Film Review: ‘BORDERTOWN’

This is a movie very worth seeing, and a story that is screeching for a gesture of humanity. It will bring attention to the killings of so many women at the border between Mexico and the USA. And maybe this attention will help preventing more murders and maybe even help solving some cases. Main parts of the film were not shot in Juarez, but in more supportive Mexican towns and in factories that also were helpful. ‘Bordertown’ is a movie that deserves to be supported. The movie consists of ‘run and hide’ action typical to these kinds of thrillers. But it is simply stupid that Lauren eventually is considering giving up her career because of the tragic events. The production (Think Film) should have made Lopez a pretty standard journalist, which would have made the movie way less pathetic. He also couldn’t resist his urge to give Lauren a background which is pretty laughable. And some of the research work she is doing is just unbelievable.

This is a movie that is not a memorable example of cinematography (the plot is very Hollywood-ish, especially for a movie based on a real story), but the acting is quite good and it does give the viewer a fair idea of what is going on in the far away places (at times not so far after all) where our everyday gizmos are actually built in these days. And it is not a pretty picture, by any means. I think that the movie aimed at exposing the ugly truth of what has been going on right at the US border, where hundreds of women have been slaughtered for the past decade or so. But that was not all, because such nightmare did not, and does not, come out of nowhere: it comes straight out of the disastrous situation that exists in the modern-day sweat-houses (aka as ‘manufacturing plants’ to the big corporations) and the surrounding favelas where their workers live. And the sweat-houses are a direct consequence of; among the rest, ‘trade agreements’ like the NAFTA (North American Free Trade). So, even though some people might not like it, this is a political movie, and very rightly so. And now that I think of it, it does have some good cinematography in it: I find the photography extremely good. I liked the yellowish, desert-like tint that pervades the whole movie. The song ‘La Camisa Negra’ was a great choice of the movie’s original soundtrack. I really love it! It feels like I am on the real scene.

Advertisement

1 Comment(s)

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI