La hora de los valientes

The story is interesting and well documented, the scenery and costumes are near perfect, the anecdotes are all real. This should have been quite a good movie about one family's engaging experiences during the civil war. However; the directing style fails the movie as it throws back to the paltry directing style so common in Spanish films in the sixties. Rather than plot or character development, the progression of the film is little more than a series of sketches reproducing anecdotes. There is no feeling that what goes on ties together as one story.

The acting leaves a lot to be desired as well and is particularly disappointing given that the four main characters are all portrayed by well accomplished and capable interpretive artists. Although it is sporadically authentic and convincing in some scenes, most of the time the acting is merely caricature. The best performance in the movie is provided by the little boy.