Once Upon a Time near Mexico

Introduction

The title says it all, really. There have been a number of great movies set on the Texas-Mexico border, and we will highlight four of them here. We begin with Sergio Leone's classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in which everyone is fiddling around looking for stolen gold buried in Mexico while the Civil war rages. We then go back in time to Orson Welles' Touch of Evil, in a newly re-edited version that restored the film to his original vision, working from a 58-page memo he sent to the studio after witnessing the butchering the film had undergone in their hands. We then fast-forward into modern times with John Sayles' social commentary couched in a border-town murder mystery, Lone Star, and wrap up with Christopher McQuarrie's nihilist modern classic The Way of the Gun.

Notable omissions from the theme include the cult favorite From Dusk till Dawn and The Wild Bunch.

• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• Touch of Evil
• Lone Star
• The Way of the Gun

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Additional Resources

• Compare Roger Ebert's 1968 review and 2003 review.

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• A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More -- The earlier two members of the Dollars trilogy, the former a stylish, laconic classic and the latter a feel-good action spectacular.
• Once Upon a Time in the West -- Leone's follow-up western, a classic that distills the best of the spaghetti-western conventions into an operatic masterpiece.
• Yojimbo -- The Akira Kurosawa masterpiece of which "A Fistful of Dollars" is a faithful remake.

Touch of Evil (1958)

Additional Resources

• The Memo -- Orson Welles's 58-page memo describing how he wanted the movie edited. Compelling reading.
• Restoring the Touch of Genius to a Classic -- Walter Murch's New York Times article describing his re-editing of Touch of Evil, shedding light on the important changes that he made.
• Charlton Heston on Touch of Evil -- An extract from Charlton Heston's autobiography, providing behind-the-scenes insight on the making of the movie.
• Great Movies: Touch of Evil -- Roger Ebert's Great Movies essay.

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• The Lady from Shanghai -- More film noir from Orson Welles.
• L.A. Confidential -- Equally good, but tonally different, story about corruption in law enforcement.
• Chinatown -- Neo-noir with a bleaker world view.
• The Player, Boogie Nights and Snake Eyes -- Three other movies with long, virtuoso opening sequences. Unfortunately, it is all downhill from there in the case of Snake Eyes.

Lone Star (1996)

Additional Resources

• Lone Star -- Full text of the screenplay.
• Sleepy Texas Town With an Epic Story -- Janet Maslin's NY Times review.
• Borders and Boundaries: An Interview with John Sayles -- A Summer 1996 interview at the Seattle International Film Festival, Cineaste v22, n3.
• Rotten Tomatoes on Lone Star

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• You Can Count on Me -- A little gem of a comedy, with similarly outstanding characterization.
• Do the Right Thing -- More kinetic, equally insightful study of inter-racial tensions in a Brooklyn neighborhood, filled with finely etched characters.
• Magnolia -- Equally ambitious ensemble piece dissecting the interlocking lives of many different characters.
• To Kill a Mockingbird -- A very different look at inter-racial relationships, also involving a murder.
• Blood Simple -- Another independent classic, this time from the Coen brothers; similarly offbeat tone and small-town feel, with traditional noir story laced with black humor.

The Way of the Gun (2000)

Additional Resources

• A Noir Story of Guns Always at the Ready -- Elvis Mitchell's insightful NY Times review.
• A Bloody Perfect Aim -- Stephen Hunter's delightful review in the Washington Post.
• Interview with Ryan Phillippe

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• The Wild Bunch -- Sam Peckinpah's gritty western is the major inspiration for this film's nihilist tone. See also Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.
• The Usual Suspects -- Stylish, energetic crowd-pleaser with an even more labyrinthine storyline, also written by Christopher McQuarrie.
• Reservoir Dogs -- Equally violent, but flashier debut of Quentin Tarantino, with dialogue that sizzles, albeit without the refined, literary eloquence of "Way of the Gun".
• The Red Circle -- Jean-Pierre Melville's more subdued, less violent French classic offers up similar characters defiantly marching towards their deterministic fate.