Pubdate: Fri, 23 Mar 2001
Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)
Copyright: 2001 The Christian Science Publishing Society
Contact:  One Norway Street, Boston, MA 02115
Fax: (617) 450-2031
Website: http://www.csmonitor.com/
Forum: http://www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/vox/p-vox.html
Author: Howard LaFranchi
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/traffic.htm (Traffic)

TRAFFIC: MEXICANS WINCE AT HOLLYWOOD'S SEPIA PORTRAIT

TIJUANA, MEXICO - Jorge Castanada is a Tijuana cop, not a film critic.

So he knows something about life on the streets of this border town. But if 
you ask him about the film "Traffic," which opened here this week, he gives 
it two thumbs up. "It was realistic, it showed the dark side of the drug 
trade we can't deny exists here. It also takes up the reality of drug use" 
in the United States.

But many Mexicans are less-than enamored with this Oscar-nominated flick - 
and several other recent films. After years of bemoaning their low profile 
in Hollywood, Mexicans are finding that center stage is, well, not all fun 
and Zorro.

More than anything, it's "Traffic" director Steven Soderbergh's use of a 
grainy sepia tone to film Mexico scenes that unsettles Mexicans. "The way 
the movie was filmed, it says, 'Everything in the United States is 
technicolor, it's neat and beautiful, while Mexico is sepia, old, and 
shadowy," says Dulce Maria Sauri, president of Mexico's Institutional 
Revolutionary Party. "From the opening scene, Tijuana was nothing but small 
dirty backrooms, and Mexico a den of corruption," Ms. Sauri continues. "I 
just kept thinking, this is the image of Mexico that is going around the 
world."

Mr. Castenada's girlfriend echoes that sentiment as they emerge from a 
cineplex at a mall in Tijuana. "I don't know if I like the idea of the best 
movie of the year presenting this negative vision of Tijuana and Mexico to 
the world," says Rocio Chavez.

Ms. Chavez will have to wait until Sunday to see if the Academy of Motion 
Picture Arts and Sciences considers "Traffic" the year's best picture.

But it's not just "Traffic" that Mexicans find distasteful. Also set in 
Mexico this year are "Way of the Gun," "Double Take," and "The Mexican," 
which associate the country with themes ranging from kidnappings and 
money-laundering to bumbling, small-time corruption.

With Hispanics now constituting America's largest minority, and Hollywood 
cultivating that market, Hispanic actors like Salma Hayek, Benicio del 
Toro, and Jennifer Lopez are in hot demand.

The Traffic plot relates an unsung Tijuana policeman's role in bringing 
down a Mexican general who is working with one Mexican drug cartel to 
destroy another. Though names are changed, the story draws from the 
shocking revelation in 1997 that Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, Mexico's 
equivalent of the White House anti-drug czar, was on the payroll of the 
Juarez drug cartel run by Amado Carrillo Fuentes. As part of his 
clandestine work, General Gutierrez was taking tough action against the 
Tijuana cartel of the Arellano Felix brothers - to help the Juarez cartel 
expand westward.
- ---
MAP posted-by: GD