Among all countries of Continental Europe, Spain can be the most proud of its film industry today. Viewers sceptical towards non-Hollywood films are more likely to watch Spanish than any other European film. This phenomenon should be credited to the younger generation of Spanish filmmakers - people who didn't hesitate to embrace such non-European concept like Hollywood genre films and later gave them local flavour. Before those youngsters Spanish cinema rested on the shoulders of the more traditional filmmakers whose work consisted of non-commercial pieces similar to their European counterparts. Best known among them was Carlos Saura, "Oscar"-awarded filmmaker specialised in social dramas. However, despite all of his past glory, Saura seems out of touch with present Spanish cinema and Outrage a.k.a. Shoot!, his 1993 drama, is one of the examples.
Protagonist of the film is Ana (played by Francesca Neri), beautiful circus performer whose specialty is equestrian marksmanship. Her circus travels around Europe and comes to Madrid. Marcos (played by Antonio Banderas) is a journalist who visits circus in order to write an article about it. He meets Ana and two of them fall in love with each other. Marcos is so smitten with Ana that he considers quitting his journalistic career and following Ana's circus instead. But before he is able to make this decision, Ana is brutally attacked, raped and sodomised by three young car mechanics. Still in shock, Ana decides to employ her deadly skills in order to take revenge on rapists. This event triggers another cycle of violence.
It seems that Saura and his co-writer Enzo Monteleone tried to make some kind of "European" version of Thelma & Louise and replace Hollywood glamour and cheap pseudo-feminism with more seriousness and naturalism. Because of that, the rape scene in the film is extremely disturbing and painful to watch. But only slightly painful is the rest of the plot which drowns itself in absurd and almost lartpourlartist violence and ends rather predictably. The viewers could somehow survive that if the plot and characters were somehow engaging. However, apart from Ana, played by Italian actress Francesca Neri (recently seen in couple of big budget Hollywood productions like Hannibal and Collateral Damage), all the other characters are bland, one dimensional, forgettable or unnecessary. Even Antonio Banderas, who was supposed to be more at home while playing straightforward "normal" guy, seems to miss his mark and the lack of romantic chemistry between him and Neri is quite evident. Because of all that, all those who love Spanish cinema would think of Outrage as nothing more than one great miss.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on November 13th 2002)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/65671-dispara?language=en-US
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