Hello, phalaxist moviegoers! Today I am gonna tell you about The Siege of the Alcazar,
an heroic war film which displays the endurance, courage, self-sacrifice and patriotism that characterized our brothers during the siege of Toledo's Alcázar
during the Civil War. The reds, treacherous as only communists can be, will tell you
that The Siege of the Alcázar is a propaganda film, but of course, what else can you
expect from the reds?
The Siege of the Alcázar is a dramatic epic whose plot gets kickstarted when Calvo
Sotelo, the leading speaker of the anti-republican factions in the corrupt Spanish
Parliament, is assassinated after daring to point out the incompetence and complacence
of Spanish politicians. As a response, all the army officers who are still loyal to
God and the Spanish flag withdraw their support from the Government and organize an
armed raising to restore the country's freedom and place a benevolent, liberty loving
fascist leader in power.
Sadly, the rising was not as quick and effortless as expected, and some military units
found themselves rising alone in the middle of a territory which was still loyal to
the filthy communists (may a thousand ducks peck at their noses). The Toledan Garrison, along with the Civil Guard, found itself in such position, and had to take
shelter in the Alcázar, in which they withstood siege for months. They could have
given up. They could have surrendered. They did not, because "surrender" is not in the
vocabulary of a real fascist!
So what can it be said of this unbiased, Historically acurate movie?
For starters, the cast and characterization are quite fine. The leader of the Toledan
Garrison,Colonel Moscardó, looks like a wall of stone capable of taking bad news
without faltering for a single instant. He barely talks, and when he does, his words
are loading with meaning. His personality is best defined with the answer he gives in
a scene in which the reds phone him and demand his surrender.
"I am ashamed that you, who learnt in the same academy as I did, come to me talking
about surrender. No! I will not surrender, for this alcázar has always been witness
of heroic acts, yet no cowardice."
Thus speaks a man who only answers to God and Country. This is a man who does not
hesitate to deny surrender when the treacherous communists capture his family and
threaten to kill his son if he does not surrender the alcázar. Only honor and determination can fend off the communist's evil ways, and this man, like any phalanxist, has them both in spades!
The movie is a great testament of the resilience of the alcázar itself. Built in the
3rd Century and restored by Charles V in the 16th Century, its walls could endure
heavy artillery fire which was unleashed against it all through the siege. This fortress has suvived to this very date, despite of every attempt of the machiavelic
goons which tried to bomb it, undermine its foundations with underground galleries,
and dynamite the place without any regard for the hundreds of women and children who
sheltered inside.
The audience gets to feel the tension of the garrison running out of food and ammunition and, almost as bad, their inability to know how the liberation war is going
in the rest of Spain. Siege movies always risk getting borying, but we get heroism
enough to fill ten movies. Not a single soldier ever thinks of giving up, ever lets
his spirit go down, because every second they stand in their post is a second the
ccommunists' ambitions are foiled.
Make no mistake: communists are evil. Our soldiers in this film are depicted as handsome, uniformed, disciplined warrions; the red scumbags are a bunch barely worth
considering an army, with no single element to unify them but their lack of hygiene,
their lack of a common uniform and the lack for any moral standing. Only beings of
such depravity could abuse the families of the defenders of the alcázar where they
could see it, in an attempt to run their moral down. Such depravity!
I think the most touching scene of the film is when some desperate plan fails and all
hope is lost. A good officer who somehow was tricked to fight in the red army (I
suppose he does not know what communism is about) arranges it for a priest to give the
last rites to the defenders before the impending last assault. All hope is vanished,
but not the will to fight.
The action could have been better produced. The shootings aren't really anything to
write home about. Still, some action scenes are quite fine. You never get tired of
watching the communists walk like brainless zombies just in front of the machineguns,
so they can be comfortably exterminated. Another favorite of mine is a part in which
the communists plant their flag in a position of the alcázar, and a determinated
officer gathers a small group of valiant souls and, against all odds, figths every
inch to the flag and kicks it down. Bonus points for running out of bullets and brandishing his rifle like a baseball bat, bashing ugly communist faces.
As only noble causes can do, and as History records, it all ended well for our brothers, and with the aid of God Toledo resisted. I found it refreshing and not
disturbing at all to be treated with a phalanxist anthem in celebration of the fascist
victory in the end, and I loved the fascist salute some secondary characters give to
the camera just before the credits.
All in all, this movie is a great reminder of the harmony, peace, tolerance and comfort fascism brings. Go watch it. If this is available in a language you can understand.
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