The thing that sets this movie firmly in the camp of Film Noir, more than anything else, is the shocking and grisly death of the main character and all-around good-guy, Jack Bearnes. That changed the entire tone, mood and point-of-view of the film. Suddenly, we realize that the main character is not the American federal policeman but the Mexican federal policeman, and the movie now has a totally different feel. It feels disorienting, almost as if the camera had turned inside-out or something. Suddenly, it's not an Anglo's view of the world, but a Hispanic's view of the situation that is the focus of the movie. That was a big surprise to me, and it reshaped the entire film, which was more than 3/4 through its film-time by then. It made everything much darker, mood-wise. The fact that Bearnes' friend, Pablo Rodriguez, doesn't manage to save him though he set out to do so adds to the negative feel of it all. He kept hidden rather than try to slink out through the field (on his stomach, if necessary) the way we would have liked him to do (or at least to try). That made him a failed hero. This movie started out as a hopeful story and became one of personal failure, however much Rodriguez did manage to accomplish, and however much the final scene tried to remind us that the operation, as a whole, was eventually successful. Frankly, I didn't believe that final scene; it was spin, not truth. We all know that the border situation wasn't successfully resolved at all, though that scene tried to portray it as utterly resolved, handled, defeated. Therefore, the end was wry. It didn't change the tone of the movie back to that of a victorious tone, merely lied about what the picture actually wrought. For what it is worth, this movie is, in my opinion, *very* Noir.
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tsalagicelt
14 years ago
Add to what I have already said the fact that, as Rodriguez has found a farmhouse from which to make an emergency telephone call to Bearnes' fellow agents, during the phone call, while the camera has come too close to see anything but Rodriguez as he tells the officials about Bearnes' death and about the illegal operation going on, something surprising is going on. Asked what the address of farmhouse is, Pablo asks the bleached-blonde farm wife (who is anything but a Ma Kettle type) about that address, and she suddenly tells him to hang up, gun in hand. She has turned into a classic femme-fatale type. It turns out that she is the wife of the lieutenant of the illegal bracero operation, Jeff Amboy, and she is as tough as any gun moll.
So, really, this whole picture has turned sideways in a few short minutes, starting with Jack Bearnes' death. The classic fight for life in the "Canyon de los Muertos" [which really should have been "Arroyo de los Muertos" if they were going to use Spanish to describe it, but the fact that they left the first word, "canyon", untranslated in the conversion, after they had already called it the "Canyon of the Dead" (or was it "Canyon of Death"? -- I cannot remember) is typical American mangling of Spanish terms that you'll hear on the American side near the border], especially in the quicksand, where the dead merely disappear, goes a long way to making this Noir, as well. The mood is quite depressing, toward the end. Really, isn't depression and demoralization really what Film Noir is all about?
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