, real or imagined. Beneath the flashy surface, though, Almodovar has a serious aim. He's examining the effects on his contemporary Spanish characters of a religion that was frequently rigidified into pharisaism and a code of manly behavior often reduced to mere "machismo" during the immediately preceding reign of Franco. What he presents us with in the film is a set of characters malignly influenced by such cultural baggage. Though seriously disturbed, they are at the same time both moving and unwittingly comic. Diego, the gored bullfighter and Maria, the lawyer, both buy heavily into the "machismo" code and wind up confounding a delight in eros with a monstrous one involving death. At the center of the action, and perhaps the most disturbed by his culture's warped expectations is Angel (Antonio Banderas), who oscillates between a mother whose religion is stiflingly conceived and his own, hidden reverence for bullfighting. He is himself just an inexperienced youth furiously seeking possible paths to manhood. Like a child, he endearingly faints at the mere sight of blood. For this reason, he has to constantly reassure the curious around him, who themselves are suffering from a "machismo" cultural lag, that he is not in fact gay. No other explanation, after all, would fit their too narrow conception of manhood.
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One of Almodóvar's worst
Added 3/7/2007
I am a long time fan of Almodóvar and of his films of the 80s and early to mid 90s, however I can not say that about this film. MATADOR along w/ LIVE FLESH have to his two worst films. This one in particular is utterly boring and just uninspiring. I saw this for the first time when I was in high school in the early 90s and hadn't seen it since. I tried watching it again thinking maybe I didn't understand it as well and thought maybe it will be more appealing to me as an adult. Well I was wrong. This movie lacks the charm & charisma that is usually pulsating through his films.
1 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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one of Almodovar's absolute BEST!
Added 1/29/2006
This was the first Almodovar film I'd ever seen, and it's made me a lifelong fan of his. Lately he's become a bit too serious, overreaching and melodramatic---"Bad Education" was especially disappointing---in contrast to the fascinating, gorgeous and hilarious black comedy and absurdism of masterpieces like "Matador," "Tie Me Up Tie Me Down" and "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." It's the difference between reading Charles Bukowski at his best versus reading some pompous "The New Yorker" column.
Unfortunately this film is extremely difficult to find nowadays, but it would totally be worth owning and seeing over and over again. Every frame is beautiful, and the characters are all strangely interesting in their own fetching absurd ways. The cast is perfectly chosen and directed, and the young pre-Hollywood Antonio Banderas is truly a pleasure to watch, his earnest absurdity has an inherent comic genius similar to that of Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate"...you laugh your @ss off at him all the time but at the same time find it impossible not to like and identify with him. The characters like the film have an exhilaratingly fresh, devil may care energy and abandon that is simply irresistible.
Granted, if you are a rigidly conventional, straight-laced person you'll probably find Almodovar's early work very hard to swallow. The rest of us will likely find it far superior to his current day output.
7 out of 9 people found this helpful.
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Matador Shocks You
Added 12/19/2004
This is an Antonio Banderas classic with Carmen Maura, Pedro Almodovar, and friends from Spain--and the scenes from Spain are beautiful. But true to Almodovar, the movie leans to the morbid and the perverse. I would not recommend Matador for people who are offended by comical gory murder scenes, and it is a pity that the movie has no English subtitles!
2 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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One of Almodovar's "classics"
Added 8/28/2003
This is one of his best movies - hope to see it available again, on DVD this time around!
1 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Love Almodovar films! These movies are very addicting and you can never guess what the ending of the film will be,It always keeps you guessing. I have to admit i just bought this series because of the movie Law of desire with antonio banderas playing gay! but i ended up loving all of them. :)
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viva pedro
Added 3/7/2009
This was a great gift for my wife. She's a huge Almodovar fan, and I've recently started watching his movies. I give this product 5 stars.
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Viva Pedro - a must have for Almodovar fans!
Added 10/6/2008
I'm so happy to have this superb collection including films I haven't seen before. They are all masterpieces from first to very recent. It's interesting to see Antonio Banderas in Law of Desire playing and looking like a 20 year old. I only wish there were some film notes in the boxed set. A great buy and definitely a collector's item.
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