The Ethics of Wrongdoing in José María Forqué's Amanecer en puerta oscura (1957)

Amanecer en puerta oscura (1957, José María Forqué) is a Spanish Western starring Francisco Rabal which depicts banditry from the nineteenth century and which won the Berlin Silver Bear. In the climactic scenes of the film, the statue of Jesús el Rico (a crucifix carried on high by encapuchados during the Easter celebrations) raises its hand to choose which one of three prisoners to pardon in a re-enactment of the Parable of the Good Thief. This paper will examine documents from the censorship files under the Franco dictatorship and reviews of the film to explore the representations of wrongdoing in the film and the intersections of spectatorial relations with ethics.