Canoa
by Felipe Cazals
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Arturo Alegro, Carlos Chávez, Julio Alejandro, Rodrigo Cruz, Sergio CalderónDirector: Felipe Cazals
Brand: TNT MEDIA GROUP
Cinematographer: Álex Phillips Jr.
Editor: Rafael Ceballos
Producer: Roberto Lozoya
Writer: Tomás Pérez Turrent
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-01-24
Audience Rating: Unrated
Model: 20199
Studio: Desert Mountain
Product features:
- Canoa is a compelling story based on the actual events that occurred on September 14th, 1968 in the mountainous town of San Miguel de Canoa. A group of employees from the Puebla University set out on a hiking excursion to a nearby mountain. Mistaken for radical communist agitators by domineering local priest, a mob of townspeople are incited to riot, resulting in the brutal murders of several of t
Movie Reviews of Canoa
Movie Review: A Visceral, Savage, Intelligent Film.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Canoa" is a savage, brilliant work that is usually looked over when Mexican cinema is discussed, especially now when a general audience's experience with Mexican film usually consists of just "Amores Perros" or "Pan's Labyrinth," some of course know of the great Luis Bunuel's highly influential work. But here is a film that should be seen wherever available, it is a visceral mix of politics, violence and realism.
"Canoa" chronicles the brutal assault on a group of Mexican youths by a town ruled over by a corrupt priest who poisons the inhabitants' minds with warnings about Communist hordes threatening to invade. The year is 1968 and Mexico is experiencing the same kind of political upheaval by student movements felt all around the world, it is a time when just being associated with a university means being associated with radical, Leftist politics. In this atmosphere a group of Mexican youths go on a road trip to and end-up trapped by rain in tiny Canoa, a dark place which director Felipe Cazals introduces us with great detail at the beginning. Through an observant campesino we learn about the town and its people, and how a corrupt priest has declared himself the government of the place, ruling over every aspect of the town's life. When the students arrive he stirs the people into a frenzy already made toxic by stories coming out of the cities claiming that the student movement is lead by Communists who seek to destroy the Catholic Church.
The story of the events in Canoa has been somewhat buried when Mexico's history of the 1960s is discussed, probably because the lynching of the group of youths took place a month before the notorious massacre of Tlatelolco in Mexico City where hundreds of marching students were butchered by the military, that event remains the key moment of 1968 in Mexico and has of course, overshadowed or even buried the events of Canoa. But Felipe Cazal's film more than makes-up for a lack of extensive scholarship considering his film is almost a documentary, in fact Cazal directed a documentary short on this subject before making the feature film. The eye for detail is highly impressive and Cazal's masterfully informs us with facts, dates, times and names while at the same time keeping us gripped and horrified. Like the best historical dramas, "Canoa" works as both an enlightening film and as pure entertainment.
"Canoa" also succeeds as a complex psychological study. The film deals with various themes such as mob violence, political propaganda and religious fanaticism. Cazals captures vividly how an entire society can be whipped into a frenzy with pure scare tactics and a manipulation of sacred cultural symbols and beliefs. The events in this film can happen anywhere and do. Much of the hysteria over Communists that we see in "Canoa" is happening today in America over Muslims or illegal immigrants. Cazal's brilliantly captures how each stage of paranoia in the town leads to higher levels of suspicion and ultimately violence. He sets up the world of the film with pure realism, fully transporting us to the world of the characters. The cinematography is both arresting but gritty, scenes are nicely framed, but the images are of a decaying, rotting town where evil rules.
The violence in "Canoa" is very real and very raw, Cazals has probably filmed one of the best sequences ever exploring the brutality of mob violence with shots and scenes that terrify in the way they capture human brings reduced to raving lunatics and bloodthirsty monsters.
And of course Cazals does a great job capturing the Mexico of 1968 and the political debates and conflicts which were raging at the time. The youths themselves are not Leftists, or at least officially aligned with the student movement, but they can't escape the effect the movement is having on society. The film never feels like just a horror show in the spirit of 70s b-flicks because it does have a real political conscience. Cazals doesn't just blame the town's priest for what happened, but the entire Mexican system which viewed the students as a threat and programmed the citizenry to see them as such. "Canoa" deserves comparison to the best works of Costa Gavras and that other great Mexican film of the turbulent year of 1968, "Rojo Amanecer." This is an overlooked masterpiece that anyone interested in foreign cinema and political films should certainly take a look at.
Summary of Canoa
Canoa is a compelling story based on the actual events that occurred on September 14th 1968 in the mountainous town of San Miguel de Canoa. A group of employees from the Puebla University set out on a hiking excursion to a nearby mountain. Mistaken for radical communist agitators by domineering local priest a mob of townspeople are incited to riot resulting in the brutal murders of several of the young men.System Requirements:Starring: Erneso Gomez Cruz Enrique Lucero Salvador Sanchez Directed By: Felipe Cazals Running Time: 115 Min. Color Copyright Ventura Distribution 2003.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: LATIN/DRAMA UPC: 825745201990 Manufacturer No: 20199Similar DVD Movies
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