The new film "Magellan" by Filipino director Lav Diaz dramatizes the 16th-century voyage of Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan. Starring Gael GarcÃa Bernal, the film depicts Magellan's ambition to establish a new maritime route to the "spice islands" in Indonesia, leading to his defection from Portugal to Spain.
The expedition, supported by King Charles I of Spain, was difficult, with many crew members succumbing to scurvy or being executed for mutiny. Magellan died in Mactan, in what is now the Philippines, during a conflict with local people.
The voyage, which began in 1519, is often recognized by historians as the first full circumnavigation of the globe. After Magellan's death in 1521, Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the expedition in 1522. While biographer Laurence Bergreen considers Magellan's accomplishments more significant than those of Christopher Columbus, and NASA named a spacecraft after him, others question his importance, particularly because he did not complete the return journey to Spain.
Magellan remains a controversial figure due to accusations of betraying his home country, alleged illegal trading, reported tyranny aboard his fleet, and the forced conversion of Mactan inhabitants to Christianity. In his 2022 book "Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan," historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto describes Magellan as reckless and fanatical, characterizing his mission as a "failure" due to significant casualties (only 18 of approximately 270 sailors reportedly returned to Spain) and its lack of profitability. Fernández-Armesto also states Magellan was responsible for "imperialism, slavery, incontinent bloodlust and unjust discrimination" against Indigenous peoples, raising questions about whether he should be viewed as a trailblazer or a controversial figure.