MovieChat Forums > Assassination Tango (2003) Discussion > What's a tango?

What's a tango?

posted 13 years ago by woowoo-6
1 reply | jump to latest

A mildly interesting movie, though a bit convoluted. I know why Duvall made it; he had moved to Argentina and really got into the tango personally and wanted to share it with moviegoers. Good for him. I guess though, he just couldn't figure out how to make an entire movie on just the tango dance itself so incorporated it into some kind of goofy hitman/political crime drama. Whatever.

One of the slight issues I had; even though it's a movie and there's a suspension of disbelief, there needs to be some authenticity, regardless. Here Duvall's character is a seasoned dancer and he hangs out in dance clubs and yet, when he goes to Argentina and sees two tango dancers he asks, "What's that, what are they doing?" He's a dancer and never heard of the Argentine tango (much less a tango) - which is a staple dance of dance clubs the world over? (And his character had spent a few years in South America in the past, that was another reason he was chosen for this hit). I can understand if he never danced the tango and was now experiencing the full essence of the dance (which is where the movie went anyways) but not knowing what an Argentine tango is did not ring true. But I guess, hitmen aren't all that bright either.

[–] wight-28510 9 years ago

Actually, I know plenty of seasoned dancers who don't know what Argentine Tango is. They are familiar only with the American Tango and they associate the term Tango with that dance. Argentine Tango has an entirely different look and feel. I find that often, when people hear "Argentine Tango" they think of that, rose in the teeth whipping your head back and forth, I love you-I hate you style of Tango that defines American Tango. Or, worse, the Tango Pacino danced in Scent of a Woman. Tango to them is the American Tango by another name.

In the movies, most tango scenes refer to "the Tango" but what is danced is more often American Tango. Sometimes even when the dance is supposed to be Argentine Tango the actual dance performed by the actors is actually American Tango in styling.

Even in Dancing with the Stars most of the instructors did not perform a proper Argentine Tango with their student partners. Most of them did American Tango with some Argentine Tango elements thrown in like leg wraps, dips and lifts; none of which are exclusive to Argentine Tango and certainly not the defining character of the dance. One episode, I saw a Rhumba performance that had as many Argentine tango elements as the Argentine Tango performed on that same episode.

Considering that this film came out in 2002, I don't think it so far fetched that Duvall's character wouldn't know the Argentine Tango when he saw it, considering that up until recently Tango has been represented as American Tango not Argentine.