El Norte (1983, Gregory Nava) vs
Repo Man (1984, Alex Cox)
El NorteEl Norte is an American and English-made independent Spanish-language film about a Mayan brother and sister attempting to escape an oppressive military regieme in in their small indigenous villiage of San Pedro, Guatamala. (They are referred to as "Indians" in the subtitles. No matter what the label they are clearly an unwelcome element in their own homeland.)
The film is broken up into three chapters and is labelled as such.
The flim opens with a scene of peasant workers harvesting coffee beans in the misty hills of Central America. As work wraps up for the day there it is soon obvious that a clandestine meeting is afoot. Some of the villiagers, unhappy with the status quo, seek to form a union and risk meeting after dusk. The line "To the rich, the peasant is just a pair of strong arms." opens one of the central themes of this film: the haves and the have nots. When this rendezvous ends in tragedy, our hero and heroine are forced to flee. Our story follows our main characters through a long journey that takes them through the mountains of Central America, through the deserts and poverty of Mexico, to the dusty underbelly of Los Angeles. The movie is a great expose on the challenge of illegals in the US and a trestice on the dichotomy of class. It asks important questions (that are just that much more pertinent some 28 years later) about the difference between the promise of what is to be found in 'the north' and the reality once you get there.
We are treated throughout the film with some very invocative imagery and some beautiful landscape cinematography. I gained some important perspectives about illegals and insights on the plight of those attempting to across the border. I suppose I never had any easy answers like the policians d'jour always seem to have on this matter. Watching this film will likely not make the issue any more black and white!
However, the themes social econonic disparity are really heavy handed. A more subtle approach would have been much more effective. Just seeing the cover of a Good Housekeeping magazine in an early scene tells us everything we need to know about what's ahead. At one point late in the film the sister remarks "In our homeland there's no place for us, they want to kill us. In Mexico, there's only poverty. And in the north, we aren't accepted...". The comment rings hollow - they are aided by good samaritans all along their journey in three different countries - the conflict of acceptance may have been the discussion director Gregory Nava wanted to have, but it is not the story he told. Be it through the acting or direction, I think the film really fails to convey the gravity of all the losses they have suffered and the emptiness they feel- even through the final frame.
I really honor the story told and the lessons this film is trying to teach, but I'm sorry to say I found it quite a chore to get through. I could see the ending coming after about an hour. At 2:20 it could have been easily a full 30 minutes shorter. I didn't do any research into the actor and actress playing the main roles. I found them to be way in over their head. I suppose I'd feel pretty bad to find out some backstory that legitimizes the performances!
Repo ManIncidently, another film about the lower classes of Los Angeles! Hmm didn't anticipate there being anything common to these two!
I'd seen Repo Man come and go from the theaters in the early 80's. From the trailers I remember this looking like a Beverly Hills Cop knock off - or just another
vehicle money grab for Emelio Estavez of the ever-bankable brat back. I never saw it and quick forgot about it. Well - it only took 30 seconds into this film for me to be completely corrected as to what universe it resides in and for me to be completely captivated by what was to come.
Well this is far from a perfect film, but I had a ton of fun with it. You can put this in the genre of "guilty pleasure". I've since discovered what a cult following this movie had.
Unfortunately it's been a few weeks since I put the disk back in the mail, so my thoughts aren't as fresh. I'm going to send this movie along to the next round and let someone else elaborate more.
Nevertheless the basic premise is that Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton are Repo Men. They have a variety of tricks they employ to repossess cars and get them back to the lot. They soon get caught up in a strange conspiracy involving some dudes in black suits, a strange girl and a 64 Chevy Malibu. The beauty of this film is how it seems to reside simultaneously in two parallel worlds -one that's violent, serious, and social commentary and one that's off-beat, sarcastic and too-cool-for-school. Suffice to say it's pretty clever. Some nice sight gags.
If you do watch this, make sure you get the DVD with the Alex Cox commentary and the interview with Harry Dean Stanton. This interview is amazing I must say. In fact, you may want to watch that interview first - because it adds a nuance to everything that happens in the film - especially some of the nihilistic overtones in key scenes with Tracy Walker.
The commentary gives you some great insights into some of the sight gags - including the little pine tree air fresheners. It also gets into how the director and Alex Cox really had it out on a few occasions during filming. So much so that entire scenes were rewritten with other actors. It's not hard to figure out which scenes those are - they kinda stick out like a sore thumb. It just adds to the camp factor.
It is definitely a film of it's time. Heck, Estevez's earring is all you need to know about the era this was filmed in! But great one-liners give this a timeless quality. I'm sure there are groups of guys still quoting entire scenes line for line. There is a bit on John Wayne being gay that - well you just wouldn't see that scene in a movie made today.
I don't anticipate this film getting two much further than the next round but it's a fun little discovery. Glad I got to see it.
RESULT:
Repo Man
