Rojo amanecer

When I saw the film as it was released in the theaters, I thought it was a superb film. More than a decade later, a part of such awe is gone. The plot? A middle-class family undergoes the violent events happened in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, in 1968.

The sound recording and editing was most probably done by butchers. Clumsy ones. The firing sounds seem to be stolen from a Pink Panther cartoon episode. I suppose –though– that the budget was small, so I will not insist too much on it.

There is nonetheless some VERY good acting in here, performed by Héctor Bonilla, María Rojo and Demián Bichir. My highlight performance happens when Bonilla angrily addresses his sons at the family table, after arriving from work. Sadly, most of the other actors perform poorly (Bruno Bichir, although decently acting,is decidedly overshadowed by his brother). The pamphlet girl's acting is wooden and many other actors seemed to have been simply borrowed from a student theatrical company. The cops (judiciales) are almost a caricature and -even though they can be brutal in real life- suffer from overacting.

The scenery is flawless and honest. Lighting is OK, but nothing out of the ordinary. Some dialog lines are marvelously embellished and made "real" by Bonilla's and Rojo's delivery, although the dialog lines in general tend to sound kitschy, biased and overdone when dealing with political issues.

Recommended to those who want to analyze the evolution of the recent Mexican cinema and to evil cops who are looking forward into improving their verbal intimidation techniques.