• Press Notes: The Moment of Truth

    “Francesco Rosi’s The Moment of Truth is an astonishing film, arguably the greatest bullfighting film ever made,” writes Svet Atanasov in a review at Blu-ray.com. “It is wild, it is brutal, it is beautiful and at times even erotic.” He goes on to describe the film’s unique authenticity: “The main protagonist, Miguel, is played by real-life bullfighter Miguel Romero, ‘Miguelín.’ Unsurprisingly, the long sequences where he is seen bullfighting are simply breathtaking.” For Movie City News, Gary Dretzka calls the film a masterpiece, and explains that “Rosi’s docudrama uses bullfighting as an entry point in his search for the soul of a country.” DVD File’s Mike Restaino praises the film for offering that “visceral, revealing you-are-there immediacy that Rosi has made a career out of.” And for GreenCine, Philip Tatler IV declares The Moment of Truth “a beautifully wrought document of a rarely seen world.”

    Press Notes

Related Films

4 comments

  • By Nancy
    March 20, 2012
    10:07 AM

    Many compassionate people have been working to outlaw bull "fighting" in Spain and now you are glorifying it. No matter how "beautiful and erotic" it is to you,I am sure the bull who was murdered felt differently. What movie that glorifies oppression will you write a paean to next, Birth of a Nation?
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    • By Jason
      April 13, 2012
      02:39 PM

      Birth of a Nation actually is an adequate comparison to The Moment of Truth because both depict questionable things that need to be watched from a distance, yet possess an undeniable cultural and historical worth.

  • By Mona Molarsky
    April 13, 2012
    01:06 PM

    Watch the movie and you will see that bullfighting is not glorified by director Francesco Rosi. In fact, Rosi's tight close-ups of the bulls as they suffer and die could be construed as an outcry against this ancient barbarism. But the bulls were not the only victims in the Franco-era Spain that Rosi depicted. This great director offers a complex and nuanced vision of a brutal world.
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  • By Tyler
    April 13, 2012
    01:36 PM

    I will defend Criterion's decision to release this, because as a cultural document it is incredible. But don't get me wrong, I have no plans to ever watch this again. And I do believe that bullfighting is glorified by Rosi. In the interview with him on the disc, he talks about how, when performed properly, bullfighting is beautiful or graceful or something to that effect. Which I could not disagree with more. There's nothing beautiful or graceful here. But who knows how I would feel had I been raised in a different place and time?
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