ada the leading man is my tpye

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Phillida Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Julian M. Carl Franklin uses the sounds of nature as well as changes in the soundtrack to emphasize the theme of the film, the connection between the characters and Earth. Franklin's use of long shots also portray those connections stronger, like when Tenorio had murdered Narciso and left him under the juniper tree in the rain. The perspective allows the audience to view the man's being of one with the earth, with Antonio's house in the background, and the weather portraying the mood. On the other hand, when Antonio meets with Ultima, he feels his connection with her and the Earth, and the sun is faded into in the shot, so while the sun encourages the hope Antonio has in God in doing right, bad weather usually signifies the opposite. Franklin uses this subtle effect to form the conflict Antonio faces inside. The music ties in with that effect, where an uplifting soundtrack that is original to the culture of the characters plays when hope is in sight, and the soundtrack is drowned out by diegetic sounds used like when Antonio follows Narciso in his struggle to warn Ultima. Carl Franklin uses many methods to pursue the theme of his film, but what brings the film down for me is the quality of the acting. The film deserved more power in the effect the characters could bring, and the quality of the acting lower that effect. A stronger connection to the actual film from the film could have enhanced the message the director wanted to send, but overall, the film did its part in representing the culture of the setting and the connections shared between the characters, the earth, and religion.

Daniel Trankina After reading the novel by Rudolfo Anaya, I watched the movie and the first thing i noticed was Franklin's use of added music on the soundtrack. He uses a lot of natural sounds like crickets, birds, and flowing water along with an erie tribal music that seems to be constantly building up to something. Franklin commonly showed the landscapes of the New Mexico filming location by using extreme long shots and tracking shots with the sounds to really make the nature come alive as it does in the story with Ultima. Collectively all the diegetic sounds, nondiegetic sounds, and landscape shots combine to convey the nature theme so heavily embedded in the book. Franklin did a good job showing the power held by the moon and sun in the story by placing images of them in fade in/out transitions during important interactions between characters. For example we see the sun making the transition between a close up of Ultima's face to Antonio's in the moment where they first meet. As far as the acting I found a lot of the lines feeling unnatural and forced. Although a lot of the scenes involved children making it harder to get great acting I thought overall the acting in this film was poor. Was it effective? The main conflict in the book is Antonio's inner struggle but unfortunately the movie misses a few key features that causes this theme to get left out. For starters the film is narrated by Antonio but the issue is his voice is that of a grown mans. During the book he is only seven and is confused about all the new information he's getting which gives us that sense of struggle with identity. But with a grown up's voice it sounds like he already has everything figured out so we lose that aspect. They should have gotten a child for the voice over. Antonio was also struggling with the need for everlasting innocence and we saw some of that desire being crushed once he finds out his brother is at Rosie's. In the book this causes Antonio to question the world and himself but in the movie is reaction and thoughts are glossed over. Movies can't do everything the book does and overall I think the Franklin and his team did a good job apart from subpar acting and missing a few themes. Mr.Sieck's Novels into Film

Noble Price Bless Me, Ultima, directed by Carl Franklin, a film based on the book by the same name, written by Rudolfo Anaya, is a touching, emotional, and thought provoking film about a boy's journey to understand the people and the world around him. The film does a very good job recreating the magical feel the book gives you. Franklin's use of many different film techniques also helps the film immerse the audience. For example, when Antonio and his father, Gabriel, walk outside to confront Tenorio, the film's antagonist, Franklin utilizes a P.O.V. tracking shot to make the audience feel like they're with Antonio and Gabriel as they confront Tenorio. I feel that if Franklin used a different camera angle, it wouldn't have the same effect. Another effective camera technique is when Franklin uses a high angle shot to show Narciso's dead body. This is very effective because it gives the impression that Narciso's death isn't significant, giving the film a much deeper meaning. As for the acting, it was garbage. The actor who played Antonio is too flat, giving Antonio a whiny, brat like impression. The only actor who seemed like they knew how to act was the woman playing Ultima. She gave Ultima a wise, old feel to her, and she looked just as I would imagine Ultima would look. In conclusion, the film adaptation of Bless Me, Ultima, is a good film that sticks to the source material very well. The acting is garbage, excluding a few actors. If you liked the novel, you will most likely like the film.

josephtome1964 The novel, which has become a staple of high-school lesson plans and thus qualifies as Great Literature, deserves all the plaudits that have been heaped upon it. I read the work for the first time a few years ago and found it very moving. Like To Kill a Mockingbird (to which it has often been compared), its deceptively simple coming-of-age tale is the prism through which we are allowed a view of a larger picture: the merging of a mystically-inclined Native American way of life and more establishmentarian (and yet, in its way, even more superstitious) Catholic Hispanic culture, as well as the impact encroaching modernity has on both. Moreover, the story explored, through the relationship between young Antonio and the wise old curandera Ultima, the meaning of the connections human beings have with one another and the natural world of which they are a part, all beautifully weaved together by the skill of the author Rudolfo Anaya. (I will also add that, when I read the novel, its simple but powerful evocation of a distant time and place, the love between a growing and inquisitive boy and the old woman who effectively serves as his grandmother, and the neo-pagan lessons she imparts all helped me through a tough time, which is certainly one of the blessings of great writing.) So one can imagine my excitement when it was announced a film version was finally in the works and now, after having seen the movie, one may also imagine my disappointment over a work that is barely a shadow of the book. While decidedly earnest and also largely faithful to the source material, the film has none of the magical beauty of the novel. Indeed, the whole enterprise seems misbegotten. I suspect Carl Franklin, a talented director who has made such fine films as One False Move and Devil in a Blue Dress, was the wrong choice for this project. The direction is humdrum and the script he penned is weak, beginning with the idea of having the great Al Molina narrate the story as an adult Antonio. While it's always good to see a film make liberal use of Hispanic actors, every role, other than Miriam Colon as Ultima, seems miscast. The whole movie, for lack of a better description, just lays there, possesses little if any of the wonder over life and love and nature that Anaya made come alive on the page.In his review, the late Roger Ebert generally praised this film, stating that the movie took its time and did not, as so many other films in this day and age often do, completely dispense with subtlety and over explain everything. While I appreciate his point, I think a film can sometimes be too spare and thus too obscure. It was a mistake, I think, to focus so much on young Antonio and his sometimes confused child's eye view of the world. It would have been enlightening, particularly for those who haven't read the novel, to see more of Ultima and her "magic," her pagan-infused Catholic teachings.A completely re-written script would have well served this project and the fuller and more subtly complex film that might have resulted would have come closer to capturing what the author conveyed. I missed seeing that golden fish in the river.