Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. Good questions, both answered by this spy’s report:
Hey Harry! Just call me The Fly, I'm a film student in Los Angeles and I got a sneak peek at a film that is apparently gearing-up for a comeback, Salvador Carrasco's "The Other Conquest." It deals with the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish and follows a young Aztec as his life is changed forever when his culture and even faith are changed drastically by the invading Europeans and their dogmatic fever to convert everyone to Catholicism (not to mention steal their land and resources). The director, Salvador Carrasco, is one of Mexico's brightest talents and was at a dinner event recently with the three amigos Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo Del Toro. Carrasco has been laying low and I got to see the movie when he lectured to my class. "The Other Conquest" was first released in Mexico in 2000 and became a major box office smash before "Amores Perros" and was put out on limited release in the U.S. and now it's coming back May 4. I was highly impressed with the quality of the writing and photography of the movie. Carrasco paints beautiful vistas of the ancient culture that flourished in Mexico before Hernan Cortez and his goons fucked everything up. In a way you can say that this movie picks up where Gibson's "Apocalypto" left off, when the Europeans arrive. We meet a young Indian named Topiltzin (the Mexican actor Damian from John Sayles' "Men With Guns") who's sister becomes Cortes' mistress (she later becomes the historical Dona Isabel). She is soon inlisted to help a friar named Diego try and convert Topiltzin to Catholicism, by force if necessary. The rest of the movie is an exciting mix of drama and tension as we go through a journey of cultures clashing and faiths being tested. It's a fitting movie to watch in these times when we're debating the issues of language and immigration and how one culture's arrival affects the one already present. I liked how Carrasco's script is not just some period piece but a very personal, deep drama about not just the conquest of Mexico, but about the struggle many people have in trying to be themselves, to retain their identity when others are forcing them to change. There are heavy scenes of torture where Indians feel the boot of oppression and see their land raided by uncaring invaders. This is a story fitting for Americans to watch, because you realize other corners of the world were experiencing exactly the same thing our Native Americans went through here. Watching "The Other Conquest," you realize why indigenous guerrilla groups like the Zapatistas have sprouted up in Mexico. There is also a fine detail here in the costumes and art direction, you can tell careful research was done to re-create the time perfectly. The movie doesn't have the same budget as something like Ridley Scott's "1492" and yet it stands up to anything Scott has done in recent years, I would compare this to Werner Herzog's "Aguirre, The Wrath Of God" with a more visceral edge. "The Other Conquest" will be a nice little discovery for those who go see it May 4, it's one of those rare historical epics that has just as much heart as action, you walk away haunted and fascinated.
