The Saracen used as a quintain here is an exquisite statue, a baleful looking brass knight with a wicked iron flail. The iconic figure’s face looks exactly like something Hollywood special effects legend Ray Harryhausen would have dreamed up, and you can see why the town has coalesced around it in this peculiarly long-standing tradition.
Overall, The King of the Indies is mounted well, especially the opening, which describes the barmy history of the contest with frantic pace and real zeal. “What’s the difficult part? All of it,” jokes one of the players over footage of what looks like the whole town fighting over a result.
Even when you win, there seems a high chance you’ll need to negotiate a massive ding-dong in the floodlit piazza. It pinpoints the unhinged, regional competitive streak that is such a fruitful creative trait of the nation of Italy, so typified in sports and food.
“…forever be grateful to filmmakers like Mastrocinque who document their culture …”
The King of the Indies is perhaps more a celebration of a neighborhood than a particularly complex or rich story. The participants are earnest and dignified men, but outside of that, there is not much more made of them than their records within the tournament and the psychogeography from the weight of expectation from each quarter. When the jousters talk about the tournament, it is clear they love it, and yet it sometimes sounds like they have no choice in it. The film does a good job of depicting how their chivalry is important. It’s also fun. It is electrifying when what looks like half the town – dressed for Medieval Times – row like football hooligans in a passionate and weirdly bloodless brawl.
There is another great Italian tradition here – this has the best soundtrack I can remember hearing. The music by Marco Lazzeri is terrific. But the score also shines when we are just taking in the wild drums and trumpets in the adrenaline-soaked piazza. The same edge you get from great football (yes, Americans, ‘soccer’) crowds is abundant.
It’s hard to watch The King of the Indies, a real regional gem, and not be won over by its celebration of tradition. We should forever be grateful to filmmakers like Mastrocinque who document their culture with such thoroughness.
"…a real regional gem..."
