800 Bullets Review

Alex De La Iglesia's 800 Bullets is a strange beast. Part family drama, part cinematic metaphor, part nostalgic longing and a very large part barn-burning western 800 Bullets attempts to fuse a good number of disparate elements and, while successful in bursts, it demonstrates why these genre crossing efforts are so rare: it is almost impossible to bring the different parts into a consistent whole.

The film begins with Carlos, a young boy of ten or so who lives with his emotionally distant, career driven mother and over-wrought grandmother. Carlos' father died years before but all his mother will tell him is that his father died in an accident, beyond that Carlos knows nothing. What his mother is hiding is that Carlos' father died working as a stuntman on a spaghetti western and when Carlos learns that his grandfather is still alive and well, living and working in Texas-Hollywood - an actual town in the west of Spain built as a standing western set and used in hundreds of films - Carlos runs away to meet him and learn what he can of his dead father.

What Carlos finds in Texas-Hollywood is Julian, a broken down drunk holding desperately to his golden years - he claims to gave been Clint Eastwood's stunt double in For A Few Dollars More - by putting on western themed stunt shows with a motley assortment of characters for steadily dwindling crowds. When Carlos' mother learns he is with Julian, who she blames for her husband's death, she takes her revenge by buying up Texas-Hollywood, slating it for demolition and redevelopment. What's an old stunt man to do in the face of the crushing tides of commerce? Clean out the local gun shop's supply of ammunition and make a last stand, of course!

The premise is fantastic but, though Iglesia does delve some into issues of the broken family and the tension between history and 'progress', he runs into some major problems early.

First is Carlos, problematic on two fronts. He is meant to be our entry point to this world but, as a great many people point out in the first few minutes, Carlos is a brat. And not a brat in the cutely precocious or 'poor kid misses his dead father' sort of way, he's just an ill-behaved, obnoxious, spoiled kid allowed to run completely wild with no concern for much of anything. Rather than empathizing with him I just wanted to hit him. His role becomes far less significant - and far less irritating - as the film progresses and Julian becomes dominant but it is generally not a good thing when your hook becomes an irritant.

Perhaps even more significantly Carlos' presence casts a bit of a taint on Iglesias' genre excesses. 800 Bullets may feature a child in a lead role but it aint no G rated picture, and while I'm all for the drinking, whoring and shooting - hence my current Deadwood fixation - it does take on a rather unsavory tone when you put a ten year old kid in bed with a naked hooker.

The other key problem lies with Julian and Iglesias' struggle to place him in two worlds - Julian's western fantasy world and the 'real' world. While Julian strikes a convincingly tragic and noble figure within the confines of Texas-Hollywood he takes a major hit when placed in larger context. This is a man, after all, whose drunkenness was a contributing factor in the death of his own son, Carlos' father, so when he informs Carlos that "There is no greater sin than not having a good time when life allows you to" - a view that Iglesias seems to be seriously putting forward - it rings more than a little false.

Iglesias has fallen into the same hole that snares most cross-genre films: the rules of one world simply don't mesh with the rules of the other, leaving the film caught, thematically at least, drifting somewhere in the middle unable to really go all out in either direction. Does this mean the film is a failure? Nope, because Iglesias has style to burn.

From the moment you hit the opening credits it is obvious that Iglesias is an enormous visual talent. The 'real world' sequences are, at best, workmanlike and underdeveloped but when he gets to Texas-Hollywood it's a whole different story. Iglesias, obviously, loves film. He breathes it. The authentic sets and all-pervading sense of history in Texas-Hollywood is a gold mine for someone like Iglesias and he works it for every last ounce. These sequences are filled with gorgeous shots, deft action sequences and an anarchic sense of humor. Julian, somewhat lost outside the bounds of his home, truly shines here and he is surrounded by a cast of memorable misfits. When things resolve, as they inevitably must, into a high noon showdown it is just a classic piece of work.

TLA's DVD is solid, though light on features. Video is presented in 2.35 anamorphic widescreen, audio in 5.1. Subtitles are clear and easy reading and, in a nice touch, leave one Italian speaker's comments untranslated so that we understand only what the characters understand. There is, however, the occassional unsubtitled piece of dialogue. It is literally only two or three lines lacking subs but whenever this happens it leaves me wondering what I'm missing.

On the whole 800 Bullets is an entertaining but deeply flawed film. A little more character development and a little less pubescent wish fulfillment and Iglesias could have had a cult classic on his hands. As it is he's got a compelling curiosity that further cements his reputation as a talent to watch without actually advancing him forward.