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Don't Believe the Hype

A sequel based on the success of the first film in Spain, done by the same set of actors and Garci directing it was released years later. It did not had the same public success, but the Madrid atmosphere, exteriors, locations and music are another of Mr.Garci's masterpieces. German Areta, private eye, is in charge of another crime, at the request of his former director, that looks a very simple crime. But the investigation gets important sideline consequences involving complications to the crime. The "colateral" damages might prove...too much... For the private eye to continue his work but Garci as the old boxer story recalled by Areta in a moment of the film, lead us into the Madrid's Christmas nigth. Christma's eve drive to a mysterious Madrid mansion....luxury home of a very wealthy man...

I know very little about Spanish cinema and even less so about Spanish thrillers, action films etc. So I was very curious about this film, that according to some sources on the internet would something extraordinary.However, I was very disappointed, this film tries very hard to be a film noir/neo noir from Spain but offers very little to the viewer. There are lot of clichés in this film that makes other, more recent Spanish productions in the same genre more appealing.The story about a private detective looking for a missing girl is standard within this genre, or the sleuth genre but would have hoped that screenwriter or the director would have tried to create at least some tension or plotwist that would surprise the viewer.But not so here, here we get same story/clichés stuffed down our throats again. Areta is former police officer, a bit of loner, he is a good man surrounded by bad people in a corrupt world.This and the fact that the script is flawed, contains loopholes, makes me wonder if I have seen a very heavily edited film and that an uncut version is out there somewhere? One positive thing about this film is Alfredo Landas powerful performance in the main lead. I only wish he had a better script to work with.Technically the film is lacking, almost bland in it's cinematography, looking like a cheaply made TV production from the 80's.Future viewers should watch this film because of its position as an obscure film that has gained very little attention here on IMDb. Just don't expect too much.Viewers should rather watch La caja 507 (2002), El Lobo (2004) if they want to see better crime thrillers from Spain.

I saw this one back in 1981 and it's commercial title was "Diente por Diente" which means a teeth for a teeth. I remember I was quite impressed for the suspenseful quality of his flick. Years later, by the turn of the century, I made a list of several films I had seen in the past and that where in some way outstanding, and of course, "El Crack" was one of them... but it wasn't available anywhere (I was near at one place who had had it but the tape had gone into pieces). Again, many years later, -26 exactly since its original release- I finally find it, and start watching it with very different eyes: those that 26 years add to your life experience. At first, the first 1/2 hour, the film looks somewhat vulgar and filled with apparently unnecessary details of the main character, but then it starts to raise and raise (which is a unique quality of good films), with very good and unexpected twists. All in all, this is a very good movie and in case you have it at hand, don't miss it. I also found "El Crack 2", a kind of sequel made 2 years later, which I had never seen before. It's not so good as the first part, but it's good and worth watching also. I gave the first part an 8 and the sequel a 7.

I don't know why this film is called "El Crack" ("the Crack"). i searched in my English dictionary, and i found that "to crack" is to solve a mystery. probably it refers to that.the film is dedicated to north-American crime-novel writer Dashiell Hammet. i haven't read any novel of Sam Spade... but i have watched The Maltese Falcon, and i found a subtle wink to Bogart character in Garci's movie. i remember that Bogart-Spade had a particular gesture when he was thinking: he scratched his ear. Landa-Areta scratches his mustache.But don't think that El Crack is a film where you cant follow the plot, as in the old Bogart detectives movies... (is a famous anecdote that even Howard Hawks and Raymond Chandler -director and writer respectively- had serious doubts during the filming of THE BIG SLEEP to explain themselves some scenes of the complicated puzzle of its plot). No, the plot is easy to follow in El Crack.José Luis Garci is one of the best directors of the Spanish film industry with no doubt. his films can be easily identified: they are perfectly written (this one was co-written by one of his collaborators, Horacio Varcárcel), with a lot of winks to Hollywood classics and to literature; the rhythm of his films use to be slow (that doesn't mean boring, cause his stories has so much substance that the slow rhythm is necessary to assimilate it); each secondary character of a Garci's film is very detailed and defined.Garci makes in this film a great thing: he saves Landa from the bad movies and bad critics. Alfredo Landa was then, in 1981, a veteran actor that made a lot of stupid comedies during 60's and 70's. apart dubbing some American films and little interventions in some classics as Forqué's ATRACO A LAS TRES, the rest were that stupid comedies... then Garci appears to give him the best part of his career till then. Garci trusted in Landa... and Landa didn't disappointed him. Since then Landa is considered in Spain a great actor (LOS SANTOS INOCENTES, CANCIÓN DE CUNA, LA VAQUILLA...). was definitely forgotten to Spanish film-lovers that epoch of stupid comedy films that one critic called "Landism" El Crack is an notable movie. is entertaining and haven't got old. i think that Garci proposed himself with his movies of then to describe an epoch, the Spanish Transition to democracy. In this particular case he captures Madrid 1981. and he achieved his purpose.Besides he shoots some minutes in New York too. The city of his dreams; he do that with real passion to that city, indeed; but perhaps too with a little message to American Academy members...: "eh, look, here is a young Spanish director, talented, that loves cinema and Hollywood movies as just a few persons in the world". He did the same next year (shoot a part of his film BEGUIN THE BEGUINE in USA; winks to the old Hollywood flavour) and then he got the Oscar.This film is important not only as cinematographic. It has an important sociological and historical...: it captures the Spain of early 80's: costumes, fashions, dresses, cars, radio and TV programs, streets of Madrid...Haven't seen the movie? watch it! :)