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Reviews
El Norte (1983)
heartrending, unforgettable film
Two young and completely naive Guatemalan Indians are forced to flea their small village after their father is shot by government soldiers in a raid and their mother taken away.
They make the trip north through Mexico to El Norte, the land of promise.
This is a heartrending and unforgettable film, with occasional hilarity, of their journey and their life. Starting out simply you are soon completely drawn into their story, from the journey to their new life in San Diego as they attempt to adapt to El Norte, set in the larger context of the Latino and Mexican immigrant experience.
I saw this film in its initial theatrical release in 1983, and a recent viewing reveals it has not dimmed. Its low budget origins are once or twice obvious, but are completely inconsequential for a film of this magnitude and quality.
Nominated for the Best Screenplay in 1985. The first Oscar nomination for an independent film. Winner of numerous other awards. (And all this before Sundance and the plethora of festivals today.)
Selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, 1995.
The overwhelmingly superb reviews here and at amazon are no accident.
(It's completely scandalous that a DVD has not been officially available here in the US since forever. However, you can purchase one based on the Australian DVD release at amazon or on ebay that will play on US machines. Just make sure it's designated region 1.)
Haru no yuki (2005)
sincere attempt
This is a heartfelt, sincere attempt to capture the love story in Spring Snow. It is carefully and respectfully done with high production values and an obvious respect to the source. Yes, the adaptation suffers the usual sins of deviation from the book, including here the astonishing transposition of the deepest irony from its place within the novel to the beginning of the film, thus giving away one of the novel's most striking, unexpected, and ironic moments which, when revealed, colors so much of the novel.
However, this is not my main complaint. It is, rather, that in the novel the love story takes place in and can only be understood in terms of the other cultural aspects of the novel.
In the film, the love story is abstracted from these other elements. As such, the film becomes a soap. A sincere, well made, perhaps much superior soap, but still, a soap.
Thus, you can watch this and come away with: "So what's the big deal?" Read the amazing book and you'll know. The love story is even more dramatic, but part of the reason is the much broader context in which it's occurring that, at best, is only hinted at in the film. Not to mention Mishima's exquisite description of aspects of the environs in the midst of dramatic events.
Still, Spring Snow, the movie, is superior to much of what passes for drama today.
A Matter of Justice (1993)
nothing special
Nothing special here.
Even though the story may be based on fact that's no excuse for rendering it in a manner that reeks stereotype.
Patty Duke's performance is adequate, but gives little depth to her character. Perhaps the real life woman was so totally obsessed in her quest that she too showed little else. Then she would have been boring too. But more is expected in a dramatization. Even the Terminator evinced more personality.
Martin Sheen's performance is more believable. Charles S. Dutton actually seems like a real person.
As usual, the devil has the best role. Alexandra Powers gives an excellent performance as the evil Dusty. In his small role her last boyfriend is also good.
Stagecoach (1966)
pale remake of the original
Stagecoach (1966) is a pale remake of the original, and mediocre on its own. Actually, I would describe it as a pathetic remake.
What most sets the films apart is that there was moral commitment, whether for good or evil, in almost all the characters in the original. There is hardly any from anyone in this remake, whereas this provided the center of the original. There is here little but stereotyped buffoonery with no felt underlying moral stance. The moral setup is also lacking in that Dallas is now simply a dance hall girl unfairly victimized, instead of the prostitute of the original.
It would be impossible to reprise John Wayne's role, but, most importantly, he serves as the moral center of the earlier film. Alex Cord, however, is hardly anything but a cardboard, almost after thought presence, in setting the tone in the newer production.
Ann-Margaret and Bing Crosby are interesting to see and a cut above the rest of the cast. Van Heflin has presence at the sheriff, and Slim Pickens fulfills his role nicely.
Visually and otherwise, Gordon Douglas, the director, is no John Ford. This by itself, however, doesn't account for the great disparity between this remake and the original.
It's no accident, imo, that no DVD or VHS of this film is available.
**** minor spoilers ****
The best sequence in the new film is the chase of the stagecoach. The original's classic rescue by the calvary, however, is replaced with the stagecoach passengers now amazingly holding off the Indians themselves, shooting enough of them to constitute whole tribes.
The gunfight at the end is slightly above the standard where one overcomes many. It was, however, a virtue of the original that John Wayne's defeating his three vicious antagonists is off-screen. Better to keep unreality invisible where it can't be plausibly depicted. An understated, and therefore of more consequence, than the stereotyped victory of the good guy while maintaining the requirements, back then, of good triumphing