Tag Archives: Hollywood movies

08/9/17

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), is a Post/Neo Western movie, directed and acted by Tommy Lee Jones. It tells the story of Melquiades Estrada, a Mexican illegal migrant who enters Texas in search of a job and a new life. Soon enough, Melquiades and Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones), become friends and work partners. However, this new and unfiltered friendship is soon tested when Melquiades is killed and Pete is forced to find his friend’s killer and to fulfill the promise of burying Mel in his home town in Mexico.

I think that Three Burials is a post/Neo Western movie because it retains elements of conflict of the traditional Western genre movie such as good versus evil (cowboys’ vs Indians/Mexicans), freedom versus settlement, solitude versus cooperation and wild versus civilization. Nevertheless, other new and interesting elements are brought into the mix of Three Burials as a way to reinvent the Western genre and to challenge pre-established social and cultural norms impose by society which are based on stereotypes the ‘other’ as foreigner and evil. For instance, in the case of The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, both Pete Perkins as well as the audience are forced to come to terms with the concept of friendship, honor, ‘the other’ and traditional family values. As we have seen in previous Western themed movies such Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and The Mark of Zorro (1920), movies have being responsible for constructing pre-established notions of how society should look-like and where white American cowboys redeemed themselves in foreign lands (Mexico in the case of Sierra Madre). This is to say that, some values are more important than others: honor, solitude, tradition, and nature. In the case of The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, the West belongs not only to the white American cowboys of Texas but it opens a cultural and social space for Mel himself to enter this Western world as a baquero just like his counterparts.  Here, the US-Mexico border, is a fluid zone where identities are recognized but allowed to coexists, cultural hybridity is present, and spaces take different meaning and values. Among this fluid Mexico-US border area, Pete’s mission to find the killer of his friend and later his mission to bury him in Mexico also challenge the notion of the typical Western movie.

The value and meaning of true friendship is highly explored in Three Burials. For once, the way in which Pete welcomes and allows Mel to work in his Texan ranch and to become his friend, shows that the view of the Mexican as the ‘other’ does not apply in the same context as it did in movies such as Zorro or Sierra Madre. For example, there is a clear intention by Pete to carry out Mel’s wishes of being buried in his homeland and what he does to accomplish this is what makes the movie interesting to analyze. Not only does Pete find out who Mel’s murderer is but forces Officer Norton to carry Mel’s dead body through the US-Mexico border, across the desert (on a mule’s back) and buries him in his ‘home’ town. Hence, showcasing the overall sense of dedication and friendship for his Mexican friend and demonstrating loyalty for others beyond social and cultural boundaries. For this reason, Perkin’s reason is not only driven by his desire for vengeance but instead love and solidarity for his friend are paramount drivers of this post-Western film.

The difference among the importance of family values giving in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, deserves close attention. In fact, the way in which Officer Norton’s house hold is presented vastly contrasts that one of Mel’s family ideas or among those of Mel and Pete’s, who in some respect has become a sort of acquired family for Mel’s. Officer Norton family is in crisis. Norton and his wife seem to be at lost (bored in a new city and lost in this new job). Instead, Mel’s family values are around his ‘wife’ and children and his relationship with Pete are portrayed as good, honest and carefree. Pete cares a lot for Mel’s, so much so that he introduces him the companionship of Lou Ann Norton, Officer Norton’s wife, to be his romantic partner. It is like if Pete is a father figure to Mel and race, origin, and blood does not matter to him but what really matters is his friend’s happiness and well-being. What transpires in the end and really matter for Pete is to restore the respect and dignity of his good friend Mel. Hence, the three consecutive burials lead Pete to force Mike Norton to take a road trip to Mexico so they can give Mel a proper burial.

To finalize, Lou Ann Norton and Mel find their own way to be happy in the motel room. It is here where Lou Ann is the happiest. It is in the motel room, among this liminal space, where she escapes being raped by her husband the border patrol Officer. It is in here, the motel room, where Lou Ann takes charge of her destiny and help ease Mel into being himself. Language does not matter in this motel room liminal space. Hence, music, television and dancing become excuses to get to know each other better. Sex is not necessary. Only their intimacy for one another is what allows them to escape their realities and to forget their sorrows. For this reason, Lou Ann and Mel brake the conventions of family values in the motel room and allow themselves to be happy for a while before returning to their day-to-day spaces. In the case of Lou Ann is her role as bored house-wife and for Mel is an illegal cowboy in Texas.

Lastly, it is important to mention that Lou Ann escapes her stagnated reality when she leaves the Texan town of Van Horn after her husband goes missing. On the other hand, Mel only escapes his illegal and foreign condition when he is mistakenly and wrongly killed by Officer Mike Norton. Hence, choice of action versus fatal destiny are put forward in the movie as circumstantial themes which conducts the action within the movie.

08/4/17

Walker and Nicaragua’s Invasion

Interventionism of one country over another is the marker which defines the movie Walker (1985). And in this case, the United States over Nicaragua in the name of democracy. Democracy here plays an important part of extension of power. Power of a man, William Walker, an American mercenary who travels to Nicaragua with the only aim at inviting the country and later becoming the President of the same. Interesting enough, one thing I liked about the movie was the narrator’s voice. He gave an inside and offered another dimension of the story. And the narrator also glorifies the action of the movie by saying, for example, “brave men”.

The movie Walker alludes to Christopher Columbus and his ‘discovery’ of the new world once they land in Nicaragua. It also reminds me of the movie También la lluvia (2010). In both movies the use of military force of one ‘civilization’/people over the other in the name of God or with a righteous destiny, can be seen. In the case of Walker, they want to change society which they consider backwards, emphasizing hygiene, God, and science. In other worlds, an American moral compass promoted with the power of guns a military might. For this reason, the immoral among the American ranks get executed and the Conservatives in Nicaragua get killed in order to make way for the liberal Americans who will bring progress and commerce.

The creation of a Republic in Nicaragua is set to be one of the causes for the invasion. However, it is Walker who takes power by force and changes the rules of engagement. After Walker’s American soldiers take power, they make themselves Nicaraguan citizens, which in turns allows for the Americans and Walker himself to think they are contributing in making Nicaragua a more civilized nation. The Nation building process here is not legitimate, yet imposed by force, and it is something which at the end of the movie is set to be the destiny of this country. I saw this as a prophesy. The end of the movie mixes this futuristic prophetic destiny of invasion and by extension all Latin America, and William tells the people of Nicaragua that “America will be back, time and time again!” And in a sense this is true. The United States have invited Nicaragua, and other countries in Latin American, time and time again.

I found interesting that William promises the drum soldier guy that, “not harm will come to you”, and he later is the first who dies. I don’t think Walker really cares if his soldiers live or die, he only cares about power and becoming Nicaragua’s El Presidente. The role that Yrena plays here is interesting. She, Yrena is Criollo Spanish Nicaraguan woman who calls out Walker on his power desire by telling him in Spanish that all short men have the same complex, just like Napoleon did. A direct comparison between Napoleon and Walker can be made here. Both are short men, power hungry, and both invited countries and lost them. The issue of slavery is hint in the movie.

On the other hand, there is a black woman who points out that slavery will be instituted, and later in the movie, Walker talks about bringing blacks to Nicaragua to work in the fields. But not before there is a hint about using the indigenous people to work the fields instead of the black people, given their docile nature.

In my opinion, the best part of the movie is how many times Walker escapes death. It is like his fearless persona allows him to be daring and to escape unharmed.

08/1/17

Having Fun in Acapulco with Elvis is a Matter of Perspective

Fun in Acapulco (1963) tells the story of Mike Windgren (Elvis Presley), who is fired from his job at a show boat and has to take a job as a lifeguard at a nearby hotel in Acapulco. Mike, fearful of diving into the pool, faces his rival, another lifeguard, Moreno who becomes jealous of him for going out with his girl, Marguerita, and the two become enemies.

On one side, this movie depicts the different vicissitudes and troubles that Mike, a young American must face when working as lifeguard in the Mexico’s touristic town of Acapulco. He needs to work for less and attend many interviews with different hotel managers to find the best offer that he and his small partner Raoul, can find. On the other, Fun in Acapulco also shows the troubles that two ex-royals, Marguerita and her father Maximillian, must face when losing their high-class status and are forces to migrate to Mexico and work in the resort. However, the movie takes away from presenting the problems that the Mexican workers or citizens of Acapulco face with the surrounding and powerful economic forces that the hotel and truism industry display in Acapulco. For instance, the figure of Elsa Cardenas as a female bullfighter sends a romanticized image of a heroic figure who likes and chases handsome men. Elsa doesn’t have to work since she seems to have it all and also belongs to a higher social class than the rest of Mexicans. She even has a manager who tries to please her in all he can. But what about Raoul Almeido, the Mexican kid who manages Mike? How does he know so much about the managing business and what about his relationship with all his other ‘cousins’ in Acapulco?

As I see it, Fun in Acapulco focuses on Mike’s issues and takes away from the struggles of the Mexican characters. Or at least, it diminishes them by making them appear as fun and easy-go-lucky type of characters who are contempt with the situation they face. For example, while the audience gets to know that Mike, Marguerita and her dad, all live in the hotel complex, what about the Mexican kid, Raoul? And does Raoul’s extended family of cousins replace the need for a real family within the movie? What’s more, Fun in Acapulco seems to imply that Raoul’s ingenuity and resourcefulness would allow him to be okay even after Mike leaves the hotel for America. Raoul says, “I’ll find another nobody and turn him into a somebody.” In a sense, Raoul’s words allow the viewer to come to the conclusion that the kid, as well as all the other Mexican locals, are not and will not be affected by the tourism industry and the local authorities which regulate that business. What’s important within the movie is not the troubles that Acapulco’s third world location may bring such as poverty, housing issues for tourist workers, hygienic conditions, prostitution, etc., but the American visitor and worker, Mike. What matter are his struggles, his peruse of happiness, the way in which he seduces and captivates the local culture by becoming more Mexican than the Mexican singers. Elvis is a performer and as such, his character Mike, steels the show and adopts the Mexican music, customs, and culture as his own. Hence, the local Mexicans such as Raoul serve as mere background and fillers in the story of an American having fun in Acapulco.

Additionally, when the people of Acapulco are depicted in the movie, they are set to be taking “too many siestas (afternoon naps)”. Mike, then, contraposes this lazy idea of the siesta with his hard work, ambition and the willingness to overcome his diving fear. Mike is the center of attention in the movie and embodies performance, singing, athleticism throughout the whole movie. Mexico, and as a consequence, Acapulco serves to promote the idea of “tropical paradise”, where tourists can have a good time without worrying about anything, all while enjoying the tropical beauty that the landscape offers them. Elvis and his Mexican errant-boy, Raoul, make sort of a dynamic-duo, which allows Elvis to shine. Just like other characters have their side-kicks such as The Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore and his loyal Indian ‘friend’, Jay Silverheels as Tonto. If you ask me, this comparison while different in setting, is similar in racial differentiation and apparels characterization of the ‘other’.

Additionally, Mike the American immigrant but a temporary visitor to Acapulco changes jobs and professions seamlessly. But, Raoul, for instance, stays fixed to his surviving type-of-trade. This shows an advantage for the American character while placing the Mexican one to a defined set of rules with regards to his work, family, and future situation. In the end, only the American Mike, and the tourists he entertains, can have Fun in Acapulco. Hence, ignoring all the issues that the locals of the city of Acapulco may face by their presence.

07/22/17

Touch of Evil: Justice and the Law across the Mexican border

Touch of Evil (1958), acted and directed by Orson Welles, is a movie about violence, corruption and murder in the Mexican border town of Los Robles. The movie begins with the activation of a time-bomb mechanism. The explosion of this bomb will go on to unleash a series of events which will affect all the characters in the movie (main and small ones) and lead them to pain, tragedy, and death. The story-line is well-intertwined given that the bomb has a direct link to an American builder contractor and his girlfriend who are killed in the explosion.  This is to say that, the main characters in Touch of Evil, Mike Vargas (the Mexican detective) and Susan Vargas (Vargas’ wife), have to stop their honeymoon in the U.S- Mexico border town of Los Robles, when the explosion occurs. Mike Vargas and Susan Vargas will face the giant American Police captain Hank Quinlan who is brought to life by Orson Welles himself.

There are many excellent movie sequences in Touch of Evil, but I will be referring only to three segments of the film which stayed with me and which I think are important to explore. The first scene I want to analyze is the one after the car explodes at the crossing over the Mexican border. The second scene is the interrogation of Sanchez. Thirdly, the incriminating scene between Vargas, Menzies and Hank.

First, during the first minutes of the movie, the viewer gets to see the cross-border town of Los Robles and the security border check points on each side. Vargas, a Mexican police investigator, and his American wife Susan, cross the border by foot to the U.S’ side. Hence, the movie depicts a sort of free or fluid accessibility across the border in where people from both countries can come and go with no problem. The only question asked is: Are you American? For which Susan answers yes and this allows her and her husband to cross over the check-point and to enter U.S.A’s soil without showing a passport. Nevertheless, later in the same scene, the viewer can see how the American police enter Mexico illegally. This reference is important because it is not just the Mexicans who crossed illegally here but the Americans do it as well.

One of the lines which resonated with me came from the woman who drives with the contractor by car and are about to die, “I got this ticking noise in my head.” The ticking noise to which she is referring, as all the audience knows, is the time-bomb itself which is about to explode in the car. However, she is quickly dismiss by the border American officers with a simple, yes! And never gets around to ask what’s really happening. I find this scene interesting because the ticking bomb in her head counts the remaining time she and her boyfriend have left. Additionally, right after it, Susan appears talking with Mike saying, “You realize this is the first time we’ve been together in my country?” Mike replies back saying, “Do you realize I’ve not kissed you in an hour?” For this reason, I like the immediacy given to time in both lines marking the end for some and the beginning of suffering for others, as well as, their final triumph.

Second, the characterization of both, Mike Vargas and Susan Vargas, is exemplary of good people. Mike, a Mexican Narcotics officer main mission is to bring down the Grandi family and their illegal drug business. For her part Susan, a typical American-wife, follows her husband’s orders and suggestions to the letter. In a sense, their commitment to their marriage is demonstrated on screen. This is not to mention their undeniable love for each other (a romantic theme) and their resilience to remain good in the midst of evil which allows them to remain together in the end.

For instance, when Susan is waiting for her husband at the motel, she faces off the gang of Grandi’s boys. These men and women thugs and drug addicts enter Susan’s room in order to scare her with the idea of rape, just as uncle shorty ordered it. But, at that moment, it seems like Susan is about to be raped by these three criminals and even one of the women says “I want to watch.” It is not until the end, when these same women are seen talking with ‘uncle shorty’, when the audience knows that Grandi only wanted to scared Susan, so as to incriminate Vargas’ wife for drug possession and murder. One way or another, we as the audience are not sure if Susan was raped or not and maybe this element in the movie is another shade of evil which spills over the good characters of Susan and Vargas to highlight their goodness.

The final scene in which Menzies teams up with Mike Vargas to get Hank’s incriminating confession on tape, is of great importance. For once, this long sequence highlights the brilliant writing skills of Welles. The creativity, fluidity and suspense of the lines spoken by Hank are stellar and build up to the dramatic ending of the movie. It also takes the viewer through a historic timeline given that Hank sees at the beginning of this shot two of his most important friends, Pete and Tana. Hank asks Tana to read him the tarot for which Tana tells him that he has “no future” as a way to foreshadow his ending. Later, when Hanks leaves Tana’s house, Hank accuses Pete of becoming an idealist for partnering up with Mike Vargas. It is important to mention that, Mike and Pete’s partnership contrasts directly with that of Hank and Shorty’s. The first partnership is good and lawful one while that one of Hanks and Shorty is shady, illicit, and evil.

What’s more, the dialogue of Hank is great because he also contemplates what’s around him while being drunk and on his way to death. Hanks realized that the Mexican oil fields are “pumping money” and questions the financial situation of his own life. “Don’t you think I could have been rich? A cop in my position?” With these questions, Hanks shows his immorality, contempt for his profession and, more importantly, his greed for money. Hence, when he dies at the hand of his best friend, Pete, there is a clear justification for this action and the audience don’t feel so bad given his evilness of character.

 

07/17/17

Down Argentine Way (1940): The appropriation of the other’s culture

Down Argentine Way, directed by Irving Cummings, is a declaration and an attempt to seduce the Latin American by creating an Argentine theme movie while misrepresenting their culture. There is a lot of talk in cultural classes about authenticity or the proper representation of other cultures. And, in Down Argentine Way is clear that the director and his team did not make an effort to include actual Argentine music, clothing, or even dancing routines  that could reflect the ‘authentic’ folklore of this nation. It is important to remember that by 1940, the Argentine cinema was well-established in Latin America and movie theaters where all over the capital, so I would imagine that when they saw this movie misrepresenting their country and its traditions (which they saw as a cultural travesty),  pushed to boycott it.

The movie begins with the iconic Carmen Miranda dancing at the tune of a typical tropical ‘Tutti Frutti Hat’ type of song. The appearance of Carmen Miranda marks the tone for which the viewer should identify with this movie about Latin America. Furthermore, Carmen Miranda serves as a cultural homogenizing marker which indicates that all Latin countries are the same and that cultural or geographic specificity doesn’t really matter. Perhaps what really matters in the movie is the pretend good-neighbor policy of integration and cooperation designed by the Americans. This is not to mention that by 1940 the Argentine government (as well as the Brazilian) was being seduced by the Axis forces and the USA saw to change this sphere of influence on their favour. Just like Phil Swanson in his article, “Going Down on Good Neighbours” explains, Down Argentine Way was made to represent glamour and good fortune for some, the content of the film sets South America to be a paradise free of war, while many were suffering and dying everywhere else. Hence, somehow, Down Argentine Way is a historical misrepresentation where Americans can escape from reality and find their own oasis in Argentina (or anywhere else in Latin America) as a way to run away from the calamity of war.

Down Argentine Way also points out to a new era of transatlantic communication and transportation. For instance, in one of the first scenes, the Argentine horses are moved into a cruise ship. The image reads, “Argentine-Pan American Lines” showing a direct way of international maritime transportation route from Buenos Aires to New York. Technology, integration and business all collide in this movie as a way to international integration among the developed North and the developing South. The feud between two families also are also part of the main plot of the movie. The Argentinian family represented by Mr. Quintana and the American Family represented by Ms. Binnie Crawford do not have a good relationship. But at the end of the movie, these two families are reconciled and become good-neighbors which favours the commercial trade among them. Hence, hinting that no matter the differences and difficulties among these two nations (USA and Argentina), a ‘beneficial’ solution can be achieved in the end.

The music and dancing of the movie,  Down Argentine Way,  also symbolizes the misrepresentation and cultural appropriation done by Hollywood. In fact, the Spanish songs are replaced by English ones. The tropical Spanish drums take over Glenda, the main female American character,  as she starts suddenly dancing and even singing in English first and then in Spanish (Language does not need to be learned just felt?). It is like the music possess her and she cannot longer be a rational American woman. Nevertheless, this order is restore when the English band starts singing again and Glenda gets herself together in order to sing again more calmly. There is also another music scene where there is a sort of match-up between the American singing band and a tropical drum Latino band. However, their appearance and placement on the screen shows them in different planes of impotence. The English tuxedo music band is located at the center-top part of the screen while the drum Latin American music band is sitting down at the bottom/feet of the American band. This arrangement servers to illustrate the perception that America is always first: culturally, artistically and even commercially. On the other hand, the idea of the Latin Lover and all the romantic skills that he possess in the movie, represented by the character Ricardo Quintana, also are used as a secret code language to provide access unexplored sexual pleasure in a mutual transaction.  It seems that the Argentinian horses and its men are also equally misinterpreted or word-coded to be of the same caliber. Here, Down Argentine Way makes an animalistic assumption which equal to sexual pleasure (getting yourself a man) could be the same as buying a horse.

Finally, the fiesta celebration that Ricardo and Glenda seem to run into when they are preparing for the horse raising, lacks cultural specificity. This fiesta has more to do with a Mexican celebration than with an Argentine get together. There is no tangos being played here. The clothes of the peasant girls are wrong and the gaucho’s all have the same style costumes. What’s more, when one of the Argentinian girls is dancing frantically in the center of a crowd of people, she gives her place to Binnie Crawford: an American. Somehow the American, represented by Binnie here, take over the Argentinians in their own backyard and displace them. Ms. Crawford then steals the show and takes over their music, dancing, singing, and even their men and horses. In this bilateral commercial transaction, the Americans are the ones who always win and the Argentinians (and for that matter all the Latin Americans) are there as mere fillers who can be convinced or bought easily.

Hence, Down Argentine Way is a clear example and the epitome of misrepresenting other people’s culture expression for your own entertainment and pleasure with little or no consequence. Way to go Hollywood!

07/14/17

Week One: The Man from Acapulco (Le Magnifique): The bending of reality

My first reaction to The Man from Acapulco (Le Magnifique) (1973), directed by Philippe de Broca, was of fantasy meets reality. It is a movie with different layers but those layers, like many other movies, need to be peel with care before they reveal what they have to tell. At first, The Man from Acapulco seems to be a French version of James Bond, charged with many shades of humor and parody against the tropical Mexican landscape. On the other hand, this movie also resembles the Pink Panther because it plays with a clumsy but agile detective, Bob Saint-Clar, a fiction character, who is involved in all of the action scenes which later are explain to be the creation of the other main character: François Merlin, the writer. In a sense, The Man from Acapulco is a movie about the creation of reality based on fantasy. A French writer writes about Acapulco, a place he has never been to, but wishes he could be there in person in order to escape the cosmopolitan city of Paris. Hence, Merlin uses the genre of action and adventure literature to create fictional characters who can travel to remote places (away from civilized France) to solve miseries and to live a more exciting live.

There is something very important about this movie because it explains the power of writing. But beyond creating stories and imagining fictional heroes saving the pretty girl, this movie also showcases the struggles of the creative process of writing itself. Here is where I relate to the movie and to the difficulty of writing something of value. This is not to say that the movie cannot be analyzed in other ways. For instance, one of the elements of the movie, and perhaps an empowering element for Merlin as a writer, is that he becomes some sort of semi-god full of vengeance. Case in point, Merlin punishes or rewards the people who live in his building (Christine) or come to his apartment (Charron, Mrs. Berger, the electrician and the plumber), depending on how his state of mind is at the moment. If the electrician does not fix his cable problem at home, then Merlin makes him an evil villain in his book. Hence, the power of writing and his personal power as a character is to use his talent to create other fictional charters which makes his story line very successful. But the vengeance part does not end in the fictional section of the movie. For example, Merlin also punishes Christine when he thinks she’s been cheating on him with his editor. During this final scene, Merlin’s male ego is hurt so much that he leaves Christine outside of his apartment to sleep on the floor just because he thinks she has betrayed him. Not to mention, the many times Tatiana, the fictional double character of Christine, who suffers multiple violent rapes many times over at the hands of the military as a punishment.

Another element which is important in The Men from Acapulco is the breaking down or failure of the typewriter machine. This event allows the filmmaker to ‘break’ the fantasy/reality continuum of the scene and to tell the viewer there are to different worlds being presented here. One is the the word of reality of Merlin and the other is the fantastic world of Bob Saint-Cla, the action hero. Now, the viewer can identify that Merlin is a writer but not any kind of writer. He is a writer having some issues with money, his flat, his lonely life in Paris, and more importantly, with his instrument of creation: the type writer. Here, the power of creation of the type writer (and now with our computes) gives Merlin the power to imagine other exotic geographies far away from home. In these foreign lands, such as Acapulco, a helicopter can fly over the pyramids of Tenochtitlan and inside them a crazy sacrificial bloodbath type of killing can take place. Hence, the violence and horror is justified in this context of primitivity. Even the theme of his novels are set to be cheesy. Merlin knows his audience and writers for a sex and violence thirsty kind of reader. Nothing wrong with that, but the only thing is that his writing perpetuates certain misconceptions that many French (and perhaps Europeans) people might have of remote place such Mexico.

In the end, The Man from Acapulco was a very funny and entertaining movie. At the beginning, I stated watching with French subtitles on but later and thanks to Jon, I watched it with Portuguese subtitles which made much more sense and allowed me finish watching the movie until the end.