by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Previously filmed in 1922 with Rudolph Valentino and in 1940 with Tyrone Power, Vicente Blasco Ibanez's mystical bullfight novel Blood & Sand was given a third big-screen treatment in 1989. Though filmed in Spain by a Spanish director, the 1989 Blood & Sand casts American actor Christopher Rydell as the bullfighter hero. Also hailing from the USA is a pre-Basic Instinct Sharon Stone, playing the vamp role previously essayed in 1922 by Nita Naldi and in 1940 by Rita Hayworth. The story remains the same: a dirt-poor youth rises to fame and fortune in the bull ring, forgets his roots, cheats on his wife, has a last-minute change of heart, and pays for his sins in grotesque fashion.
characteristics
- Rise And Fall Stories
- Bullfight
- Toreador
- Adulterer
- Infidelity
- Extramarital-affair
- Rags-to-riches
- Adultery
- Romantic Betrayal
- Vamp
- Famous
- Carnal Knowledge
- Change-of-heart
- Fame
- Femmes Fatales
