Lombardi's Captain Pantoja

Whenever one reads a book and later learns there is a movie adaptation of it, one has certain expectations; since having read the literature, one begins to form ideas on how certain things, characters, settings etc. should be visualized. More often times than not, the reader's expectations are not met in the movie version. Since we are all different, no two people will interpret a novel into film the same way and in most cases, the film is primarily the director's interpretation of the work.

Lombardi interprets Llosa's novel in his own way. It seems as though his hypertext of Llosa's hypotext was taken and put into the "grand" Hollywood plot machine. The result is a fairly enjoyable film which is more than anything, a crowd pleaser. To anyone with prior knowledge of Llosa's novel, the film can't help but to be a little disappointing.

It omits particular characters, such as Father Francisco and Captain Pantoja's mother, Leonor. Both characters were mostly connected to the radical cult subplot that forms in the Amazon; the main reason for this is omission is apparent; as discussed in class, not many people would want to go see a movie with those graphic crucifixtion scenes depicted in the novel, among other things. Lombardi instead, chooses to sensationalize the love affair between Captain Pantoja and the Brazilian, or as she is in the film, Colombian. In the novel, it is unclear whether Pantoja has genuine feelings for the Colombian, but the film heavily idealizes their relationship and after her death, the rest of the film unfolds like an exaggerated melodrama. Lombardi definitely keeps the humor and main story-line from the novel, but makes it more accessible to audiences...which isn't necessarily always a good thing.