Bandera rota (1979)

Director:

Gabriel Retes

Writers:

Gabriel Retes (writer)
Ignacio Retes (writer)

Release Date:

21 June 1979 (Mexico)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Cristina Baker
Fernando Balzaretti	...	Luis Iriarte
Elpidia Carrillo	...	Veronica
Mario Casillas
Mario Diaz Mercado	...	Periodista
Manuel Fábregas	...	Eduardo Vallejo
Aarón Hernán
Gonzalo Lora
Juan Ángel Martínez
Enrique Ontiveros
Ana Luisa Peluffo
Gabriel Retes
Ignacio Retes
Jorge Humberto Robles
Tina Romero	...	Ana
Yogi Ruge
Jorge Santoyo
Abel Woolrich
Paloma Woolrich	...	Alejandra

Also Known As:

Broken Flag (International: English title)

Runtime:

Mexico:96 min

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Desierto de los Leones, Estado de México, Mexico

Company:

Cooperativa Río Mixcoac

a good premise to what's going on in México, but not necessarily a good movie.

This movie is a good synthesis of the social (more than political, even though it envolves that factor and tries very hard to be more political than social) characters in México, specially in the capital. The comments about corruption, hypocrasy, idealism, the way advantages are taken in México, and the overall denounce about the evils that we mexicans have had in our country traditionally, are very real and accurately potrayed in this film , but only to be understood by Mexicans living in México, and only certain kinds of mexicans.

A movie should express itself with images. Personally,what I think is that you should be able to turn off the volume and understand ( or at least catch part off) the message that it's been tried to be transmitted. The movie lacked the point of view of those people more disfavoured by the system in México, which were being tried this movie tried to deffend. There's only the point of view of those in the power ( extremely evil, and antisocialist, which makes you think that this movie must have had a great deal of socialist drive). It tried to denounce and to discover the root of poverty in Mexico, but from the point of view of some couple who had the time and money to own a galleria, but who owed 4 months of rent to the landlord. And people, no matter how poor or rich they are, talk in terms of what they need and what they live immediately, not in terms of politics. For a certain part, It's a brave film because there was still a lot of repression from the government against people who wanted to implement any new ideas for the government, which was ( or perhaps is) an illusion that Mexico really has people willing to implement order and to put the country together, and not people who only want to reach power not only to be overprotected by the law, so they can make money and power all for themselves easily. This movie, even though has a lot of socialist talk in it ( I stress the word "talk")is good for that, for denouncing that the government was only paying attention to the interest of those already in power so they could sustain it, and not to those ( socialist students, or whatever)who noticed that in the country not only live those people with power and influence, but also those less lucky.

And there was all that talk...Every movie like that is so boring! I understand there was the need of expressing that anger against repression and corruption, and that this might have been the only way ( talking, speeches, bla, bla, bla), but that's as far as it goes. the images only show people talking about politics, about capitalism and socialism, but, besides of the torture scenes, which pretty much characterized the methods more often used in Latin America to torture people against politicians interests, if you were from somewhere else, you might have said that the actors ( specially mr. Manolo Fábregas and Aaron Hernan) were pretty good, but, what's this all about? Movies, to succeed and to stay with people, specially if they pretend to transmit a message to the world, should use universal expression. Perhaps that wasn't why Gabriel Retes made this movie for.

It's curious, but Retes never has stopped being idealistic and talky in the movies he makes, but the ideology changes radically in some of his most recent movies, like " El Bulto". You should only see, it's kind of funny. His best one is " Un dulce olor a muerte". Short sentences, better photography, a cool score, which fit the mood of the film, but at the same time was different from the rest of the movies that could,ve been alike, and overall not very dependent upon dialog, but images and visual expression, like movies should be.

I still like " Bandera..", and I know how difficult it is to make films in México, and how difficult it might have been to make a movie like that, but It could have been better...

It somehow reminds me of " Cannibal Holocaust", which also makes a very strong and valid comment on the power of the media and how it influences lives ( in México, that's called " The fourth power" and in this film it was put as the element so the movie could have that feeling of an endless game between the powreholders in México, which include those in the media also, or whoever has access to information against political, executive, judicial and, of course economic). the only difference is that cannibal holocaust went all the way, and this one didn't. It's basically the same matter, in my opinion, but, if you have time, compare...