The Liberator Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Liberator Blu-ray Movie Review

George Washington's South American cousin.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 9, 2015

There’s a Bolivar Street right around the corner from my house, but like a lot of guys who probably didn’t pay that much attention in World History class, I only had the vaguest idea of who Simón Bolívar actually was. Something to do with South America, right? Wars of independence and the decline of a Spanish Imperialism, right? Well, yes and no, as The Liberator, an engaging if probably too redacted version of Bolivar’s life, ably indicates. This joint Spanish and Venezuelan (along with a few other auxiliary countries) production is long on epic vistas and even on some more intimate aspects of Bolivar’s often stormy existence, but it is perhaps a bit too glossy for its own good, evidently bypassing a number of more troubling aspects in its titular hero’s history as it attempts to keep Bolivar more or less firmly planted on a pedestal, rather than exploring any “warts and all” strategy. The Liberator was short listed for this year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film but ultimately didn’t make the final cut of nominees, and that may in fact be some indication of its ultimate impact: it’s a beautiful, even heartfelt, film that tends to play too much like a CliffsNotes version of history, offering a generalist overview that is never less than watchable but which tends to glide by without providing much of an emotional punch.

There’s little doubt of the direction director Alberto Arvelo is going to take with The Liberator, given the adulatory epigram that begins the film:

Simón Bolívar fought over 100 battles against the Spanish Empire in South America. He rode over 70,000 miles on horseback. His military campaigns covered twice the territory of Alexander the Great. His army never conquered — it liberated.

Much later in the film, when Bolívar is marauding through the Venezuelan countryside, much to the shock and chagrin of the Spanish powers that be, he looks at a stunned Spanish soldier who has asked him “Who are you?” Bolívar answers curtly, “I am the people,” and it’s clear that Arvelo sees Bolívar as much as a symbol for the yearning to be free as he does as an actual individual. That tactic proves to be problematic at times for the film.

Bolívar’s tempestuous temperament is at least referred to early on, as he meets a “working woman” who has evidently been a regular squeeze of his. But even this scene, which ultimately turns into a short-lived chase sequence when those pesky Spanish royalists show up, has just the whiff of stereotype about it—what with the “hot blooded Latin” aspect and all. Timothy J. Sexton’s screenplay tends to work in shorthand here and throughout the film, with the result being that those who (like this particular history challenged writer) don’t know that much about Bolívar may finish the film not really knowing that much more about him.

Bolívar (Édgar Ramírez) makes for a rather unlikely revolutionary, having been born into a wealthy family with abundant land and property in Venezuela. And in fact there’s very little in the film that points to any secure motivation for his ultimate stance against Spain’s hegemony. Some of it seems to spring from the conscience of his similarly noble wife, María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaiza (María Valverde), a beautiful young woman who reacts in horror when she sees how hideously black slaves are being treated. But Sexton’s screenplay never really investigates this corner of Bolívar’s psyche, choosing to focus on the epic struggle for independence rather than what actually sparked it.

And it’s in the battle scenes that The Liberator often comes most viscerally alive. In what often plays like a kind of 19th century guerrilla warfare version of the D-Day assault that gave Saving Private Ryan such a gut wrenching opening, Arvelo and his cinematographer Xavi Giménez traipse through various battles with handheld cameras closely shadowing Bolívar as dirt and shrapnel are tossed about willy-nilly. Bolívar’s ability to win over native peoples to his cause is dealt with discursively (and in fact there’s little explanation how a non-native considered himself an indigenous freedom fighter), and even some of Bolívar’s many campaigns are given the “expressive montage” treatment, robbing the film of action elements to offset its sometimes ponderous dialogue scenes.

Still, The Liberator is often an exciting viewing experience, and it is certainly never less than stunningly picturesque. In fact the film’s salient if somewhat subliminal achievement may be in its presentation of a landscape so ravishingly beautiful that it becomes easy to understand why Bolívar and his minions fought so valiantly to make it their own. It’s also rather refreshing to hear more than one character in The Liberator talk about an “American spirit” and to realize it’s obviously not about the United States. Ultimately if The Liberator doesn’t delve all that deeply into Bolívar’s inner life, there’s such a parade of awe inspiring vignettes offered in the film to make it a generally compelling if only surface deep exploration of a hero’s quest to rid a huge swath of South America from what he saw as invaders and usurpers.

The Liberator Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Liberator is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Media Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. As mentioned above in the main body of the review, this is an often ravishingly beautiful presentation, one that takes full advantage of a wide array of both Spanish and Venezuelan location work. Depth of field in several scenes set in the Venezuelan countryside is astounding, seeming to penetrate for scores of miles, past lush valleys and peering into a distant, mountainous, horizon. While there has been some requisite color grading (once again to both blue and yellow-brown), there really is no significant loss of detail due to this approach. Detail and fine detail are exceptional throughout the presentation. The palette, when not artificially tweaked, looks natural and offers beautiful saturation. The only point of concern is a slight bit of crush and attendant loss of shadow detail in several of the darkest sequences. Otherwise, this is a stellar presentation of an unusually beautiful looking film.

The Liberator Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Liberator features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix ostensibly in Spanish, though with quite a bit of English material as well (Bolívar's Saul Alinsky-esque mentor, Torkington, is played by Danny Huston, and those scenes tend to be entirely in English by both Huston and Ramirez). There is some great immersion in effects like the clear panning of horse hooves as Bolívar and others chase through the Venezuelan countryside. Gustavo Dudamel's impressive score also sits comfortably in the side and rear channels most of the time. Dialogue is very cleanly presented, and the entire mix is well prioritized, with excellent fidelity and no issues of any kind to report.

Note: Once again Cohen's authoring house has made this disc's lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix the default audio option.

The Liberator Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction by Gustavo Dudamel (1080p; 1:09) offers some brief comments by the noted (sorry) conductor (and in this case, composer), who in addition to helming the Los Angeles Philharmonic also leads The Simón Bolívar Orchestra.


• Making of Featurette (1080p; 41:03) is a nicely in depth piece which has some really interesting interviews with people like extras who discuss what Bolivar has meant to them. There's also a lot of behind the scenes material, including a fun look at green screen effects in some of the battle sequences.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:21)

The Liberator Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

More of a hagiography at times than a "warts and all" biographical film, The Liberator is simply stunning from a visual (and even aural) standpoint, but it never really connects on a deeply emotional level. Probably best enjoyed as a primer of sorts on its iconic hero, The Liberator looks and sounds fantastic in high definition, and comes Recommended.