Ernest Hemingway once wrote, "Bull fighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter's honour." Francesco Rosi's magnificent The Moment of Truth is a glimpse into that world where beauty meets carnage and death is a constant companion. Disgusted by the possibility of inheriting his father's life as a poor country farmer, Miguel Romero 'Miguelín' leaves his home and journeys to the city where he takes up bullfighting as a means to quickly make money. Perhaps spurred on by thoughts of living a life of poverty, Miguel becomes a veritable over-night sensation with his extreme bravery and cool composure in the face of danger. But Miguel quickly comes to the realization that a life of fast success may not be worth the price demanded of bullfighters by the very nature of their bloody sport. Though the structure of the film's story is anything but revolutionary, Rosi injects a sense of energy and immediacy into it with the use of post-neorealist sensibilities and techniques: the bullfighting rings become universes unto themselves, crowded Catholic processions become mass waves of humanity, and each bull is transformed into a myth-like behemoth. And yet, Rosi refuses to shy away from the gore and brutality of the sport, lingering on the shivering bodies of bulls as the last few pints of blood spill from their necks and how their motionless bodies are dragged away through puddles of their own gore. The Moment of Truth is a film that exists midway between realism and fantastical imagination, much like the terrible sport of bullfighting itself.
8/10
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