La Tragedia de Macario | La Tragedia De Macario

La Tragedia de Macario | La Tragedia De Macario | A political controversy made human

DVDs:

La Tragedia de Mac...

	La Tragedia de Macario La Tragedia De Macario Laguna Films, 2006 average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Studio: Laguna Productions Inc Release Date: 09/19/2006

Masterpiece

This film touches my heart. I love everything about it; the acting, editing, the soundtrack, the script, the cinematography, even the film grain and the at times washed out, inconsistent colors (technical problems with the DVD transfer maybe). It is easy when discussing illegal immigration to think in general, abstract terms, but this film focuses existential, social, political, religious and ethical issues by involving us in the lives of a few individuals who are struggling to LIVE. It is a beautiful film, a piece of art. Everytime I watch this film my eyes fill with tears.

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A political controversy made human

Directed and written by Pablo Véliz, this film succeeds not because it is an excellent film, but because it does a sufficient job in humanizing an important political and ethical issue of our day-- illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States. Macario is an illiterate laborer who loses his job when the farmer who employees him sells his land and fires all his workers. He's an eminently likable character, as is his lovely wife, and together they are tired of starvation wages. When by fate Macario comes into enough money, he and his friend Felipe decide to cross the border into San Antonio. They pay a "coyote" to take them across, but when they show up for the trip he herds a dozen of them into a locked and unventilated freight car. Tragedy awaits these passengers, the coyote, and even the Mexican farmer who sold his land. Based upon a true story. In Spanish with English subtitles.

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Tragedy as History

La Tragedia de Macario

Tragedy as History

Amos Lassen

"La Tragedia de Macario" (Laguna Productions) is based on director Pablo Veliz's father attempting to enter the United States. Veliz, who is only 23, has crafted a sincere and moving film about immigration. He begins by showing us the life of Macario, his father, and his jokes, his loving and exasperated wife, their poverty, how e lost his job. This also is shown very slowly so that we have a feel of who the person is. By the time that Macario and his friend get to the American border, we really care what happens to him.
Veliz manages to create a very realistic picture from a news clipping about a fatal single incident in the history of Mexican immigration to the United States. Here is a moving and tender look at the hardship and the ultimate tragedy of a poor, out-of-work Mexican laborer who put everything he had into one place and lost it all when he attempted to cross the border to find work. Because this really happened, the movie is all the more real and all the more poignant. The film effectively puts a human face on the stereotype of the illegal immigrant. It looks at the oppression that drives people who work the land to flee their homes and the despair and deprivation under which they live and try to have a better life somewhere else. What really drives the film is the love that Macario has for his wife Regina and then the visitation of the Virgin Mary at the local church and on the train that Macario rides.
The movie is full of magical realism and the music that accompanies the film is brilliant. But the movie is troubling because it deals with such a real issue. This is a powerful film that must be watched in order to understand better the world in which we live.

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