Bajo California: El límite del tiempo

My wife and I were still in a feverish shock the night of Septmber 11, 2001 when this movie came on the Independent Film Channel.

How engrossing, what film making, and how soul nourishing -- we could finally go to sleep with some hope to cling to.

The main character is a blocked artist who accidentally kills (or injures) a pregnant immigrant running across a highway in order to reach the USA. He cannot escape his guilt and shame and decides to go on a trek to his ancestors' home - Baja California. 'nuf said.

CALDO is the word for SOUP in Spanish - and 'Bajo California' is soup for a weary soul.

PS - who do we lobby to get a DVD of this film?

This is a slow-paced film about a guy who goes to visit the resting place of his ancestors. Must like Chariots of Fire (1981) it is slow as molasses. Yet the director of that Best Picture Winner could learn a lot about how to make a decent move from this one:

I. Characters: Both works focus mainly on two characters.

Bajo: Damian and Arce don't say much, but we come to find that they're the simplest of men. Damian is a simple artist and Arce is some sort of rural worker. Further on, we find out that Damian is being consumed by guilt over an unethical moment of weakness (so we feel sympathetic) and Arce is brave, resourceful, and an empathetic friend.

Chariots: Abrahams is an arrogant elite university SJW who cries when he loses at a race. Liddell is an arrogant and delusional guy who refuses to run on the Sabbath. The more they talk, they less we like them and the more bored we become.

II. Plot

Bajo: Damian is a guy who seems to want to discover his roots. We later learn he's remorseful about something he did and he's trying to deal with that by going off to his grandmother's grave before his wife gives birth. Arce is his stoic and mostly silent guide.

Chariots: Abrahams and Liddell want to win some foot race not even they care about.

III. Music

Bajo: Not much music. Mostly sounds of wind in the desert. Timeless.

Chariots: Some bland synthesizer track that everyone was going crazy over at the time it premiered. Now seems like they're laughing at it because tastes changed. Who cares. It's neither the greatest nor the worst track in its day nor is it now.

Bajo California: El limite del tiempo is a slow-paced movie that offers good food for thought. It's mainly about one or two guys wandering through desert terrain and the two guys don't talk all that much or deeply.

It's very reminiscent of a travellogue with moderate spikes of drama and character discovery. I wasn't bored, but I wouldn't blame others if they were.

Ohh, and Alcazar's Mexican-American accent is really fake.

Honourable mentions: Raiders of the Lost Arc (1981). I haven't seen it, but most people agree it should have won best picture in 1981 over Chariots. Honestly almost anything would have been better, even Absence of Malice (1981) (which I did see).

An unusual movie coming from a mexican director. The story of a man who sets out to find himself among the deserts of Baja California. He travels from Los Angeles to San Francisco de la Sierra, travels across the landscape and finally arrives at his destination, the primitive paintings of the californian indians.

Resembles Wim Wenders "Paris, Texas" in that our protagonist is looking for something that he can´t find, something that he needs in order to feel complete. The movie´s length lets us share his journey. The landscape is beautiful and desolate, as anyone familiar with Baja California will recognize. An excellent achievement by a mexican director. Not a movie for everybody, but one that stays with you after you´ve seen it. The phrase "...el pasado son todos nuestros muertos" is very powerful; I definitely recommend this movie.

I'll echo all the Wim Wenders parallels made by other reviewers but I'd also like to add that although the protagonist (a fascinating artist) seems to be searching for 'something', he has a very clear agenda. The accidental hit-and-run murder of a pregnant woman who was trying to reach America has haunted him into returning to his homeland to find a way of serving a spiritual penance. The fact that there is so little dialogue in this film brings us in the audience into the same mesmerizing primal and metaphysical state of our hero. We meditate on landscapes, faces, details, sky, stone... and fuse it with the artist's vision and experience. And we experience a rare opportunity to see an almost aboriginal approach to finding a way of punishing oneself for crimes committed, even if they are accidental.

One of the best films about an artist and the spiritual quest I've seen! Now, somebody PLEASE release this on DVD!!!

Marvelous amalgam of ambient sound, pithy dialogue (occasionally betrayed by poor subtitling), craggy faces, craggier landscapes, and an unerring sense of concise communication. The comparison to Wenders is apt, particularly something like Kings of the Road. Only this is much less about the art of film and much more real. I feel that I'm failing to explain what makes this film so remarkable, because it is more than the great photography, editing, and acting. Truly memorable.