This is the first movie I have ever seen with Elvis Presley in it and all I can say is not bad. He’s actually quite good with the acting and his singing was even better. Simple and ridiculous as was the movie I could not really understand the morals or the point of the film. It seems the movie was just a one big musical showcase of Elvis’ singing and the film was just an icing that sweetened more of Elvis’s fame back in the days . As obvious as it is, the whole film (especially the actresses) revolves around Elvis’ character Mike and the scenarios and the dialogues of the film were somewhat simple and unrealistic.

The main attraction of the film was, obviously, Mike’s performance in various bars and night clubs around a very tourist-focused, night-life-esque fictionally glamorized Acapulco. Mike unironically sings about the stereotypical view of Mexico such as pretty ladies, tequilas, bullfighting and being laid-back and just having fun. Annoying and obviously as it is, the intention of the film was just to entertain the viewers and showcase more of Elvis while using Acapulco as a performance stage. The image of Acapulco in the film is so familiar to that of the films Le Magnifique and maybe Flying Down to Rio. The ignorant portrayal sort of glamorizes Acapulco as this place where there is only fun and drinking. Although this may seem like a nuance, during the 1950s-1970s Acapulco was a popular and inexpensive vacation resort for many  people so it does make some sense that many movies at that time would choose Acapulco as a bright setting for movies like Fun in Acapulco. The Americanized perception of Acapulco (and Mexico in general) at that time seem to have been as this vacation resort-like place with beautiful beaches and adventurous opportunities.

All in all, I enjoyed the musical performance of the film and although everything else was ridiculous and unreal, the entertainment value of the film was great. As I have mentioned in my blog about Down Argentine Way, this film also portrays the setting and the people as a harmless viewpoint for the purpose of entertainment and positive promotion.

Compared to the other movie (Flying Down to Rio) I liked this one a little better. The color and the cinematography was a great and the storyline was quite touching. The actors who played the Argentine characters were obviously not Argentinians nor were they Latinos and their speaking of English in terrible “Spanish” accents to emphasize the Argentine character for the English-speaking audiences makes the movie not so authentic in keeping with the setting of the story. Although it is unreal, this type of stuff was/is quite common in a lot of Hollywood films for example if anyone has seen old cold-war themed action movies, you’ll notice that the Russian bad guys are speaking English in Russian accents even among themselves. This tactic, I think is just general fictional part of the movie and the lack of resources for the movies makers to hire authentic speakers of the languages or even just to make the audiences understand the story more easily.

Reading through the posts of other classmates I noticed a lot of them say this movie is somewhat of a “cultural appropriation” of Argentina or that the setting of the film stereotypically portrays Argentina as this dance-musical tipsy place, but I think the purpose of the movie was just to present and promote Argentina from an entertaining perspective. In my view the central focus of the movie is a love story between Ricardo and Binnie and nothing more. Just like Flying Down to Rio, this film only uses the “foreign” (Argentina) place as a mere stage and backdrop of the film. I’m certain the director and the producers probably knew they could not portray Argentina at a 100% accurate way or they just didn’t knew much about the country too well in a sense. But, I’m certain the film did not try or had intention to disparage or smear Argentina in a negative light. Seeing Carmen Miranda perform at the beginning of the film and according to sources, during the production of the film, a film crew were sent to Buenos Aires to film various panoramic shots of the city, this shows the film did somewhat try to retain and add some “Latin” character into the film. Although I did wished they hired real Argentine actors and filmed the authenticity and the culture of Argentina, we have to understand the movie is a mere fantasy and a work of fiction created for a majority American audiences and I’m sure most movie-goers then and now didn’t care much about authenticity or details but rather more drawn attention to performance and story.

All in all, Down Argentine Way is a typical American rom-com with a small touch of “Latin-ness” that tried to make it as unique as possible. As Americanized and having a not-so-genuine Argentinian cast, movie shined a positive light in telling a story of romance and showing musical talents. It is obvious the film is a misrepresentation but in the end Down Argentine Way is a work of fiction that portrays romance and music in a positive and entertaining manner.

Great movie. First time seeing a ’20s silent film and I didn’t expect anything extraordinary but the story was good. In my view, the film is a typical Good vs. Evil scenario in which Zorro is the hero with good moral values who triumphs over the bad guys (corrupt government).  In a way I can see this film could’ve been an inspiration for many action movies or superhero movies of similar scenarios and storylines. In particular Zorro reminds me a lot of Batman. Although the this story of Zorro takes places during the Spanish rule of California in the early 19th century, the film is very Americanized (obviously) and I hardly felt any sense or feeling of “Spanishness” in the film maybe except for the fact that the use of certain Spanish words ‘cabellero’, ‘don’ and hacienda gives a little character to the movie in order to give the audiences the information that the setting of the film takes place in Spanish California.

The acting of the acting of the characters were very comical and over-dramatic but I can see why they intentionally did that due to having no spoken dialogue, the actors had to exaggerate in order to show and progress the story. Don Diego/Zorro in particular was very well-introduced into the movie. Don Diego’s ignorance and meek behavior in a way hides the “masculine” hero that is Zorro and perhaps Diego was intentionally acting this way in order to test the waters of his environment or to harbor information about others. This type of scenario reminds me a lot about the Batman films.

One thing that kind of disappointed me was how the film didn’t explore the themes of political and social corruption in the settings. The film briefly tells us that Zorro is fighting the oppressive government of Spanish California but we only see the corrupt governor a few times without knowing any character or background of him and the main antagonist just only seems to be Captain Ramon who is a mere soldier of the corrupt system. I would say the film portrayed too much on the self-interest and the life of Zorro rather than also portraying the outside environment and the everyday lives of the common folks that Zorro claims to champion for. Overall I liked the film very much and maybe someday Hollywood will make a reboot of this film and maybe they could add in more authenticity of the settings and give more background and stories to the other characters rather than focusing too much on Zorro.