miked10270 0 #1 August 6, 2004 Can't wait for it to come over to the UK but I suspect that the very people who most need to see it won't go. Anyway: http://www.esmas.com/adaywithoutamexican/dos.html And this from The Miami Herald: Film makes Latinos disappear - and it's not a pretty picture BY SUSANA HAYWARD Knight Ridder News Service MEXICO CITY - On a recent sunny day, a mysterious pink fog descended on the borders of California, and 13 million Mexicans and other Latinos suddenly vanished. Gone were maids, field hands, car washers, waitresses and waiters, and their families. Chaos and paralysis quickly followed. Schools closed, grocery shelves emptied and garbage piled up in streets clogged with abandoned cars. Martial law was quickly declared. This is the scene painted in the movie A Day Without Mexicans, subtitled The Gringos Are Going to Weep, and its reception at private premieres in Mexico City before its official launch today suggests the satiric comedy is going to be a big success. Mexicans laughed good-heartedly as on-screen American stereotype characters were lampooned as helpless, pompous hypocrites. But there was a dark undertone from those who could appreciate what immigrant life can be life. ''I went to the United States when I was 23 to become an engineer and study music, and instead I ended up cleaning toilets,'' recalled Edgar Lira, 32, a musician who was born in Chicago, raised in Mexico and lived as an adult in California and Texas. ''It was the reality. I almost cried, it was such a great movie,'' Lira said. AN IDEA IS BORN The movie, which is in English and eventually intended for the American market with the title A Day Without a Mexican, has its roots, according to director Sergio Arau, in California's 1994 anti-immigrant Proposition 187, which denied undocumented workers state benefits. ''Our thanks go to Pete Wilson, and we give him a lot of credit,'' Arau told reporters after a screening, referring to the former Republican governor of Californi. Also in attendance: Nobel Prize winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez and Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, the former Mexican representative to the United Nations. Zinser was fired after he criticized the United States' treatment of Mexico. The movie was written by Sergio Guerrero, who lived for 12 years in Texas and California. Despite the word ''Mexicans'' in the title, the film is intended to address the plight of working Latinos of every stripe who think they are taken for granted in the United States, he said. ''It's a serious comedy. The message is to make visible the invisible,'' he said. ``It's like when someone takes a piece of candy away from a baby. The child appreciates the candy only when it's gone.'' EARLY EFFORT FALTERS Guerrero said the movie was five years in the making and cost about $3 million. The first efforts to open it in the United States were unsuccessful. ''We couldn't compete against the monsters such as Spider-Man,'' Guerrero said, so the movie's backers brought it to Mexico, where it will open in 300 theaters with the hope of building momentum for a return to the United States. The movie is a many-layered affair with various humorous subplots, each one pricking a cultural bias or clichéd gringo character. The plot begins with the mysterious pink fog that descends, causing the disappearance of all Latinos -- including Gov. Shaw, who no one knew was Latino. Named acting governor in his stead is Sen. Steven Abercrombie, a race-baiting Anglo politico who suddenly discovers how much he misses his Mexican maid, huevos rancheros and illegal house painters. Mike. PS. Wonder how long this post will last in The Bonfire before moving to SC!? . Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable. Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CrazyIvan 0 #2 August 6, 2004 __________________________________________ Blue Skies and May the Force be with you. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
diablopilot 2 #3 August 6, 2004 What a load of "entitlement" tripe.....---------------------------------------------- You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chaoskitty 0 #4 August 6, 2004 No kidding.. so how do you think a movie of the opposite scenario would be received? All the "white" people are suddenly gone, and there are no patrons in the mexican restaurants.. nobody to dirty toilets for them to clean.. nobody's lawn to manicure.. they all STARVE.. (I'm being purposefully dramatic here..) Sorry, but I was raised in Texas, and while that movie may portray the truth for some, it certainly does not represent all of the Mexican population. Its a generalization meant to spur "entitlement bullshit" .. like you said JP. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CrazyIvan 0 #5 August 6, 2004 Quoteso how do you think a movie of the opposite scenario would be received? All the "white" people are suddenly gone No problem...we'll get the Incas, and Mayans and Aztecs back. __________________________________________ Blue Skies and May the Force be with you. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chaoskitty 0 #6 August 6, 2004 QuoteQuoteso how do you think a movie of the opposite scenario would be received? All the "white" people are suddenly gone No problem...we'll get the Incas, and Mayans and Aztecs back. I dont think they believed in hired help.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CrazyIvan 0 #7 August 6, 2004 QuoteI dont think they believed in hired help.. Smart dudes.__________________________________________ Blue Skies and May the Force be with you. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
diablopilot 2 #8 August 6, 2004 Also shows you that minority special interest groups have no intertest in leveling the playing field. Theres no angle in a homogonistic society. Nothing to rally against, no goroup being slighted. Prop 187? I think it's great. Why ought I carry the burden for those that want to reap the benifits without shouldering the reponsibility. Trust me, SOMEHOW the toilets would be cleaned, and the lawns would get mowed. Maybe if there were not a class of persons around to undercut othere, then less AMERICANS would be unemployed.---------------------------------------------- You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chaoskitty 0 #9 August 6, 2004 QuoteQuoteI dont think they believed in hired help.. Smart dudes. Youre right... this sounds sooo much better.. and much like a society that we fought several wars to overcome.. click "Social Classes The Aztec community was divided into four basic social classes: the nobility, working class, the mayeque, and slaves." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CrazyIvan 0 #10 August 6, 2004 I know that, however, present day, there are still "classes" the difference is that such "dividing line" is blurred.__________________________________________ Blue Skies and May the Force be with you. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chaoskitty 0 #11 August 6, 2004 Find a society where there aren't classes. Yay Capitalism! You work for it.. you got it! You expect it to be handed to you.. you may have to wait a while. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Treejumps 0 #12 August 6, 2004 Sounds like a fantasy were all of a suden we don't have to support every last person who manages to get accross the boarder illegally. To bad its just a movie. I read an article in Biz Week about a man who moved his family to Las Vegas. He started a lawn care business, and after couple years he has 70 or 80 clients, and says he has never had a better life. He works outside, makes close to $100K, and when the day is over he's not worrying about too much. He questioned why some say that we "need" cheap hispanic labor to do these jobs when he has been able to earn a great living doing what they only get $7.00 an hour to do. So if they all went away, it seems to me that a lot of opportunity would open up for actual Americans. Too bad its a just a movie. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CrazyIvan 0 #13 August 6, 2004 QuoteFind a society where there aren't classes. Yay Capitalism! You work for it.. you got it! You expect it to be handed to you.. you may have to wait a while. Not really, because no matter what system you belong to (capitalism, socialism, etc) there always be boundaries, if you make X amount of money you belong to this group or class, and if you make X+1 to this one and so on and so forth. BTW...why are we talking about this when this is about a silly movie? __________________________________________ Blue Skies and May the Force be with you. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zenister 0 #14 August 6, 2004 aparently a billboard for the movie in Cali only lasted 3 days before it was taken down for fear of causing 'panic'____________________________________ Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kennedy 0 #15 August 6, 2004 I wonder how many ignorant fucks suddenly thought "The Great Race War is upon us!!!" witty subliminal message Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards. 1* Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
