The most touching scene in the movie is one in which an Italian fascist risks his life to give two gay men a chance to say goodbye. This shows male solidarity that goes beyond sexuality and politics. That’s why I’m saying that the movie did not need any women. It’s a movie about men, and not only gay men. It shows the nature of male friendship in a really profound way. The dynamic between the Italian fascist and the gay soldier is incomprehensible to women. To a woman, it would seem that the fascist hates the gay soldier because female friendships follow a completely different pattern.
As for the Spanish Civil War, it has long been used by politicians in order to distract the attention of people from their growing immiseration. In my very strong opinion, the only way forward for Spain is to make peace with the civil war and for Spaniards to make peace with each other. It’s a collective tragedy, as any civil war is. Pitching people against each other today over a conflict of 90 years ago is immoral.
In the movie, a woman tries to prevent her son from finding out about his grandfather because, she says, the grandfather was a fascist and doesn’t deserve any interest. What she doesn’t understand, and the grandson eventually finds out, is that things are a lot more complicated and human reality cannot be fitted into “goodies versus baddies.” I agree with you that this is a definite merit of the film.
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