I had no idea Jason Robards was supposed to be a Mexican in this.
Look at the cast list: Manuel "Cheyenne" Gutierrez. He is about the least Mexican-looking guy in this whole movie, except for the red-headed McBains.
shareSi, senor.
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MovieChat Forums > C'era una volta il West (1969) Discussion > I had no idea Jason Robards was supposed...
Can you explain what a Mexican looks like? They actually look pretty much like Americans (i.e. citizens of the USA) or Canada. Mexicans can be "white," "black," "native american," or mixed.
shareHere's a video that might help you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=PSH6NSJO--o
shareSorry, I don't click on links. On what basis is the claim being made that he does not look like a Mexican?
shareBecause he doesn't. Jason Robards looks like a person of Northern European descent. He does not even look Spanish, let alone Mexican. I have dozens of Mexican in-laws and most of the people in the city I live in are of Mexican descent, and not one of them looks remotely like Jason Robards. Show me some pictures of Mexicans who look like Jason Robards.
shareAnd that is your problem. There are blond Mexicans and Mexicans with blue eyes. People usually throw out Hispanic as if that is a physical description. Hispanic merely means a native speaker of Spanish. Hispanics can be of any racial heritage and are; they are white, black, native american and mixed. They can have pale, olive, dark, brown, or black skin. They can have blonde, auburn, red, or black hair. They can have blue, brown, or green eyes.
Truly, if you put a hundred Mexicans, a hundred Americans, and a hundred Canadians in a room, you would not be able to tell who is who just by looking.
Your problem seems to be that you must have never actually been in a Mexican or Mexican-American community. There is a distinctive look to the populace and if you do not have that look, you are instantly marked as 'Anglo' whatever your actual heritage. I traveled extensively in Northern Mexico and everywhere I went I was instantly recognized as non-Mexican, and I look more Hispanic than Jason Robards (which is not hard to do). The people I saw in the towns and cities were also entirely homogeneous to the traditional Mexican Hispanic look. Even here in my American Hispanic majority town I stand out like a sore thumb alongside my Mexican-descended family and neighbors. You can have 100 Mexicans and 95 of them will be olive-skinned with black hair and brown eyes. Maybe 5 will look otherwise. I am sure that in the 1870s the distinction was even more pronounced.
All of which is irrelevant. My mother looked Mexican. She was once denied use of a restroom while we waited for my father who was a claims adjuster. She wasn't, and never was, Mexican. She did not have Mexican heritage. I, and my siblings, look a lot like her, though our skin is not as dark as her's was. We are still American.
If the community you mentioned doesn't think someone looks Mexican, that is their problem. It is not the problem of a Mexican who doesn't fit their perception. They are still Mexican.
The fact is that somewhere up to 7 or 8 percent of the Mexican population are of northern European heritage. They are certainly a minority, but they are still Mexican. Around 2 percent are of African heritage. They are also still Mexican.
I doubt there is significant difference in those percentages from 1870. The idea that Mexicans have a "look" is a bias and it is just as unjust as saying people of African heritage have a "look" or Native Americans have a "look."
Mexicans, as do most of the populations of the Americas, North and South, have a wonderful, diverse population and trying to shoehorn them into a box is somewhat distasteful.
Well, you can just go visit Mexico or even a Hispanic-majority city in the USA and walk around looking at the people and tell me how irrelevant it is. To me, real-life experience far outweighs any PC-approved platitude.
shareOh, my friend, I am far from PC. My only point is the character Jason Robards plays could be born in Mexico, be a citizen of Mexico, and therefore a Mexican. How he may be accepted in some hamlet is not relevant. You don't like him in the part? Fine. But my point is no different then if you say Bobby Jindal doesn't look like an American so he could not possibly play one, even though he was born in Louisiana and served as governor and House of Representative member from Louisiana.
shareAll humans are indistinguishable from other humans.
We are all clones.
High Five, Costumer. You win.
And your point is? Of course people are distinguishable. But not necessarily by nationality (in general). You cannot look a any human being and say they are not an American, or Canadian, or Mexican. Any country with a diverse population there are no physical markers to identify them as a citizen of that country.
For the OP to claim that Jason Robards doesn't look Mexican is incorrect. The OP is basing that on the idea that Mexicans are a mixture of European and Native American with perhaps a bit of African mixed in. I am perfectly willing to grant that the vast majority of Mexican citizens meet that standard. However, there are Mexicans who are solely European White, Native American, and African.
Nearly all Mexican-Americans are "mestizo", of primarily indigenous Central American and European descent.
Most have dark hair, light brown or olive skin, Eurasian eyes.
They commonly refer to themselves as brown, "moreno".
True but he was still great in the movie.
shareMaybe his father was Mexican and his mother was white, and his biological father was also white, and he was constantly beaten by his Mexican father for his mother's unfaithfulness.
He could pass as a conquistador.
But he didn't even have a Spanish accent.
I was more confused by Harmonica.
That Native American-looking kid was supposed to be him?
Granted Bronson has slightly Mongoloid-looking eyes, probably through his Tatar ancestors, but he didn't look like the dark-skinned native American or Mexican kid at all.
In the movie, he says his mother was a prostitute, and he didn't know who his father was. His father could have been a nordic, for all we know.
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