Mexican-made historical re-enactment of the adventures of a shipwrecked conquistador among American Indians in the 16th Century, his separation from his fellow Spaniards, his apprenticeship to a native medicine man, his independent career as an itinerant miracle worker. The account of any such conversion and assimilation is bound to be a bit slow -- legitimately slow, but in this instance taxingly and mind-wanderingly slow. The magic and miracles, presented matter-of-factly (director Nicolás Echeverría is a former documentarian), leave us very much on the outside, obliged to swallow mere say-so. And on the outside is a bad place to be when faced with acting performances so theatrical, so thrashing, so intense, so convulsive. The production is quite handsome and -- as far as a production can be -- persuasive. Some striking visual effects are gotten from the application of dried mud as body makeup and hair mousse. With Juan Diego. (1991) — Duncan Shepherd
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