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The Burning Plain
The film tells a love story that is intense but full of twist, betrayal. The beautiful girl Sylvia makes an emotional journey and goes to the ends of its limitations. Since the death of her mother, who deceived her father, Sylvia falls into an evasion... herself.
1983, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
19 June 1972, Chicago, Illinois, USA
15 April 1974, Miami, Florida, USA
1 November 1958, Bronx, New York, USA
15 March 1957, São Sebastião da Pedreira, Lisbon, Portugal
August 12, 2010
Arriaga's multi-narrative format got the best of him. Rather than deliver a sense of shock and awe, it's swallowed up by complexity, leaving you to wonder, "This is it?"
September 25, 2009
The film is strikingly photographed and intensely acted, but the tone is overwrought melodrama.
September 25, 2009
It's serious stuff, intended for serious movie people. The only problem is, serious movie people have already been there, done that.
September 28, 2010
Babel director shows his hand too soon
March 13, 2011
Deep-seated emotional problems are examined in a complex movie that, as ever with Arriaga, refuses to fit into a straightforward narrative.
November 17, 2013
What's that smell? The plain isn't the only thing that's charred in screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga's directorial debut; subtlety goes up in flames too.
October 16, 2009
If Arriaga had allowed us to spend more time with the key characters in this extended tragedy, or had spent some time punching up the plot, The Burning Plain might have had a chance.
January 31, 2011
Knowing ... that it's a 20-year old story, one can only conclude the idea behind the film would have been best left unfilmed, an unfinished step toward greater things.
October 02, 2009
Possibly the stories fit too neatly. If so, it's hardly a fatal flaw.
September 25, 2009
The result is confusion, not catharsis.
October 16, 2009
Throw in enough symbolism to choke an English-lit major and you have a film challenge that too often feels like a chore.
October 07, 2015
If you are willing to turn a blind eye to the inherently hackneyed nature of "The Burning Plain," though, the film turns out to be somewhat rewarding.