 |
| From http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5439/intrpu.jpg |
Dir. Francisco Guerrero
What, exactly, is the reason a
viewer would watch an obscure "Mexploitation" film about a violent
punk, biker gang? Yes, "violent punk, biker gang" would sell to a lot
of people, but bear in mind, its narrative is non-existent, and there are
plenty of other films that are just as tasteless and gaudy. Yet it's still
compelling. A group of cineast misfits over the internet have rediscovered this
film, spreading rips of a Mexican VHS type probably never intended for English
language availability, given it fansubs, and spreading word on it to the point
this Brit hear about it, watched it without English subs raw, watched it again
with fansubs and is reviewing it now. It far from great, but still entertaining
in a perverse way. Why? |
| From http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/intrepidos-punks/w448/intrepidos-punks.jpg |
The narrative as it is splits
into two parts. The first is the titular punks, who go about breaking out one
of their leaders and members of the gang from prison before going on their
personal rampages around the Mexican highways. The second is of two policemen
who burst smugglers and drug dealers, and take the job of tracking the punks
from their previous history with them. These two strands only connect properly
by the end, where they literally cross paths. Infamous Hong Kong director Godfrey Ho, who connected two or three
films of varying genres together in one movie, made much more of an effort to connect
his loose ends together. The loose ends here are gigantic. It undercuts the
usual compromise exploitation cinema usually ends up with, where we revel in
perversity before moral law deals with it and normalcy wins out, by making the
win for morality feel like a half-arsed joke. The two cops, as well, while
allowed to have a chatty back-and-forth interaction, come off as far less
interesting and liable to be even more corrupt and scuzzy than the punks for
all their wanton carnage. The result is that the true subject of interest, the
punks' amorality, is amplified. Those easily offended will find the celebration
of rape, brutality and a prolonged moment of a man being set on fire gasoline
horrifying. However, not only does the film come off as exceptionally silly,
but the film could come off, if you are willing to step back from the moral highground,
as a safe, healthy way to consider these images than to let them exist in
reality. I cannot help but think of a quote from his autobiography where film
director Luis Buñuel admitted that he
did have morally offensive thoughts occasionally but that, as thoughts only,
they existed as a harmless concept and had to be accepted as being something
that exists. The existence of such ideas can be subversive, and while Intrepidos Punks is just pure exploitation
without political messages, the punch to the stomach it gives is still
effective. The film is only defensible if viewed as a tacky attack on good
taste, which is not a dismissal at all but the honest truth about it. Its
sordid in its content, but the intentions of the director were probably to do
this in the first place, and those offended by it will have to accept that the
film's existence is only around this fact.
 |
| From http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3700/1006/400/venganza1.jpg |
The aesthetic and cultural
content of the film is what is the main draw of it as well. This could
dangerously be translated as a form of cultural tourism that is patronising and
places Western snark over another country's genre cinema, but in a positive
light it's learning about another country even through its trashier art. I
doubt motorbike punk gangs led by lucha libre wrestlers wearing chainmail masks
existed even in the eighties, but the rawness of the film and the translation
of punk iconography are things unique to this movie. The only
"Mexploitation" film I saw before this was Night of the Bloody Apes (1969). The thing is though, while with
its own look and female lucha wrestling subplot, that film was Frankenstein played off with real heart
transplant footage and Sixties candy colours. Intrepidos Punks, while about menacing Others that terrorise the
normal population, is all about, truly, soaking in all the bad taste of it, the
rampant nudity and sex, and its look. Celebrating bad taste by showing more bad
taste. The punks are a peculiar mix of pop culture and social traits - the Fist of the North Star franchise, the Mad Max and post apocalyptic films,
body piercing, New Wave hair dye colours - and as a prescience onscreen,
including bikes with the backs of whole cars as their behind, the film can just
sustain itself by following these colourful, one dimensional hooligans in their
chaos. To the film's credit, even if their nude bodies are still drooled over
by the camera, the female punks are as distinct and brutal as the males, able
to dish out punishment and settle their own disputes through Russian roulette.
The main female leader stands out as the central image of the film just from
her look, played by Princesa Lea. Her
makeup and huge blonde hair does remind one of Dee Snider from the band Twisted
Sister, and I am not the first one to admit to have said that, but Lea with her look, her massive, jaw
droppingly huge head of curly blonde hair, and busty and sculpted figure in a
revealing body wrap, bondage get-up, is compelling just by standing in the
centre of the screen. The minor punks are just as able to grab your attention
to them, male and female, and her counterpart Tarzan, the wrestler who leads
the pack, is more than a match by, indeed, using wrestling moves and bringing a
Tombstone Piledriver to a rock quarry fight. The film is just tasteless
absurdity like this, and that was probably the film's intention, and the reason
the film has been rediscovered and loved. It's not PC, it's as exploitative as
you can get, and it has things you'd never expect to happen in a film. Men
fight to choose which female punk they share a bed with together by recreating
Medieval jousts with motorbikes and morning stars. A hostage scheme, with the
wives of the jailers and jail staff of the prison the male leader is kept in,
becomes even more sleazier when the group rape that takes place, chaste but
completely titillating in a really seedy way, and the band who composed the
film's main them suddenly teleports, in full punk gear and equipment, into the
house and play as the act goes on. Then there's the fact that even the female
punks are willing to rape people which just takes the scuzz past the ten out of
ten mark of sleaze to eleven.
 |
| From http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E2uWeSxRO60/ TQfNr0Xv9wI/AAAAAAAALMw/DG8YaJwTAOw/s400/intrpu3.jpg |
Without a proper narrative, the
point one could only make for the film is a series of punk related anarchy, of
group sex, of petrol station invasions and general violence you are supposed to
enjoy as pure anarchy. If you cannot find enjoyment in such a film, then it's
useless to even consider viewing it. It is however the kind of film for those
who want something edgy, silly and completely impossible to take seriously.
Like how trash and paracinema fans interact with films like this, it's the
content around the botched storytelling that's of worth, wanting to be shocked
by its content, wanting to be amused by how said content is lurid is in the
safe environment of a film, acted out by actors and not real, and wanting to
view something completely against the notion of what "quality" taste
is. The film comes off as the filmic equivalent of a three minute, shock rock,
punk song being blasted from the tiniest and loudest speakers possible live
with a blind drunk guitarist. Purposely offensive, colourful and about the
surface of the content than a deep meaning to it. That in the last minute it
feels like the director had to compromise and let the goodies win actually adds
to it, the gaping chasm it causes in the film's nature making it more
fascinating. Its token violence, token sex, and abuse of Mohawks, but it shows
that even the base level of filmmaking has an energy that is infectious and can
cleanse away any pretence of nasal gazing. Its a shrine to everything cinema shouldn't
be, and I confess why I've viewed it as much as I have and written this review.
 |
| From http://img.rp.vhd.me/4584594_l5.jpg |
No comments:
Post a Comment