You Can Kill a Man but not a Myth

Burn! – You Can Kill a Man but not a Myth

(I procrastinated to write down what I remembered and particularly like about Burn! for a good 2 weeks. I was distracted with a new book I got. So, let’s begin…)

There is no lying that initially what made me watch ‘Burn!’ was Marlon Brando. In specific, I wanted to watch Marlon in his early 40s. Due to my impatience, I decided to forward the film to its halfway mark just to get an idea of the ‘setting’ of the film, coincidentally it was a scene of an old English man writing on a black board which I later discovered to be the London stock exchange in the 19^th century, on the same board it wrote ‘Perak River 36/6’, of course that got me excited. But not excited enough to finish the film then, or perhaps I was distracted by something else, which is likely to be the case.

About a month later, I decided to read a little more about the film before attempting to sit through it. To my delight, I found out ‘Burn!’ was directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, who directed ‘Battle of Algiers’ three years earlier. Both ‘Battle of Algiers’ and ‘Burn!’ share the same theme of local rebel forces fighting against colonial powers who exploits the colonized land and its people. Unlike ‘Battle of Algiers’, ‘Burn!’ was set in a fictional island in the Carribean called Quiemada, but certainly there is nothing fictional about the story, although the characters and plot in the film are fictional, stories of similar narrative surely has made its mark in the history of most lands that were once colonized.

As I am not a writer for Rotten Tomatoes, I shall give a rest on breaking down the story and the actors performance. Although I must say the acting by both Marlon Brando who played William Walker, a British Officer and Evaristo Marquez who played the rebel leader Dolores was no less than outstanding. However, what I would share here are certain dialogues that I personally feel has anchored some of the significant scenes, which mostly came from the later part of the film.

At a dinner to celebrate the capture of Dolores headed by Walker after his rebel forces went on a hideout following episodes of clashes with the British forces, Walker concluded the ordeal in a simple sentence – ‘Britain raised a revolutionary leader to overthrow the Portuguese, when they don’t need him they throw him aside, when he rebels, Britain decided to kill him.’ It was indeed quite a statement from Walker on the realities of exploitation made by the Britain during its colonizing days, when every decision made, should put Britain on the winning end, regardless of morality.

Walker contemplated on the decision to execute Dolores, the very next morning he decided to free Dolores, but Dolores declined. Perhaps, he would rather die than to accept freedom granted by a white man. As Dolores makes his way to the noose, Walker rode on a horse carrying all his belongings to make his way back to the port to get onto the next ship home. Dolores last words to walker while he walked to face his death was ‘’Hey English, remember what you said? Civilization belongs to the white, but what civilization? And until when?’. Walker did not respond. As soon as Walker arrived at the port, a young man approached him to assist with his travel cases, just as how Dolores first offered his assistance when Walker first arrived in Quiemada. Unfortunately, this was in no way a new beginning for Walker but rather his very end, he was stabbed as the local crowd watches his anguish and offered no assistance. Perhaps they realized they have offered more than just assistance to the English, like what Dolores said, ‘…until when?’.

During the banquet the night before the execution of Dolores, Walker tried to convince the officers that executing Dolores might not be the best solution. His reason was ‘A myth is more dangerous than a man, because you can’t kill a myth.’ He was concerned that the news of the death of Dolores could spark similar rebel ideology in the nearby islands that were under the British control too and instead of eliminating a problem, they might be in a risk of creating more problem.

What strikes me most about this film was not in its art direction or fighting scenes or even Marlon Brando! Instead its extremely well written dialogues executed timely in key scenes. Dialogues which were simple but powerful enough to leave an impression. Pontecorvo surely have represented what he wanted to say in such eloquence through his moving images. The subjects of exploitation, freedom and morality were discussed quite simply and beautifully between only two key characters. It is not a film that tells you what to see, but instead what to think.

Wardah Mohamad

02 Jan 2015