Queimada

Brianna Wessel-Estes

Burn! (1970)

What makes this movie different from others is this underlying theme of revenge. It's refreshing until you delve deeper into the plot. Realizing that Sir William Walker isn't just trying to liberate the slaves. His triangle mission includes: getting the slaves to revolt, take the sugar trade for England, and return slaves to servitude.

Sir William Walker was first sent to the island to advocate independence (and greed) to the plantation owners and teach revolution (and freedom) to the slaves. By "teach revolution" I mean he shows them how to liberate themselves, he gives them the means to do so. The quote, "If a man gives you freedom, then it is not freedom. Freedom is something you alone must take." When applied to Sir William Walker is funny because he promotes both sides of that argument throughout the movie. By teaching and helping them in their revolution he gives them their revolution, without his help they might not have had the means to do so. He picks out a rebel leader, befriends him, molds him, then sets him loose. Brando states that the black man must be angry about slavery on the sugar plantations before he can become free. However, he plays it off so that the slaves believe they took it themselves.

The tables turn on Sir William when he brings the committee of white men to speak with the newly freed men about investing and such. Jose realizes that since he is free from rule under the white man he doesn't really want anything to do with them. There's a part in the movie when the English men start to wonder what would happen if the negroes wanted to be boss instead of slaves. Jose shows them exactly would happen. At the end of the scene where the rebel leader embraces Walker I breathed a sigh of relief in knowing that these guys aren't going to get pushed around by the whites anymore. As the rebel leader says near the end of the film; the freedom that is given you by a man is not freedom; true freedom is taken, not given.

After Jose and his army defeat their previous masters Walker introduces a team of white men who want to be in control of the plantation. There's a great scene where Brando compares the economics of having a wife versus a prostitute. He then ends the speech comparing the gains of a slave with that of hired labor. Jose argues that they are one in the same; a slave and "hired labor". JosÐ"© Dolores is persuaded to disband his black army and to leave the running of the sugar plantations to the white commercial interests. "Civilization belongs to whitesÐ'..." Jose knows that if he lets the English control the commercial aspect of the sugar plantations he will never really have his freedom because even then they will not only be doing only what is in their (white/English) best interest but he will still answer to them Ð'- "If a man works for another, even if he's called a worker, he remains a slave."

When Teddy Sanchez (Salvatori), the man Brando acted in behalf of so he would be in power as