Gringo

Author: Sanford (CA)

Gringo

Director: Terry George

Writer: Guillermo Arriaga

Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus

Main Cast:
Jake Gyllenhaal as Zach McCormick

Ellen Burstyn as Grace McCormick

Gael García Bernal as Octavio "Escorpión" Ernez

Dalia Hernández as Joana

Emilio Echevarría as "Tío" Bracamontes

Tagline: He wanted to become a man. Well, he succeeded.

Official Synopsis:
His mother was so very supportive. A loving but often intense matron, she brought him up right, her vision of right. He was her boy, HER boy, she hismom. He was a beautiful child, he carried the sun in his back pocket. He did not remember his father, and this, claimed his mother, was the reason forhis cheer and wonder. Naturally, she was more than upset when he began to express his disillusionment at age sixteen, when he spoke of his classmates withfathers, with dads, classmates who just knew more than him, it seemed. He was never angry with her, not in his mind, but she had experienced betrayal of thedeepest sort. He was HER baby, he must never be HIS child. No man could raise him as she did, no man teach him the things she taught him, no man.

It got, in her view, worse and worse. He happily still lived with her at age twenty-four, but never stopped asking why. She never stopped scowling at thequestion. After she had a more-painful-than-normal meltdown at her son's "rebellion," he in turn grew frustrated. Something that had always been in him madeitself known. He left. Where? Down the street to cool off. Across town for a bite to eat to mull it over. Out to a nearby town to escape for a few days. Acrossthe border to find himself.

It is two years later. He has returned to her, a reunion as melancholy as joyous. He is ragged. He is deathly tired. He has seen hell, he has lived it, he has forced itupon himself, he has made it his mission, his soul, his identity, his life. He does not collapse into her arms. He does not sob to her as he did in his youth. He sits gingerly on the sofa, and he begins to speak.

He never made it past Tijuana. He never needed to. He found what he was looking for in the drug cartel called The Swarm's grunt enforcer, "Escorpión" Ernez. His first meeting with Ernez was a police shootout in which he earned himself a target on his back, courtesy of Escorpión and The Swarm's ruthless mastermind,"Tío" Bracamontes. Naive Zach took it upon himself to bring Octavio Ernez to the light, but instead found himself dragged into the deepest dark of the scummyunderworld of Mexico's drug wars. He spent untold weeks evading hit squads and enduring on the violent streets without money, friends, or his mother. Hecallously provoked The Swarm repeatedly in hopes of taunting Escorpión out of the shadows where Zach could do something. Did he know what "something"was? Of course not. For months he went on suffering expeditions out of the seedy, unsafe motel. He caught what he thought was his break when he met Joana, thehopeless street-dwelling woman who had known Octavio. She had been his. His. She had served to wait for him to go to see her and beat her. Zach went to find herevery day, he made impassioned pleas for her help, at least her companionship. She would always say, stupid gringo. But he always came to find her again. He could not, of course, avoid capture indefinitely. When El Tío found him, there was no saving him from Escorpión's wrath. Mentioning Joana saved his life, though not in a good way. For months, Ernez took delight in subjecting the gringo to pain and misery, locked away. His escape took the shape of a police bust, and after the unimaginable trials of Tijuana's streets and gang dens, Zach returned to see... Joana. Her disdainful scolding was his romantic tension, and the hard-earned maturity gained only through merciless pain made Zach a man, just like he wanteed, and he won over Joana. He always knew that he would. Perhaps shehad too. Perhaps he already had, long ago.

Such does he return to his mother. So does he recount the tribulations that had made up a tortured two-year existence. He did it for himself, for the first time in his life. And he has a true and passionate partner. It is now that Joana arrives to meet the woman who raised Zach as a child. And she, she his mother scorns him. How,HOW!? Her son, her baby, her BOY has given his radiant faith and energy to a street wench! He has passed two years with gangsters and addicts and homelessBUMS! He is not her son. He is someone, something else.

He is on the corner with Joana. He has seen things now. He knows more than those stupid, ignorant classmates of his in high school. He is truly a man now.
But was it worth it?

What the press would say:
Never has your routine coming-of-age story been so thoroughly turned on its head, nor been so depressing or so relevant. This distressing film by Terry George is anythingbut typical cinema, it explores churning depths of naivete and heedless emotion. He takes the previously exclusive moviemaking elements of maturity and suffering andenthusiastically weaves them together to create a story that is captivating from the opening credits to the conflicted final scene. Guillermo Arriaga's writing, an artisticallyuncomfortable blend of rapid-fire Spanish and halting English, is compelling, and its simplicity strikes a welcome chord in an emotionally complex movie.

Pain, frustration and torture are the lifeblood of "Gringo"s plot, not only at the hands of violent gangsters but at the hands of cruel circumstance as well. The flawless castbrings these themes to life effortlessly with carefully structured and dramatically affecting performances. Jake Gyllenhaal as the placeless young man in search of theintangibles of manhood is tragic, he summons his entire range of emotions with intensity and expressive charisma, be they hope or defeat, or any and all of those inbetween. Ellen Burstyn as his domineering but simultaneously soft-hearted mother makes for a fitteng if unwitting catalyst to the plot, and the weight of her initialperformance hangs an unshakeable presence on the rest of the movie, seeming as though she were watching Zach in all of his misfortunes.

Gael García Bernal puts forth an impressive turn as the cold hitman for the Tijuana-based gang called The Swarm, but his performance is not without its nuances as well.Throughout the film we sense that this killer is not necessarily evil, has always been caught between a rock and a hard place, and has been forced into a life of crime by theruthless powers dominating his upbringing. Octavio Ernez is almost... sensitive. Not so for Emilio Echevarría as the pathologically aggressive cartel kingpin, however. Thisis a role that thrives on cruelty, one that takes joy in the suffering of others (of which there is much to be seen). Finally, of course, is the untested newcomer Dalia Hernándezas Joana, the very-alone victim of many of The Swarm's trespasses. In only her second major role in a motion picture (the first being Apocalypto) Hernández refreshesthe screen with a timeless inner beauty well-buried, but unbreached, by years of misery.

George and Arriaga's picture is also devastatingly topical. In a time when all of Mexico is seized by drug wars, George zooms in the microscope to examine the lawlessness'repercussions on formerly innocent people in neighborhoods not only in Tijuana, but across the nation. The combination of this frightening relevancy, acting performancesthat are both varied and powerful, and stark, professional filmmaking make "Gringo" a tour-de-force to behold.

For Your Consideration:
BEST MOTION PICTURE

BEST DIRECTOR--TERRY GEORGE

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY--GUILLERMO ARRIAGA

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE--JAKE GYLLENHAAL

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE--DALIA HERNANDEZ

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE--GAEL GARCIA BERNAL

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE--ELLEN BURSTYN

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE--EMILIO ECHEVARRIA

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST