Touch of Evil

Posted by: | March 4, 2009 | Comments Off on Touch of Evil

This was an interesting film to watch. It did bother me that Charles Heston was playing a Mexican, I must say.  However, the cinematography was quite good.  I especially enjoyed the use of lighting and when (as a result of such lighting) we see great shadows running past on the wall.

It was interesting, because it had the Mexican Grandi family as villains, which one might have expected… but the white men aren’t necesarily heroes.  In fact, the main cop (I forget his name), was quite the villain in a way.  And it was the Mexican cop, Vargas, who had stronger morals and called him out for being dirty.

We didn’t see many Mexican women characters (only a few from the Grandi gang)  in this film, but Susan was a very strong woman, which was refreshing.  She may not be the brightest, but she wasn’t scared by the Grandi men, for the most part.

My first thought about this film was that the majority of it didn’t take place in Mexico.  All the other films we have seen have taken place in Mexico, and most in Mexico City.  It was interesting, however, to see the issues surrounding border towns, the debates over jurisdiction and “our side”/”your side” …  but it did surprise me that the Mexican characters spoke English between themselves so much of the time.

I am curious as to why they decided to have a character like the (quite odd) night man at the motel.  It seemed that, while the Mexican side of the border is thriving and full of activity, the American side is so desolate and dysfunctional.

One other thing about the cinematography that I found interesting was how it jumped back and forth between different places and people, so you were left to wonder sometimes what was happening to the others.  For example, with Susan, they imply that the Grandi gang did terrible things to her, but in the end it was faked (according the the main Grandi guy) and she was simply drugged with a legal drug.


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