Category Archives: SPAN 404B

The opening scene of this movie immediately situated the audience in a very different world than the previous films shown in this class. One of violence, corruption, and even more so, disturbing acts of terrorism. As the camera panned around this house filled with suffocated bodies stuffed into the walls of the rooms, I imagined that we were about to start watching a horror movie. This film by far depicts Latin America in the most violent manner. The sense of corruption and fear portrayed in the town of Juarez through the procession of images of mutilated bodies was gut wrenching.

However, even though the violence is in a sense “worn on the sleeve” of Juarez, I think this film does a good job of situating America within the violence related to the war on drugs. By this I am referring to the fact that, although the multi-unit task force that Kate joins in the film seems to have some “good” intentions (ie. minimizing the amount of drug cartels that America has to deal with), they go about attaining this goal through a manner of corrupt and illegal actions. As the viewers are moved further and further through the film, we become aware of just how far this CIA led task force is willing to go to get their way – by joining up with Alejandro, a man from the Colombian drug cartel, in order to help them get rid of a Mexican one. I think the mentality of this task force / Kate’s supervisor Matt, is to rid themselves of the worse of two evils, but at the end of the film, I feel that viewers are left wondering what right America has to assert their dominance in the way shown in this film.

One of the most interesting things I observed about this film, was the way “real” action/justice was depicted as requiring a level of illegality. For example, in many of Matt’s convincing speeches with Kate, he references how her work with the state department is just mitigating the trickle down effect of the drug cartels, whereas his task force/ the CIA aims to hit the cartels at the source. This assumption made Kate’s regular work in some ways seem quite useless and manipulated her into pursuing further engagements with this task force. By the end of the film, we have seen the lengths that this group is willing to go to fulfill its objectives, but I think the audience and Kate are left feeling the sense of, “at what cost?” I felt a sense of confusion over whether anything had really been improved at all considering the objective wasn’t really to reduce the amount of drug trade or corruption, but rather just reduce the amount of cartels that were responsible for the corruption.

On a very different topic of gender dynamics, it was interesting to see how Kate was the member of the state department chosen to take up this multi-unit task force. It seemed that her “supervisor” Matt picked her because she was beautiful and single (and therefore an attractive distraction for their task force’s projects), as well it seemed that she was chosen because she was assumed to be more accepting of their illegal actions (as indicated by Matt’s reference to ‘not wanting any lawyers on the task force,’ likely because they would be more likely to report illegal proceedings). Although Kate’s emotional responses to the violence depicted throughout the film did appear to be a natural response, I did feel as though this showed a bit of a gender binary around being able to cope with malicious violence. Whereas it seemed as though the men could somewhat turn off their emotions or were trained out of having them all together.

Overall this was a very interesting film in terms of the relational dynamics between America, Mexico, and Columbia, and its depiction of America’s involvement in the war on drugs.

Flying Down to Rio truly felt like I was being taken to another country or another era after being primed with The Mark of Zorro in the prior week. Specifically the “culture shock” I am referring to is in regards to the depictions and social degradation of women in this film. From the very opening scene, the only way in which young adult women seem to be regarded is as sexual deviants who are incapable of fighting against their inner (inherently sexual) desires. To prime the audience’s expectations/understanding of women, the film opens with a scene in an American hotel in which all the women staff are standing in a line facing their male manager whom then asks them to turn around to show him their backsides. This image was clearly created to tease the audience into believing that the manager is looking at their rear-ends, but then reveals that he is assessing their stockings (although it is debatable whether that was all he was doing). The scene ends with him making a comment that one of the women’s stockings are inappropriate, and could be interpreted as him pointing out a sexual deviance as the cause.

As the film moves forward, not only is the objectification and sexualization of women perpetuated, but another layer is added; Brazilian women are depicted as dark, free spirited, and more sexually deviant than their American counterparts. I saw this as a way in which their foreign nationality was exoticized and used as a container for American male sexual fantasies of sexually deviant women. As discussed in class, it is much easier to put our desires onto a foreign other because there is less restriction in what we believe is possible. However, placing this sexualized image on Latin Amemrican women further objectifies them and therefore adds an enhanced oppresive force upon their demographic. Specific film examples that compare women’s sexual appeal by their nationality are such as when Belinha is initially regarded by Roger’s band mates as “the dark one” and show Roger literally falling over at the grasp of her beauty. Later when the American band goes to Brazil, they are introduced to a local Brazilian dance called the Carioca in which men and women literally touch cheeks through out the entire performance while performing somewhat sexually overt gestures. This depiction of “authentic Brazilian dance” not only encourages the perpetuated sexualization/deviance of Brazilian women, but also reinforces a notion of Latin America as more laid back in their approach to sex/socializing patterns between genders. One of the American band members literally stated ‘we can’t do this in our country,’ in regards to the sexually overt nature of the Carioca.

While the sexual depictions of women in this film was quite degrading in itself, what was probably the most dehumanizing was the way in which Belinha’s agency seemed to be stripped from her. Starting with her first scene in which she and Roger flirt across the dance hall, concern over her wellbeing by hotel staff is not communicated to Belinha but rather her aunt who is then lied to in order to get Belinha away from Roger. Later when Belinha is stranded on the beach with Roger, he attempts to serenade her with music. Belinha first stares into the sunset as he plays (likely for the audience’s enjoyment of her image) and then all the sudden she is kissing Roger. Not only is an abrupt shift for the audience, but Belinha her self is taken aback by her actions. It is as though she wasn’t in control of her own body and is shocked to realize that her sexual desires took hold of her. This line of suggestion continues throughout the rest of the film; Belinha is not seen as in charge of her own will but rather controlled by her sexual nature and therefore must be controlled by others. Rather than try to treat her with love and respect, both Roger and her arranged fiance, Julio, are battling for her hand in marriage. This is most obviously demonstrated in the last portion of the movie in which Julio is asked why he hasn’t married her already, when everyone is clearly aware that she is not completely interested in the marriage. There is no discussion or consideration of discussing the matter with her, or trying to convince her to love Julio. Rather, in the final scene of the movie, Julio, for a lack of a more suitable term, kidnaps Belinha and leads the audience to believe he is forcing her hand in marriage, as if to suggest that her sexual deviance will be reigned in by a legally binding partnership. Teasing the audience again, it is revealed that he is actually giving her to Roger, not only demonstrating that she is an object to be traded at will, but that she is expected to be happy with whatever the men in her life choose for her to do.

These observations only cover a small portion of the themes that were expressed in this film. Out of the three films we have watched so far, this one was definitely the most far fetched in my mind, which is ironic in some ways because a lot of elements of the film were accurate to the era. I look forward to the in-depth discussion tomorrow.

“Le Magnifique” / “The Man from Acapulco” (English Title)

While watching this film, I must admit I was a bit challenged to understand its direct relation to depictions of Latin America in Hollywood. Not only is it a French and not a Hollywood film, but beside the fact that some of the setting is centered in Mexico, very little of the plot appears to be related to Latin America. In addition, the few Mexicans that are shown in scenes of the film are mostly “backdrops,” appearing as either serenading bands or little men wearing enormous sombreros staring in awe at Bob St. Claire (the male protagonist). This being said, I would like to touch on a few themes throughout the film that I find relevant to the course objectives.

First, this movie appears as a strong example of the blurring reality between fiction and real life of the author –  Francois Merlin, and his penned protagonist Bob St. Claire.  The plot line he creates for Bob St. Claire mimics his more common place life challenges; when Merlin succeeds, so does St. Claire, and vice versa. Therefore, the film can be seen as a farce demonstrating the influence of an author’s desires and world views on their artistic works. It is unclear to the extent to which Merlin believes he is St. Claire at the beginning of the story, but he clearly indicates that the physical appearance of St. Claire’s love interest in his novel, Tatiana, has been directly taken from his neighbor, Christine. In addition to the direct relationship between the protagonists and the “real” characters in this film, Merlin also uses his novel as an emotional outlet. When his publisher or plumber denies his requests for assistance in some matter, he dreams up a scene in his novel about their unfortunate demise. Additionally, later in the film, Merlin begins to take offense to the characteristics that women in his life, Christine and his maid, enjoy in St. Claire. This is because he feels that some of those characteristics are not applicable to his own nature, and therefore are seen as his own character flaws. This results in him destroying the life of his protagonist in order to release his anger and knock St. Claire down a notch. Perhaps, this expression of anger towards his better counterpart – St. Claire is Merlin’s way of coping with a personal fear of being undesirable. All of these examples elude to Merlin using his novel as an outlet to navigate his own life’s desires through the world of his characters.

Additionally, although somewhat dismissed in my first paragraph, I do believe that the representations of Mexicans in this film are still accurate impressions held of Latin Americans when in their more docile film roles. “The Man from Acapulco” uses Latin American cultural music and dress to make Mexicans appear comical through out the film –  in their miraculously appearing serenading bands and in giant sombreros that function to make those wearing them look extremely small. These caricatures of Mexicans may have been created principally for their comical effect, but I also think it is likely that the French filmmakers felt that these cultural practices were humorous in their regular form and/or utilized them to depict Mexicans as non-intimidating in nature.

In all, I believe this film was a useful practice to analyze the blurred line between fiction and reality, as well as a useful primer for the more subtle influence of filmmakers’ impressions on their works – specifically the impact of their impressions of Latin America. This French farce was quite successful because it very easily brought to attention the blurring of reality that we can now apply to future films. However, in the case of the coming pictures, we will not be able to see the film producers on screen as we could see Merlin in “Le Magnifique” and therefore we will need to do more work to decipher the connections/impressions carried from creator to creation moving forward.