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.
15 March 1957, São Sebastião da Pedreira, Lisbon, Portugal
9 May 1961, Wheeling, West Virginia, USA
15 April 1974, Miami, Florida, USA
1983, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
7 September 1980, Panorama City, California, USA
26 August 1956, Houston, Texas, USA
April 28, 1985 in Oregon, USA
15 August 1990, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
7 August 1975, Benoni, Transvaal, South Africa
13 November 1970, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
18 April 1976, Los Angeles, California, USA
8 December 1953, Athens, Georgia, USA
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.
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.
September 25, 2009
The film is strikingly photographed and intensely acted, but the tone is overwrought melodrama.
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 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.
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 02, 2009
Possibly the stories fit too neatly. If so, it's hardly a fatal flaw.
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.
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 result is confusion, not catharsis.
September 28, 2010
Babel director shows his hand too soon
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.
