La ley de Herodes

I just saw "La Ley de Herodes" last night. I really enjoyed the film. It is a great black comedy. The script by Leñero and Estrada is carefully written. This is the kind of cinema Mexico needs. One of the most amazing things is that they use real names of political parties and that they got away with it.

Great performances by everyone, I think. Marvelous ending! Congratulations to everyone involved in this project!

A great film! Captures the essence of Mexico's political life, with a lot of humor and a great story. It's also a very well made... the story is perfectly constructed, the photography is beautiful and the acting is top of the line, with Demian Alcazar and Pedro Armendariz, Jr. clearly stealing the show. For Mexicans it should be a rather bittersweet experience... you can't help but laugh at the situation, but it's also so real that you can feel a little frustrated with your government. Filmed almost entirely in brown and sepia tones, to make it as close to 'black and white' as possible.

Satire is very difficult to pull off, but this one is a classic. It works beautifully, it's cleverly crafted, it's devilishly funny. The acting is superb. It was a joy to see Isela Vega again! I can't remember any other Mexican movie being as devastatingly critical of our "perfect dictatorship" as this one. It's really a pretty accurate depiction of the morass that corruption has created in Mexico and of the attitude of the ruling party towards the nation. The impunity, the cynicism, the paternalism, the graft, the slime, the crime, it's no exaggeration. The government is so out of touch and so stupid that they even tried to censor it. Needless to say, the movie has been playing to packed houses in Mexico. I hope it breaks all box office records. Even better, it should be Mexico's entry to the Academy Awards.

To understand "La Ley de Herodes" and its historical significance, it is necessary to consider a study of the backdrop behind its production and release. LDH is a product of the decadence of the crumbling, rotting 70-year old regime of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The 90s were frantic years in Mexico. The Zapatista uprising, the murder of the PRI's presidential candidate/next president (apparently by his own party), the "Tequila Effect" recession, several political murders and former president Salinas' exile (as well as his brother's arrest for money laundering)... all these events created a dissatisfaction so huge that forced the government to loosen its freedom of expression. It would have been impossible to release this movie, or to listen to Molotov's angry music without the bitter complacency of the government. And in a way, LDH signals the end of the PRI regime and its ousting from the executive in the year 2000. Mexico is undergoing change. It's slow, and it's painful, but it's happening. The PRI has not fully disappear, though. You can now see the Juan Vargas figure clinging in congress,trying to obstruct change, holding to its last source of power. A wonderful mambo score, by the way.

Politically inspired `Herod's Law' weaves a familiar story of a mousy junkyard operator making his way up to a powerful position and more importantly, corruption that ultimately follow. Director Luis Estrada commands an ensemble of talented actors and masterfully executes this sharp, tough and funny material. Set in 1949, Damián Alcázar plays Juan Vargas, a newly appointed mayor, promising to bring `modernity and social justice' to San Pedro de los Saguaros, a small but troublesome town. Although Juan Vargas initially has good intentions, he is soon forced to `Herod's Law' – a sort of Darwinian way of looking at your peers. D. Alcázar's physical comedy is perfectly pitched and the scenes with Doña Lupe, the brothel madam, are especially funny.

When this film was released in Mexico, it cause so much stirred that the ruling party for 70 years, PRI, was voted out. How many times can we say movies have the power to change a political system? This is 8/10.