Movie Review of "Escape of De Los Santos"
by Bob Polunsky, Movie Critic in San Antonio, Texas.

             "Escape of De Los Santos" is about Andres and Chava, two teenaged boys driving across the Texas-Mexican border to drink beer, flirt with girls and have a good time. It's a trip many young people in the border towns take every day, but this time it borders on tragedy when Mexican authorities arrest the boys for having three rifles in the trunk of their car. They find them during a routine check at the border, and they won't listen to any explanation. They make up their minds that the teenaged boys were smuggling guns into Mexico illegally, even though the boys said they used the rifles for a hunting trip the day before and got home so late they were too tired to put the rifles when they got home. By the next home, they had forgotten the rifles were still in the car.

             Those rifles were lying in plain sight inside the trunk, so the teenagers can't understand why they are accused of smuggling them into Mexico. The rifles were not hidden or covered up. They were there for anyone to see and they were duly registered. It's obvious to Andres that no smuggling or lawbreaking of any kind was involved, but the authorities didn't agree. They took both boys to jail, muttering profanities all the way.

             The story turns into a test of wills between authorities and naïve teenagers, with the authorities itching to throw their weight around to prove they are in charge. By contrast, the boys know they didn't do anything wrong and say so. But their relatives and friends aren't much help to them. They feel fighting the authorities is just a waste of time, and it looks like they're right. Corrupt lawyers, judges and the police aren't interested in listening to explanations. They would rather play "blame games" to find a scapegoat and get publicity for themselves instead of resolving the matter legally and quietly. The law makes it easy for them to think that way. In Mexico, a person is guilty until proven innocent.

             The judge who will decide their fate promises to give the boys a rough time. He warns them that he will let them know of his decision when he's good and ready and not before. In the meantime, they have to stay in jail to wait for his decision.

Chava gets off easy. The authorities let him go. Andres has to bear the burden of guilt and punishment all by himself.

             The main issue is the way adults treat teenagers and vice versa in towns where theoretically, anything goes. You can sum up the attitudes of the characters by listening to the profanity used by young and old alike to express frustration as well as ineptness.

 

 

                Andres' godfather tells him he must let his friend take the blame because "it's the only way." Andres' conscience won't let him do that. He intends to fight the charges but agrees to one bit of "cover up" advice: He pretends he's sick so he can be transferred to a hospital and out of the confining jail cell.             The consistent profanity sounds natural when the teenagers use it. They aren't cussing to impress anyone. They cuss to reflect their frustration, and, for the most part, they only cuss to members of their own age group. The adults, on other hand , use profanity when talking to their wives, mothers and small kids. It's their way of proving to themselves that they are "adults", and by golly, everybody better realize it!

They apparently think profanity is a sign of maturity. The teens realize it's an expression of frustration to their peers.

             The movie is comparatively short (84 minutes) but makes strong statements about responsibility and irresponsibility. It isn't preachy. It's dramatic, with flashbacks and dream sequences that show how the storyline affects the two teenaged boys.

             When Hollywood made movies with similar plots and attitudes, they used such titles as "They Made Me a Criminal" to show how society's rules and some officials' corrupt practices can force the young and innocent into a life of crime, deception and, ussualy, an exile from friends and family. Hollywood's cycle of "Rebel Without a Cause" movies dramatized the pitfalls that can and do affect the future of young people. In the best of them, adults who fall the test of maturity are weaklings. Those stood up for what they honestly believed to be right are the strong ones, and it doesn't matter how young or how old they are when they take that stand.

             Alonso Wheeler and Paco Flores develop the characters of Andres and Chava with an apparent understanding of their generation. Especially when they are forced to cope with inept adults. Wheeler is especially good, and the camera takes long, lingering close-ups of his eyes to reveal his conscience. By contrast, close-ups of inept adult characters show how willing they are to scheme, bribe and lie their way through life's problems.

             The movie has some faults. Long pauses before flashback scenes stop the momentum and dilute suspense momentarily.

Also, most of the profanity is overdone. One or two sequences would have been enough to make a dramatic point.

             But such flaws are relatively minor. The credible acting of the two main characters makes it easy to recognize their eagerness to be law-abiding in spite of the examples set by adults in their lives. Their acting and attitude give you reason enough to root for them, and that, in itself, makes the movie worth seeing.

November, 2005.