Upgraded to Blu-Ray quality, with sub-titles.
There’s plenty of nudity, but it’s the same sort of thing you’d see in old issues of National Geographic. Here are the new videos. The videos are in real time, giving you a good idea of the film’s pacing.
Below is a sample of what you will see:
From the comments:
Based on IMDB, the actress playing Nafea is Yvanne Evangelista and the woman performing the ritual is probably Sasa Cabalquinto since she is credited as the Babaylan which is a Filipino shaman. The actress playing Loa is Ghdd Amaro.
The critics absolutely adored this account of Magellan’s attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Contrary to what you learned in history, he did not make it, although a few stragglers from his expedition managed to limp home to Spain. He started with five ships and more than 200 men, but more than 90% of the crew died and only one ship made it back.
This film scores a 90 at Metacritic and 88% at Rotten Tomatoes.
I couldn’t watch it. It is so slow that if Tarkovsky watched it, he’d be shouting “Get on with it” at the screen. It is one of the slowest-paced films ever made. There were actually times when I thought it had frozen, only to see the timer still ticking away.
I thought that the film was painful at 2 1/2 hours, but NPR reports that there is a nine-hour version in the works! If I had been the editor, I certainly could have cut it to a 15-minute short without losing anything important, but frankly, that would still be boring and repetitive. If you watch the trailer, it is basically the entire movie in two minutes. Just the right length.
Here’s the point: Magellan was a religious nutcase and a brutal asshole who brought misery to everyone he ever met, was betrayed because he failed to honor his own word, was killed by the indigenous people he encountered, and left behind nothing but death and the destruction of culture.
Based on IMDB, the actress playing Nafea is Yvanne Evangelista and the woman performing the ritual is probably Sasa Cabalquinto since she is credited as the Babaylan which is a filipino shaman. The actress playing Loa is Ghdd Amaro.
Because I was curious, AI says:
“Magellan’s main virtues were courage and perseverance, in even the most difficult situations; for example he bore hunger and fatigue better than all the rest of us. He was a magnificent practical seaman, who understood navigation better than all his pilots. The best proof of his genius is that he circumnavigated the world, none having preceded him.” Antonio Pigafetta, chronicler of the expedition.
Well, except that he did not circumnavigate the globe. He died in the Philippines, some 7,000 miles from Spain.
Juan Sebastián Elcano, however, did complete the trip.
It’s interesting that of all the survivors of the expedition, only one, the aristocrat Pigafetta, had anything positive to say about Magellan, but his account became history’s viewpoint, thanks to his incessant promotion in court after court, and his access to kings and emperors. Most of us memorized in school that Magellan circumnavigated the globe, although he got only 2/3 of the way.
But …
Magellan was, without doubt, a great navigator, as evidenced by the facts that:
(1) His expedition did make it home, even if he didn’t.
(2) There were many expeditions that tried to replicate his route and failed. It was many decades before any other expedition circumnavigated the globe.
(3) He first demonstrated that it was possible to sail around the Americas.
Spot on, Scoop. In one way, I think it’s a good thing to try and teach people that history is told by survivors, who generally tell their stories with ulterior motives, and turned into other things later by later people with further ulterior motives and their own flawed memories or favored interpretations. There’s just a lot of opportunity for bullshit and twisting of facts, which are mostly hearsay to begin with. Writers of the later history books and school textbooks have their own agendas as well. So what most of us learn about historical events has passed thru multiple lenses and glass of varying shades of purple. That said, the artistic technique whereby boredom is depicted by replicating it in your audiences is just bad art. Thanks for the useful review, Scoop.
Another example is the current situation where you have Trump whining that the current UK Prime Minister is “no Winston Churchill” as if aspiring to be Winston Churchill is something he should be aiming for.
Churchill is famous for having said “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
Here’s me clicking the Thumbs-Up icon.
That IS slow paced!
I appreciate briskly paced films. I found even “5 Second Theater” hard to sit through, especially their six-part miniseries “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo”. (Maybe you have to be old to remember that.)
He didn’t circumnavigate the world because of course the world is flat.
That explains his death. He wasn’t killed. He simply sailed off the end of the world.
Must have been MAGA.
Lav Diaz on how he convinced Filipinos to go nude for Magellan (2025) @SBIFF
“Here’s the point: Magellan was a religious nutcase and a brutal asshole who brought misery to everyone he ever met, was betrayed because he failed to honor his own word, was killed by the indigenous people he encountered, and left behind nothing but death and the destruction of culture.”
Humans are obsessed with canonizing people with versions of Great Man theory and Manifest destiny, which is why he’s a known figure and immortalized through time. Same with Christopher Columbus, who’s probably not far off from Magellan in terribleness.
Society canonizes and worships these people into mythical status, when most are just daring opportunists with narcissistic and sociopath traits that exploits others throughout history for personal gain. Most think they’re gods and society obliges by canonizing them, giving them great wealth, and making them exempt from justice.
” which is why he’s a known figure and immortalized through time.”
He is immortalized because he had a great impact. That does not mean he was a good person. Bad people are also remembered if they had an impact. Hitler won’t be forgotten, because he had great impact, a very bad one.
Pete, I sort of agree. Except that great impact doesn’t explain being immortalized. You’re right that being good or bad also doesn’t explain it. The actual explanation of what we retain from the past is the confluence of very random circumstances. Your great impact theory is a rationalization of an unexplained thing.
Indy, our ideas rhyme. My spin is only a shade off yours. Yours is specific. Mine is that whether by an individual or by “society,” an ulterior motive is, in my book, always ill will. Without fail.