Mar
31
Summary Con’t
Posted by: Brian | March 31, 2009 | Comments Off on Summary Con’t
Mecanica Nacional: I think this movie was all about excessiveness. Excessive consumption, sex and alcohol. What this mirrors though, and is in a sense another way of portraying, is the excessive representations of mexican identity. This excessiveness works to show the tropes of Mexican identity which are relied on in films to create the tone.
Callejon de Los Milagros: What I noticed most in this film was the kind of helplessness felt by the characters in the film. There wasn’t much in the way of happy endings for everyone, and no matter what kind of life anyone led, there was no way in being accepted. This thus creates an invocation of the openness and emptyness of Mexican identity. The multiple conflicts and the lack of resolutions also lend to this.
Batalla en El Cielo: this film showed the conflicts of Mexico City through sexuality. Themen and women in the film are all numb to what surrounds them, but sex nonetheless is a huge part of all of their lives. I also noticed that within all the crime and immorality, there is still a heavy reliance on Catholicism.
Que Viva Mexico: Like I said in class, this film was very much a depiction of Mexican identity as genuinely traditional mexico as seen in the first scene. Then there is a depiciton of Mexican identity after Spanish influence has taken ahold of Mexico ass seen in the bull fighting scene. And then the result of these two cvoming together in conflict is seen in the last scene with the battle.
The discursive efforsts of this film end though in the final scene regarding a summary of the events of the revolution.
Touch of Evil: This film shows a switching of identities. It relies strongly on the border as a particular setting and invocating force of the conflict. Within this setting of the border there is seen a hibridity of mexican and American identity as seen in Miguel’s character and in his marriage. Within this hibridity though there is stil seen a hierarchy of Mexican identity above that of America as seen in the corruption on the US side. yet it is not that simple because Miguel uses corrupt ways to find out the info that he needs to charge the sherriff.
The Wild Bunch: This film introduced us to the conflict at the border which we still see today. Here it is a conflict of gun supplies and the confusion of jurisdiction which gets in the way of properly delaing with the conflist so as to resolve it. We also saw in this film a degradation of women which completely took away their identity, not jsut made il representations of them.
Three Amigos: This film really played on the tropes of Mexican representation in films. In the story line, it had the bandidos attacking an innocent town and the Americans save the day. There are also images and background effects used which are tropes as the chickens and excessive tequila presence. Overall, this is a comdey showing the fallacy of overused Mexican interpretations.
Traffic: This film deals with the drug problem between the US and Mexico. There is seen an incapability of the set ways of dealing with the issue on both sides of the border. As we discussed in class, there isnt very easily seen a didactic essence to the film. It is unclear which side is less at fault, and there is also an ambiguity behind the film’s end as being hopeful or hopeless. What it does do though, is engage the watcher so much so that his perception is what completes the work.
