Bandidas

I watched Bandidas for the first time back in November and posted a capsule review of it here. Last week, I watched the movie a second time...

Every so often, a movie is announced that never shows up. I first heard about Bandidas back in 2005, the year it was first scheduled for release. I’m madly in love with Salma Hayek, who’s not only one of moviedom's most attractive leading ladies but also one of its most intelligent. And I enjoy the particular brand of over-the-top action movies that Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen have co-written, especially the terrific Transporter movies. So I kept Bandidas in mind.

By the end of 2005, Bandidas still hadn’t been released, so the note I’d made to keep it in mind became displaced by some other bit of trivia. Come last August, I’d more or less forgotten about it when, while perusing the international box-office charts, I saw that not only had Bandidas been released in Spain, it had opened at number one. From there I discovered that during the year it had also been released in some other markets, including France, Mexico and Russia. It then seemed to me certain that a wide U.S. release was on the way -- but when the movie finally came out in the States at the end of September, it was a low-key, limited release exclusively through the small Cinema Latino chain.

A short time later, Bandidas was released on DVD here in Switzerland, and as soon as NetMovies added it to their inventory, I signed up to rent it. (I had to wait a few weeks for it, as a number of other renters pounced on it ahead of me.) Obviously the movie was garbage -- how else to explain its ignominious treatment in the States? -- but garbage with Salma Hayek in it is better than garbage without, and surely there’d be some Transporter-style action to enjoy.

The movie is set a century or so ago in Mexico, where gunman Tyler Jackson (Dwight Yoakam) is working on behalf of an American bank to ensure that they control the land on which a cross-country railway is to be built. Jackson’s favorite tactic -- cold-blooded murder -- causes him to run afoul of European-schooled rich girl Sara (Hayek) and rough-and-tumble farm girl Maria (Penélope Cruz, just Oscar-nominated for Volver), who team up to reclaim through armed robbery what Jackson has stolen from their compatriots. Their efforts are aided by a criminologist (Steve Zahn), who is brought down to Mexico by Jackson to help apprehend Sara & Maria only to be quickly won over to their cause.

I’ve watched Bandidas twice now, and I can’t say with any certainty why it was denied a proper U.S. theatrical release. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s not even remotely bad. Yet even if it were a bad movie, bad movies are released wide in the States all the time -- so why not Bandidas? As is usually the case with these things, most people will assume that the movie was treated the way it was because of its quality, yet obviously there was some other reason for it.

For my part, I’m glad I took the opportunity to watch Bandidas again, as I enjoyed it more the second time around. No longer expecting the kind of action that Besson & Kamen are known for, I was able to enjoy the movie for what it is -- a light-hearted adventure with a pair of appealing leads (Hayek and Cruz), an offbeat-yet-chilling villain (Yoakam), and a charming comedic sidekick (Zahn). Also, credit first-time feature helmers Joachim Roenning & Espen Sandberg for showing the kind of directorial restraint that’s all too rare these days, allowing audiences to enjoy without distraction the performances, dialogue, wide-screen photography, and scenic Mexican locations.