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Old Gringo | Year: 1989 Directed: - Luis Puenzo - Lùis Puenzo Actors/Actresses: - Jane Fonda - Gregory Peck as Ambrose Bierce Gregory Peck was great This movie is set in rural Mexico in the early years of the twentieth century. An emotionally lost, sexually-frustrated woman, Harriet (wonderfully portrayed by Fonda), leaves her southern belle existence to tutor children on a hacienda in Mexico. Just before leaving, she watches Ambrose Bierce deliver a lecture to a group of journalists where he issues a manic, mean-spirited farewell to that life. Bierce (Gregory Peck)has also decided to go to Mexico. She's desperately trying to find herself; he has calmly and systematically set out to lose himself. They meet again in a band of rebels led by General Tomas Arroyo (Smits) and the excitement (and love triangle) begins. The movie is very loosely based upon the novel The Old Gringo, by Carlos Fuentes. Unlike the character known as the Old Man or the Old Gringo in the novel, Ambrose Bierce is immediately identified by name and is immediately recognizable by character traits. In the novel, the Old Man is very enigmatic, vague and hard to place. Here, the Old Gringo is all that one would expect Ambrose Bierce to be -- abusive, arrogant, conflicted, bitter, supremely sarcastic and, strangely enough, admirable. Gregory Peck was so Bierce-ish, at times I was enchanted. If you've ever wondered how Ambrose Bierce met his end, this is a nice flight of fancy. The Hemisphere Turned Upside Down The Old Gringo--an historically-based novel by Mexican diplomat, intellectual and author Carlos Fuentes--is a sensitive, complex, and ultimately satisfying portrayal of the Mexican people and a core period in their history. Not only is the acting intense and heartfelt, but also the hemisphere is turned upside down and one is allowed in for a moment to a world that trips to modern resort beaches can never access--the passionate, fascinating, suffering, poverty-stricken, and tempted-to-revolution nature of life in Latin America. For Fonda, herself a young revolutionary (disagree if you like) during the Vietnam War, and those like myself who have been to war-stricken lands like Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and, yes, today's Mexico with its Zapatista movement in Chiapas, the passion of a people actively engaged in fundamental rhythms of everyday life and survival is inspiring beyond words. Each of the three principle characters--the young revolutionary general (Jimmy Smits), the spinster American school teacher (Jane Fonda) and the self-exiled American writer Ambrose Bierce (Gregory Peck)--are presented with a common dilemma, a dilemma presented to many of us of relative wealth and privilege (i.e., any American by comparison with our third world brothers and sisters) by the choice between our life of comfort and relative ease as compared with a life of sacrifice and commitment to a greater common good. The dilemmas are real, the passions are palpable, and a world turned upside down--like the upside-down map of the hemisphere on revolutionary General Poncho Villa's wall--is a wonder to behold. From the brutal "murder" of a horse to the beautiful and sensitive portrayals of the peasant people in the midst of revolution, this movie is an all-time favorite of mine. I am glad I have found out where to get it because at one time I had been told it was unavailable. It will now hold a spot on my shelf with a number of other signicant "main stream" pictures on Latin America, including Olmos's 1992 "American Me", Nava's 1983 "El Norte" and Oliver Stone's 1986 "Salvador"--pictures that had to be made but could only have been made by the right person in the right time. Puenzo as director with Fonda, Peck, and Smits were the right people coming together in the right place for this one. Old Gringo Peck and Fonda at their best and typical Smits; an emotional feast Buy Old Gringo at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Old Gringo Search with the Priority Search Engine on Old Gringo This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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