Luis Buñuel might have enjoyed this antic fantasy, adapted from a story by Gabriel García Márquez, about an ignorant couple who find the title character (played by director Fernando Birri) washed ashore like driftwood on their crab-infested beach. Is he a fallen angel or simply a freak of nature? No one can say (the old man himself is apparently mute), but after giving him a home in their chicken pen rumors begin to spread of a miraculous visitation, and the unfortunate 'angel' soon becomes both an object of worship and a target of ridicule, sometimes simultaneously. Before too long he's the star attraction in a frenzied carnival midway, competing against the so-called Spider Woman (with her absurd, 'explanatory' semi-porn performance art video) and other sideshow curiosities. The more emotional national characteristics of each country in the Italian-Cuban-Spanish co-production team combine to make it a fast, crude parable of innocence corrupted, blurring the line between religious ecstasy and show-biz hysteria.

Fernando birri directed this film in collaboration with the Cuban film institute. this film is based on a short story by gabriel garcia marquez. the "angel" that falls to earth is indeed an old man with enormous wings, and not at all clean. the very humble and unsophisticated people in the village where it befell, exploit his novelty for profit. the old man is not an angel, but a metaphor that represents natural resources that are lucratively commodified, and finally exhausted. if you are following me now, then you can see for yourself what the carnival represents. at the end of the movie the old man escapes his cage, but unfortunately some of us that have seen this movie have yet to leave ours.

Although there is admittedly a non-Hollywood flavor to this movie--a cultural difference that will not be to everyone's taste--it's pretty faithful to Marquez's short story. Many of my students who read the story become nearly hostile about its cryptic, impenetrable refusal to make "logical" sense. The human characters behave abysmally; the angel is unreadable and ultimately undefined; the story is not so much a story as a long comment.It has been said that the angel is actually a mask for Marquez himself. In that regard, this film is a fine reminder of the author's own resistance to categorization.

Let me put it this way: I hated this movie. For the first five minutes, I believed that the film was going to be interesting: During a storm, an angel washes up into two peoples backyard, and although a married couple take the angel in, the man decides to free him the next day. While the skepticism and curiosity from the neighbors would be a natural plot point, it soon turns to absolute shameless exhibitionism and cruel treatment of this supposed "divine messenger". This is only coupled with the fact that a carnival rolls into town. For well over an hour, all the viewer sees is the angel being tortured by spectators and his captors, and the gyrating "Spider-Woman". After a while, the angel is pretty much forgotten, substituted with "Spider-Woman" wiggling her hips and huge mob scenes. The last five minutes of the film, between the son and the angel is like the beginning: decent. However, the 80-90 minutes in between is pure trash, and I'm angry that I wasted two hours of my life on this film.If this film is trying to say that there is no redemption in humanity, then it got its point across. While the angel manages to escape, I felt like there should have been some kind of retribution against these thoughtless, backwoods idiots.With the angel being freed from his captors, so was I from this movie. I felt like I was being tortured right along with him, and was relieved when it ended.