Historical film with great Spanish cast dealing with important events of the Madrid uprising that gave birth the Independence War with the subsequent appointment José Bonaparte or Pepe Botella as King of Spain , Battle of Bailén 1808 , Battle of Tudela 1810 , Court of Cadiz , Declaration of the Mayor of Móstoles against the French invasion , Guerrilleros battling enemy troops and several others . So-so but acceptable at times epic/drama movie , in overlong runtime 150 min minutes approx . Being reenacting essential deeds in XIX century under point of view an a print worker called Gabriel : Quim Gutiérrez. Concerning following happenings : Popular mutiny of Aranjuez in which is dismissed the cunning minister Manuel Godoy , Carlos IV's Bayona abdication coerced by Napoleon , Madrid popular unpheaval May 2 ,1808 and subsequent fighting at the Artillery Plaza of Monteleon among Daoiz, Velarde Ruiz against French troops . Along with notorious roles who intervened in the Madrid rebellion led by officers as Captains Daoiz , Velarde and lieutenant Ruiz , rebel Manuela Malasaña , and others as Fernando VII El Deseado , Carlos IV and his wife Maria Luisa de Palma , Manuel Godoy nicknamed Principe De La Paz and French roles as general Joaquin Murat .
A soap opera including a zarzuela aroma , a papier-mâché epic with a love story and , to top it off, impregnated with a cornered reflection on how brutish were the Spanish people attempting to solve everything . Reenacting important events as the entrance and reception by the Madrid people of Fernando VII after Carlos IV's Bayona abdication coerced by Napoleon , the Madrid upheaval May 2, 1808 with charge Mamelucos included , the latter with spectacular and bloody scenes in which hundreds of Madrileños are killed both in the attacks carried out by the soldiers and in the executions proceeded in Moncloa and the Pricipe Pio Mountain with the usual print of Francisco de Goya painting these lugubrious facts . However, the great problem of Sangre de Mayo is not so much that its historical and/or didactic vision is very scattered and some boring . The big problem is that , as a film, it takes almost two hours to decide to be something: and that something is not a historical fresco, even if it spends a long time showing us all the interior design of the Spanish Court to , in the end , not explain anything at all about courtly intrigues . Sangre de Mayo is not even a portrait of the popular soul of Madrid , due to the much use and abuse of a certain ¨cañí¨ costumbrism , excessive and useless dialogue based on accumulating names and encyclopedic references that, I suppose, are put there for Garci and his screenwriter Horacio Valcárcel. It really deals with our starring Gabriel Quim Gutierrez who falls in love for Inés : Paula Echevarría , meanwhile he is hired at palace by an aristocrat Anastasia : Natalia Millán who attempts to take advantage of him sexually . Later on , Inés is taken over by two stingy relatives : Miguel Rellán and Tinasainz who exploit her and lock her up in their house, so Gabriel tries to free her to work in their store. And that is when the Madrid uprising against the French broke out .
Financed by TeleMadrid in budget enough , in fact the Madrid upheaval is spectacularly reenacted by hundreds of extras and nice production design from Gil Parrondo who previously won Academy Awards for Patton and Nicolas and Alexandra . The film was uneven but professionally directed by José Luis Garci. Rating : 5.5/10. Average but passable thanks to the great main and support actors appearing here and there .
