{"id":2802,"date":"2010-07-10T10:42:37","date_gmt":"2010-07-10T17:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/josemarquez.com\/xsml\/?p=2802"},"modified":"2010-07-10T10:42:37","modified_gmt":"2010-07-10T17:42:37","slug":"machete-box-office-proceeds-and-ballot-box-forecasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/2010\/07\/10\/machete-box-office-proceeds-and-ballot-box-forecasting\/","title":{"rendered":"Machete, box office proceeds and ballot box forecasting."},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m about halfway through Inglourious Basterds<\/a> and spent some time yesterday thinking about the forthcoming Machete<\/a>. Both are perfectly wrought genre pictures, of so-called Jewsploitation<\/a> and Mexploitation, respectively. With an important difference: the former is set in another time and place and the latter is set right here, right now.<\/p>\n

The historical pulp or -sploitation genres are intended as cathartic entertainment,\u00a0as a way of remembering and thus healing a past violence,\u00a0rather than as propaganda that aims to incite future violence. (Blaxploitation<\/a> could not have preceded the Civil Rights movement and less so the Black Panther Party.) <\/p>\n

Given the broader historical narrative in which these revenge fantasies unfold, they are also incapable of escaping irony. Even when its producers and\/or audiences cling to its surface meaning, like someone suffering from nightmares might pull up a blanket, the subtext remains: a festering wound that will not be healed by being dressed up. <\/p>\n

For this reason, the most beloved pulp films are seldom naive: to balance the scales of justice, everyone must pay, including the audience.<\/p>\n

Consider, for example, the Westerns of John Ford<\/a> and Sam Peckinpah<\/a>. Among other pleasures, the Pilgrim-sploitation movies gave the descendants of the dirt-poor immigrants who conquered the American West a chance to take their final revenge on both nature and the Native American nations they had to battle \u2013\u00a0and often lost to. But while making a gesture of healing old wounds, such movies often opened new ones.*<\/p>\n

Which makes me wonder: is America ready for Mexploitation<\/a>? I hope so.<\/p>\n

*Sadly, America is still waiting for the Native American-sploitation flick. To the victor go the spoils. Casinos notwithstanding.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m about halfway through Inglourious Basterds and spent some time yesterday thinking about the forthcoming Machete. Both are perfectly wrought genre pictures, of so-called Jewsploitation and Mexploitation, respectively. With an important difference: the former is set in another time and place and the latter is set right here, right now. The historical pulp or -sploitation…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,10,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}