"Jorge Alí Triana triumphed in his first feature with great style and atmosphere. The screenplay by Gabriel García Márquez makes one wish he had written a western for Anthony Mann. It seems just like one, as Gustavo Angarita in the James Stewart part is released from jail after 18 years for killing...the man he had just beaten in a cockfight. Cautiously, because he knows the man's sons have sworn to kill him, he returns to his village where his former fiancée still lives. But now she is married and divorced, with a 6-year-old son. And everyone advises the ex-jailbird to leave. He refuses..." (Derek Malcolm, London Film Festival). From this contemporary story, reminiscent of the western, Márquez and Triana redefine the cowboy, giving their hero reading glasses and a knowledge of knitting, and they add two brothers-one violent and vengeful, the other understanding-forming a triangle which reshapes the machismo in the Latin male mystique. --San Francisco International Film Festival '87.