There once was a time when Mel Gibson
was a Golden Boy: young, handsome, faithfully married with a large
family, and the apotheosis of conservative values in an otherwise
Liberal Hollywood landscape. He was the guy Hollywood could point to
and say, “Look. We aren't all a bunch of degenerates.”
It's been a long time since those
days. Gibson is now the guy infamous for an anti-Semitic rant during
his drunk-driving arrest. He cheated on his wife, fathering an
illegitimate child, and is now divorced. He isn't young and
beautiful anymore, either. Now his face is craggy and world-weary.
Now he's another degenerate.
He's also a better actor now. As I
discussed in the entry for the movie "Payback Straight Up: The Director's Cut", Gibson's tarnished status has freed him to take roles and do things
that he couldn't do as a Golden Boy. Like play a true, gritty
criminal.
In “Get the Gringo,” Gibson plays
an unnamed criminal who steals from other crooks and lands in a
very gritty, Mexican prison called "El Pueblito.” The prison is
truly a little town, where inmates' families are allowed to come and
go, bringing them all sorts of contraband. Some prisoners are even
allowed furloughs, including the drug-lord, Javi, who rules “El
Pueblito.” Gibson's character has to use all of his skills to
survive in this world, while figuring out how to escape and get his
money back.
“Get the Gringo” isn't by any
means a classic, but it's a decent-enough crime-thriller. The movie
gets its story told in about 90 minutes, which is way more efficient
than most films today. The scenes are taut and terse, and the film
doesn't waste much energy on sentimentality. Gibson's character is a
hard guy with a decent side, but the film doesn't beat us over the
head with that; they just let him do his thing. The movie went
straight to video-on-demand here in the U.S., but it is tighter and
more entertaining than most of the films that get cinematic releases.
3 stars out of 5
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