''Gold'' ( es, Oro, links=no) is a 2017 Spanish

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Agustín Díaz Yanes Agustín Díaz Yanes (born 1950, in Madrid) is a Spanish Goya Award-winning screenwriter and film director. Filmography Screenwriter * ''Al límite'' (1997) * ''Belmonte (film), Belmonte'' (1995) * ''Demasiado corazón'' (1992) * ''Alone Tog ...

. The film is based on a short story by

Arturo Pérez-Reverte Arturo Pérez-Reverte Gutiérrez (born 25 November 1951 in Cartagena) is a Spanish novelist and journalist. He worked as a war correspondent for RTVE for 21 years (1973–1994). His first novel, ''El húsar'', set in the Napoleonic Wars, was ...

and depicts a 16th-century Spanish expedition during the

Colonization of the Americas During the Age of Discovery, a large scale European colonization of the Americas took place between about 1492 and 1800. Although Norse colonization of North America, the Norse had explored and colonized areas of the North Atlantic, colonizin ...

aiming at locating

El Dorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king o ...

. It is loosely inspired on expeditions by

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...

Lope de Aguirre Lope de Aguirre (; 8 November 1510 – 27 October 1561) was a Basque Spanish conquistador who was active in South America. Nicknamed ''El Loco'' ("the Madman"), he styled himself "Wrath of God, Prince of Freedom." Aguirre is best known for his fi ...

and Núñez de Balboa.

Plot

A group of Spanish

es for

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, french: Charles Quint, it, Carlo V, nl, Karel V, ca, Carles V, la, Carolus V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (Crown of Castile, Castil ...

travels through the American jungle, following a route that will lead them to the legendary city of gold of Tezutlan as recorded by a previous expedition. The forty men and women are nominally led by the aging nobleman Don Gonzalo de Baztán and his young wife Ana, but actually commanded by the brutal, gold-hungry veteran conquistador

Ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...

Juan de Gorriamendi. Tensions start to arise in the group due to the jungle's perils and their own grudges with each other, including the impopularity of Don Gonzalo due to his

summary execution A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...

s and the growing attraction between Ana and one of the soldiers,

Italian Wars The Italian Wars, also known as the Habsburg–Valois Wars, were a series of conflicts covering the period 1494 to 1559, fought mostly in the Italian peninsula, but later expanding into Flanders, the Rhineland and the Mediterranean Sea. The pr ...

veteran Martín Dávila, who rivals Gorriamendi for her. After crossing a river filled with

alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...

s, the expedition is told by messenger Jeromillo that the governor who sanctioned the mission has been deposed, and that his successor has sent another contingent under the command of Captain Juan Medrano to catch up with them, planning to execute Don Gonzalo and override the expedition. In order to avoid Medrano, and by advice of the group's local guide, Chocó

auxiliary Auxiliary may refer to: * A backup site or system In language * Auxiliary language (disambiguation) * Auxiliary verb In military and law enforcement * Auxiliary police * Auxiliaries, civilians or quasi-military personnel who provide support of ...

Mediamano, the group turns towards a territory populated by hostile Carib tribes. However, ultimately deciding against Don Gonzalo's incompetent leadership, the conquistadores revolt against him and have him killed anyway, with Gorriamendi taking over the mission. The ensign also becomes Ana's forceful lover, further digging a trench between Dávila and him. The group reaches a peaceful tribal village where they find Manuel Requena, a survivor of the first expedition who settled down and started a family with a native woman. Despite their help, events go awry when Jeromillo turns out to be a traitor who had allowed Medrano to follow them, causing the village to be massacred and burned by the pursuers. In retaliation, the expedition organizes an ambush and defeats Medrano's forces, executing the captain and integrating the survivors into their own, dwindling numbers. Afterwards, they continue until

Río Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

, which separates them from the region where Tezutlan is supposedly located. A savage local tribe attacks them next, exerting

psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

with poisoned darts and war chants, but the Spaniards counter it with a

vihuela The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...

song by Dávila's idea and turn the tables on them. The group then attacks the tribe's village, coming victorious in a bloody battle despite being ambushed and outnumbered. However, upon finding cannibalized remnants of Spanish soldiers in the shacks, soldiers led by Gorriamendi and

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

Father Vargas intend to retaliate by executing the village's women and children, causing a scuffle against Dávila in which Mediamano is murdered. As a consequence, rebelling against Charles V's orders, Gorriamendi and his followers try to kill the rest of the conquistadores. Ana dies in the fight, but her sacrifice allows the loyalists to defeat and execute Gorriamendi. With the expedition now reduced to a four men led by Sergeant Bastaurrés, their route takes them through a battlefield between two tribes hostile to each other. Dávila and soldier Barbate manage to make it out alive, eventually reaching the city of Tezutlan in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

shore, only to discover the legendary gold city is just a pauper coast village with gold-colored glazed clay roofings. Realizing all was for nothing, and despite knowing they will be probably executed for all the trouble when they return, Dávila takes possession of the territory for the

Spanish crown , coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg , coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain , image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg , incumbent = Felipe VI , incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...

Cast

Reception

Pere Vall of ''

Fotogramas ''Fotogramas'' is Spanish digital and print film magazine which has been in circulation since 1946. It is one of the early film magazines in Spain. History Founded in Barcelona, it was first published on 15 November 1946 by Antonio Nadal-Rodó a ...

'' rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, assessing that, while imperfect, the films contains much of the best Díaz Yanes, highlighting the acting duel between Arévalo and Jaenada as the best thing about the film alongside Ballesta's candor. Javier Ocaña of ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'' pointed out that "in spite of its obvious virtues, which are not few", there is also something in the film making it fall apart: "its irregularity". Oti Rodríguez Marchante of ''

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

'' rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, deeming it to be "a bitter, pessimistic film, with few moments of greatness", but "which sums up a state of mind and country", likewise assessing that all the actors are superb.

complained about the film's purported deviation from his short story, tweeting: "in an original story of both epic and cruelty, they forgot the epic." Later in 2019, Reverte added: "in the base script there were cruelty and epic, harshness and light; upon making the film, the team did not see the epic and instead gave out a gang of delinquents. The admirable part vanished."

Accolades

, - , rowspan="10" align = "center" , 2017 , rowspan="6",

32nd Goya Awards The 32nd Goya Awards were presented at the Madrid Marriott Auditorium Hotel in Madrid on 3 February 2018, to honour the best in Spanish films of 2017. Joaquín Reyes (actor), Joaquín Reyes and Ernesto Sevilla hosted the awards ceremony. Nominat ...

, Best Cinematography , Paco Femenía , , rowspan="6" style="text-align:center;", , - , Best Art Direction , Javier Fernández , , - , Best Production Supervision , Luis Fernández Lago , , - , Best Special Effects ,

Reyes Abades Reyes Abades (25 July 1949 – 1 February 2018) was a Spanish specialist in special effects. He won nine Goya Awards. Abades worked on more than 300 productions. He contributed to the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1992 Summer Olympics in ...

and Isidro Jiménez , , - , Best Costume Design , Tatiana Hernández , , - , Best Makeup and Hairstyles , Eli Adánez, Sergio Pérez Berbel and Pedro de Diego , , -

References

External links