Mainstream commercial debut for Jonás (son of Alfonso) Cuarón, this Mexican illegal immigrants-on-the-run thriller is more interesting than first appears; just not for the right reasons. Gael García Bernal (doing Alfonso a favor?) stars as the nice fence-jumper, a fair-minded guy trying to get back to the son he had to leave in California. But when the truck he’s riding in breaks down, it leaves him, along with a baker’s dozen of fellow border crossers, with no choice but to hike thru the desert on foot in shadeless temps touching 120°. Then things really start to go wrong as sharp-shooting ‘patriotic’ homicidal maniac Jeffrey Dean Morgan, along with his ferocious dog Tracker, spot the desperate group. The rest of the film standard chase stuff, the hunter and his prey. But what makes it interesting is just how far Cuarón goes to depoliticize the situation; never stopping to ask if it should be depolitized. The only legit cop we see runs into, then drives away from Morgan. Each miming disdain for the other. Elsewise, Cuarón models the film on totally apolitical classics like THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME/’32, an oft-filmed story of a wild game hunter releasing human prey to chase around. Or, say, THE LOST PATROL/’34, a John Ford film about an unseen enemy sniper taking troopers down one-by-one. Plus Morgan brings in his own layer of inappropriate references from his long run in THE WALKING DEAD. Odd decisions. And if you are going to emphasize the sheer sports-like horror of a human hunt, you need a surer hand at action and suspense than Cuarón shows. Where’s Raoul Walsh to work out those now-you-see-him/now-you-don’t angles between hunter and prey as they climb round rocky cliffs?
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: For a great angle on the Mexican immigrant experience, I CARRY YOU WITH ME/’20. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/01/i-carry-you-with-me-te-llevo-conmigo.html
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