I missed the first few minutes when this movie came on TV, so i was wondering if it is made clear in the movie near which city Alatriste is in when he is going thru the water and finds his dying friend. Does anyone know where the start of the movie takes place?
shareIn Flanders. Probably during the siege of Breda, but it could be some other city. What is important about the scene is that you see all the men who are Alatriste's close companions later on, as well as his dying friend who is Inigo's father. Knowing that these men are comrades in battle makes their later encounters more poignant, or ironic, or tragic, or all three. At the end of one such encounter, Alatriste asks the other if he has noticed that "we always end up killing each other."
shareNo, the siege of Breda only started in 1624. It was most likely during the Siege of Bergen op Zoom, which was in 1622. Still, it was in Flanders, or The Netherlands in modern day times.
shareI'll go with that. I don't know the individual battles, just that it did seem to be in Flanders. The war was -- and must have seemed so even at the time -- endless and repetitious. Like so many others in that era.
shareAccording to the novels, Íñigo says about the death of his father: "a mi padre lo mataron de un tiro de arcabuz en un baluarte de Jülich", which is Germany (if we can call it that at this time in History) but the film doesn't follow the same timetable. Bergen op Zoom is the best option, although I doubt that the filmmakers even had a specific location in mind.
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