Operation Ogro Research

From "The Italian Political Filmmakers"

 * "Pontecorvo did explain in our interview, however, that only two problems occured, one with the extreme Right's harassment during the production, and the other from the terrorist branch of the guerilla movement (ETA-Militar), which felt the director made the film against this group." -204


 * "Based on interviews and readings, the director and screenwriters were able to recount an ideological but also very human narrative. From an introduction to the Basque question via a map and news footage from Franco's death in 1975, the director proceeds to give glimpses of the Basque struggle for cultural and political autonomy. Flashbacks to a few decades earlier show young boys being beaten by their teacher because they insist on speaking Basque instead of standard Spanish. Another flashback shows a priest leaving his profession to fight in the cause of liberation." - 205


 * "The Tunnel does not have the same power as political fiction as did Pontecorvo's preceding works. The Ideological weaknesses accruing from the imbalance of the script destroy the power of the film to convey honestly the full rationale of the ETA movement, if that were possible on celluloid. The human side of the guerrillas does emerge but subsidies all too quickly, dominated by the technical side of the assassination preparation and the ideological debate" - 207


 * "The Tunnel does not sufficiently penetrate the ideology of the Right. Carrerro Blanco is only a moving target in the film. He and Franco have no human side to them; they simply represent oppression. Nor do the people of Madrir have character development or even a say about this type of violence destroying their society." - 207


 * "Pontecorvo's treatment of history emerges from his deep-seated belief in the Marxist dialectic. Most of his films pit one striking oppressive force against a weaker, unrecognized enemy. He says he creates the tension between these conflicting forces, as seen in his films, because that is how reality is." - 208

Gillo Pontecorvo: Political Terrorism in "Ogro"
From Cineaste Interviews


 * "The theme we had selected was too difficult and not very commercial" - 308


 * "It was during the kidnapping of Moro that we wrote the final version of the script, after hesistating between continuing or dropping the project altogether. The film probably shows the effects of many of these perplexities. We perhaps overstated the fundamental difference, as we see it, between armed struggle under a democratic regime and armed struggle under a dictatorial regime." - 308


 * "I wanted the present to show that deviation is possible as a form of struggle which was justifiable under fascism but erroneous today." - 308


 * "My own opinion is given at the end, through the words of Ezarra, the other terrorist who refutes terrorism outside of fascism. ... Ezarra, tears in his eyes at the loss of a friend who fought with him against fascism, replies 'Nevertheless this kind of courage is necessary.'" - 309


 * "The speaking of Basque in school is a determining element in the story. Of the four protagonists involved in the assassination, to whom I have spoken at length, two of them told me that their deepest, longest-lasting memory was being punished by a ruler. ... Consequently, this scene synthesizes the mode of fascist repression against all forms of national identity..." - 310

From Resistance to Terrorism
Carlo Celli


 * Worked for the first time with Franco Solinas


 * "With Ogro he would be forced to face issues about the legitimacy of violence that had remained unresolved in his work since The Battle of Algiers" - 90


 * Instant Move -> "quickly produced films that exploit public interest in recent events." - 90


 * "Ogro has two historical backdrops. Firstly, the film could be read as a thinly disguised examination of the Italian terrorist situation in the 1970's set in Basque Spain." - 90


 * "Pontecorvo also had to incorporate some understanding of the history of the Basque subjugation to Castillian power, a topic much more complicated than the brief run-down that the documentary-like opening of the film allows." - 92


 * "A near majority of Basque terrorists in the 1960's and 1970's were apparently recruited from Catholic seminars and convents. ... In the film seminary teacher Joseba leaves his teaching post in order to join ETA. Joseba may be identified with the militancy of the Basque priesthood, which actively encouraged Basque nationalism." - 92


 * "The name of the hard-line Basque terrorist in the film, Txabi, recalls one of the first Basque martyrs, Txabi Echevarrieta, who was gunned down by police-men in 1968, which in turn led to Basque retaliation with the murder of a high official in the Spanish police, Meliton Manazanas." -92


 * "the ETA assassination of accelerated the decline of the Falangist regime and idirectly fostered the path toward representative government in Spain." - 93


 * "The ETA activists of the 1970's also apparently regarded the Algerian achievement of independence from France in the 1950's as a model for their own national liberation struggle. This may be a reason why Pontecorvo was attracted to the subject." - 92


 * "Thus the terrorist violence is framed by a coda that does not lead to independence, as in The Battle of Algiers. Rather the deathbed scenes with the hard-line Txabi point to the possibility of a shift in Basque strategy to work within the republican institutions of post-Franco Spain." - 94


 * "In Ogro, the Basque terrorists are divided between the true believers, represented by Txabi, and moderates, represented by Ezarra, who are willing to attentuate violence, so that the post-Franco regime may start the process of democratization of the country's institutions." - 95


 * "Ogro is the only Pontecorvo film in which the seemingly moderate characters are allowed significant room in the plot." - 95


 * "Pontecorvo allows Txabi- like Ali Le Pointe in The Battle of Algiers- a quasi-religious representation as a figure who expires as a martyr for a national liberation struggle. Yet Txabi ultimately not a heroic figure." - 96


 * Page 97 -> Representation of Blanco, at church, only "amen," comparison to Hamlet (hesitation to kill the Uncle because he is at prayer)


 * "Despite the opening in the religious classroom depicting the suppression of the Basque language, and the the creation of a connection between Joseba and the commandos, Pontecorvo's film communicates little sense of the Basque identity." - 98


 * "The purported ogre and villain of the story, Carrero Blanco, is a penitent churchgoer instead of a forbidding figure of unforgiving power and violence." - 99


 * "none of the characters come across as sympathetic, and the film actually reduces empathy for the Basque cause." -100

Gillo Pontecorvo: Partisan Film-Maker
Tom Behan


 * "150,000 Basques, 10% of the population felt obliged to go into exile abroad." - 28


 * "Pontecorvo had originally thought of an action movie called 'The Tunnel' which would concentrate on the ETA attack on Carrero Alone." - 28

Gerald Peary Interview

 * PONTECORVO on OGRO: "It's the contemporary story of the Basque fight for independence. I don't consider it to be a good film. I was telling a story of an act of terrorism against Franco at the same time I was strongly against the 1978 terrorist death of Aldo Moro. You can feel it in the film, that I am contradictory."

The Basques
RObert Clark


 * "War would not be waged against the military units of the Spanish but against the minds of the Spanish. Instead of military confrontation, ETA would seek ways of forcing the Spanish out of the Basque country by psychological warfare." - 160

The Pre-History -> The "Burgos 16"

 * "Burgo 16" Accused of the Murder of Manzanas as retaliation for murder of Txabi in 1968... One of the women interrogated by police was tortued so mercilessly that she suffered a miscarriage. While she was being tortued in Pamplona, her husband assaulted the jail, was arrested, and charged with the murder of Manzanas when the bullet from the gun he was carrying were found to match the bullets that killed Manzanas. These ballistics were later problematicized by the fact that the bullets that were compared were never widely known/discussed or studied, until after the jailbreak attempt. Witnesses also refused to positively identify him. -> 182 - 185


 * During trial -> ETA group captured a German Consul in San Sebastian called Eugen Biehl. Franco & ETA negotiated that the group would let Biehl go, the verdicts would then be announced, and any death sentences would be commuted by Franco.

The Basque Insurgents
Robert P. Clark

The Pre-History: "Huarte Kidnap & Hernani Explosives Theft"

 * In 1973, ETA operatives kidnapped Felipe Haurte a wealthy industrialist who was frequently implicated in clashes with unionized factory workers in the Basque country. He was removed to a cave outside of San Sebastian. The demands were for $800,000 and the resolution of an existing labor dispute in the favor of the workers. These demands were met and Haurte was released. By June, the police brought 16 ETA members to trial. Meanwhile, other Basque forces stole 3,000 kilos of explosives from Hernani, and hid them in the same cave as Huarte. These explosives were used in the assassination of Carrero. - 72-73


 * Sixth Assembly -> ETA reorgnaizes, new command chains, local groups told to "make noise" to distract from another major project that was a major secret. One commando, Yosu Arteche became involved in a major gun battle after being surprised by police in a safe house. He ended up killing himself because he knew he would be captured and was aware of the Madrid plannings. - 76

After the Attack

 * Conflict between two groups in ETA (Frente Militar & Frente Obrero) brought to a head by the event. FM wanted to continue to pursue violence, FO believed in the ability to work within the system. - 77&78 (this represents the ideologies battling the film)

ETA Members

 * ETA members are generally in their mid 20's when the joined the organization -> mean age of 24 - 144


 * ETA was made up of over 90% men (pronounced Antipathy to women). When women were used -> they were marginal/auxillary


 * Thus Ogro represents two of the misogynistic viewpoints of the ETA (as expressed by one etarra to Clark - 144
 * "Their pleace was in the home" -> Where Ayamiore is routinely placed/told to go back to.
 * "they talked too much"

Youth & Upbringing

 * "Many future etarras first encountered the notion of discrimination and deprivation when they emerged from the home and found themselves in a school where they could neither speak nor understand the language of instruction and were in fact punished for their inability to do so." - 153


 * This experience -> depicted in the film explicitly was at least the lived experience of Jose Maria Ezkubi.


 * These events "served as a constant irritant, an enduring reminder of the oppressive nature of the Spanish State in the Basque Country." - 154


 * Basque mountain climbing clubs as a cover-up for secret ETA meetings


 * "The more a young Basque looked for trouble, the greater the likelihood that he would find it. The Guardia Civil and police were, after all, only too ready to play this role in the emergence of radicalized youths." - 154-155


 * Recruiting is the longest part of the joining of the ETA - 157-158


 * "Light political banter that means little to most people begins to take on new and more serious meaning to a young man who has just joined an insurgent organization." - 161


 * "One of the most important social institutions in small Basque villages is the cuadrilla, a small group or gang of young boys (four to six members) who spend all of their time in various kinds of exploits with one another. In their youth, these groups may engage in relatively harmless acts of minor vandalism, come to young boys in all cultures, such as breaking street lights or painting obscenities on walls. In Basque villages however... their harmless adventures may turn to something a little riskier, like throwing stones at the passing car of some Guardia Civil troops." - 162

Wives & Lovers

 * Ideal Basque Wife -> "she would have to have the strength, resolve, patience, and durability necessary to carry the entire burden of the relationship. She would need to manage the family and rear the children, perform the day-to-day tasks of the family, see her husband or lover leave home at night never knowing where he was going or whether he would return, and endure all of this in silence and support for years at a time." - 163
 * Best solution is to marry "women who likewise had committed themselves to revolutionary struggle.
 * "husband and wife 'teams' were fairly common in this organization" - 163