La ley de Herodes

A perfect and abundantly Mexican version of Lord Acton's dictum, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." In 1949 a local official of the ruling PRI (Pedro Armendariz as López) chooses a humble janitor (Damián Alcázar, as Juan Vargas) to be presidente municipal ("mayor") of a dusty, dirty little village in northern México. Vargas' is supposed to bring "modernity and social justice" but as he gradually assumes power, he grows progressively more corrupt. He even acquires the 1930's symbol of rural elegance in México: a Packard. Vargas eventually challenges his mentor, with surprising but perhaps predictable results.

The film was initially denied release because it paints a hilarious but extremely negative picture of women, of local priests, and of local government. It also includes a great deal of amazingly foul, but ultimately very funny, Mexican slang. Even the title, La Ley de Herodes, is part of a very crude saying that might (with considerable liberty) be translated as "Law Blue: Do it to them or they'll do it to you."

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.

Herodes' Law is great and perfectly accurate parody of the corruption that characterizes most of the Latin America's states (for not saying ALL of them). Brilliantly, director Luis Estrada uses a very poor small town to develop his exaggerate parody about the behavior of Latin-American rulers. I'm sure that for us who were raised in small Latin-American towns, have notice that our governors are just a small sample of how things works in the official grounds.

Good photography, characters perfectly conceived and excellent performances makes Lay Ley de Herodes a very enjoyable, sometimes disgusting, film. Don't miss it 9/10

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.