Burn!

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Burn!

Directed by	Gillo Pontecorvo
Produced by	Alberto Grimaldi
Written by	Franco Solinas Giorgio Arlorio
Starring	Marlon Brando Evaristo Márquez
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Cinematography	Marcello Gatti
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	1969
Running time	112 min (U.S.)
IMDb profile

Burn! (Italian title: Queimada) is a 1969 film starring Marlon Brando and directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. The plot is loosely based on events in the history of Haiti. The main character is named after William Walker, the famous American filibuster. While based on issues that Walker symbolically represented, the film is not based on the life of Walker.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A British agent, Sir William Walker (Marlon Brando), is an agent provocateur sent to the island of Queimada (a fictional Portuguese colony in the Caribbean) in order to organize an uprising of black slaves to overthrow the Portuguese regime. Great Britain wants to get economic control of the island because it is an important sugar cane producer.

The plan is to replace the Portuguese administration by a formally souvereign state controlled by white latifundists loyal to Great Britain. In order to realize this project, William Walker convinces the black slaves to fight for their liberation from slavery and for freedom.

José Dolores (Evaristo Márquez) becomes the leader of the rebellion. After the overthrow of the Portuguese regime, British interests establish a corrupt puppet government while Dolores is margainalized. While slavery had been formally ended and the former slaves in theory had rights, a legal and property system was established where they were forced to continue to work in the sugar cane plantations in even worse conditions than before.

William Walker leaves the island after the revolution. He comes back to Queimada many years later, this time in order to destroy the black political movement he helped spawn. José Dolores has taken Walker's ideas to heart and is now leading a rebel army against the British puppet regime in Queimada. Walker is no longer working for the British government but for the "Royal Sugar Company," which organizes its own army and manipulates Queimada politics directly, including ordering the execution of one of its puppet presidents.

Eventually, the rebel army is defeated and Jose Dolores is executed, but this does not end the rebellion. The movie ends when Walker is killed by a rebel, and, as a result, Dolores' death is avenged.

[edit] Theme

The film is a reworking of the events of the Haitian Revolution and Toussaint L'Ouverture. It was also meant to reflect upon the situation in the Vietnam War, which was going on at the time.

Brando had the opportunity to have a role on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but chose instead to work on this film. He also had to turn down a major role in Ryan's Daughter because of this film's production problems.