The Mexican

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Movie
German title The Mexican
Original title The Mexican
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2001
length 123 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 14
Rod
Director Gore Verbinski
script JH Wyman
production Christopher Ball
music Alan Silvestri
camera Dariusz Wolski
cut Craig Wood
occupation

The Mexican , also known in Germany under the titles Mexican and Mexican - A hot love , is an American feature film from 2001 . The main roles are played by Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt .

action

The naive Jerry Welbach was responsible for a traffic accident with the mafioso Arnold Margolese, which resulted in Margolese's jail for five years. As a punishment, Margolese lets him do messenger work for him for five years.

As a final activity, Welbach should procure an old pistol known as "The Mexican" and bring it from Mexico to the USA . It is an ancient artfully crafted weapon.

Jerry, however, had promised his spirited friend Samantha Barzel a trip to Las Vegas together . When he tells her about the job, an argument arises, in which she separates from him and decides to go to Las Vegas alone.

Everything is going wrong for Jerry in Mexico. The contact gives Jerry the gun and is then killed by a ricochet while peeing against a house wall. Drunken visitors to a folk festival shot in the air. Car thieves steal Jerry's rental car with the gun in the glove compartment . Jerry shares this with his supervisor, Bernie Nayman in the US, who believes Jerry is trying to defraud the organization.

A short time later, Samantha is attacked by an armed black gangster who apparently wants to kidnap her. However, this is immediately afterwards gunned down by another gangster, who calls himself Leroy . This kidnaps Samantha too. He tells her that he only brought her under his control to put pressure on Jerry to actually deliver the gun to Margolese.

Leroy wants Samantha to call her boyfriend and only after a while does he believe that she really broke up with Welbach. A kind of friendship develops between the kidnapper and Samantha, both talk about relationship problems and he reveals to Samantha on the way to Las Vegas that he is gay . He spends the night with Frank, who he met on the way, who is then killed by the black gangster. Leroy , in turn, kills Frank's murderer. He and Samantha eventually arrive in Mexico where they meet Jerry.

Jerry himself had taken possession of the weapon and lost it again and again in Mexico. He had to deal with Mexican small-door star and corrupt police officers. Various people kept telling him legends about the weapon, all of which were different from one another. The gangster Margoleses sent from the USA had the order to kill Jerry, but what Jerry had sensed and prevented. Jerry and Samantha make up at the airport. While driving in Mexico, another argument breaks out and Jerry causes an accident. Samantha goes into a tantrum and walks away from the car. The gangster who tricked the two of them into letting them go, wants to kill Jerry, but he sees him in a mirror with the gun in hand and shoots him in time. When the hysterical Samantha returns, Jerry tells her the real identity of the gangster: The black gangster was Leroy, who worked for Margolese. Samantha's kidnapper was actually Winston Baldry. Jerry realizes that Margolese's subordinate, Nayman, is playing a double game. Nayman apparently wanted to steal the valuable weapon from Jerry and then let Winston remove Samantha and Jerry.

Jerry is kidnapped a short time later and taken to Margolese, who has just been released from prison while in Mexico. Here Margolese tells Jerry the true story of the Mexican : It was made by the ancestor of his cell mate, whom Margolese had befriended. Margolese made an honorary commitment to hand over the weapon to the descendants of the builder.

Nayman kidnaps Samantha, who has the antique pistol hidden under her clothes. Nayman negotiates with Jerry and the Mexicans and wants to trade Samantha for the gun. However, Samantha shoots him with the pistol. This is then given to the friends of Margolese; Jerry puts the ring hidden in the gun on Samantha's finger.

In the final scene, Samantha and Jerry drive the car, Jerry tells the story of the gun. The two quarrel over this again.

background

Production costs were approximately 57 million US dollars . The film grossed approximately $ 147.8 million in theaters around the world, including approximately $ 66.8 million in US theaters. The Mexican was filmed in Real de Catorce in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí . Other locations were Las Vegas ( Nevada ) and Los Angeles ( California ).

Reviews

James Berardinelli praised the comic and some of the dramatic scenes on ReelViews , but criticized the elements of an adventure film as completely unsuccessful ("dead on arrival"). He also criticized the portrayals of Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts.

Mike Clark wrote in USA Today on Aug. 9, 2001 that it would be hard to believe anyone read the script and made the decision to make the film. He criticized that Jerry and Samantha split up after two scenes together and only appeared together 75 minutes later. He compared the flashback, in which the story of the pistol is told, to the western Two Bandits . Clark also criticized that the plot was complex, but that did not mean that it was interesting.

Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times on March 2, 2001 that he liked the accent of Jerry as well as the appearances of the supporting characters. He praised the performances by Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts.

The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was a "[poor] attempt to create a cult film". The “mixture of thriller plot, elements of romantic comedy and postmodern mannerism” creates “boredom that even the star line-up cannot cover up”.

Awards

Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt were nominated for the Teen Choice Award in 2001. James Gandolfini won the 2002 Screen Idol Award at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival . The film won the 2002 GLAAD Media Award in the category Outstanding Film - Wide Release.

literature

  • Lars Penning: Julia Roberts . Bertz Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-929470-36-5 , pp. 128-130, 150 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Mexican box office results on imdb.com, accessed October 16, 2008.
  2. ↑ Film review by James Berardinelli on reelviews.net
  3. ↑ Mike Clark's film review on usatoday.com
  4. ^ A film review by Roger Ebert on rogerebert.suntimes.com
  5. ^ The Mexican. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used