All language subtitles for Highway Patrolman (1991) Blu-ray Commentary

My name is Alex Cox. I'm the director
of the film that you are about to see

which is called El Patrullero
or Highway Patrolman.

And my name is Lorenzo O'Brien.
I'm the writer producer of El Patrullero.

Welcome to the film.

The film begins in Mexico City
in El Z�calo.

Do not adjust your set.
It has a weird colour cast to it.

The first ten minutes or so
have this yellowish tinge

which is meant to replicate
the smog atmosphere of Mexico City.

So don't adjust your television

I've always been amazed
about this section.

For having two cents
to do the title sequence,

it's one of the better ones I've seen.

It's great. Bob Dawson

a very good title person
with whom we were at UCLA

back in the 1970s.

It fits the style of the entire film,

and it is visually so compelling.

It's amazing how sometimes
less is more.

Do something simple
and you can usually get away with it.

- And this guy is...
- Mike Moroff!

Mike Moroff. I find it amazing

that he looks so much like the real
head of the Mexican Highway Patrol.

And he's not actually a Mexican.
He's from Chicano, Los Angeles.

He was born originally in Mexico
and then moved to the United States.

There's the appearance
of Roberto Sosa.

El Patrullero.

- An extraordinary actor.
- Very good actor.

Won a prize at San Sebastian
for his performance in this film.

And here comes Bruno Bichir,
the other Patrullero.

We really have Claudia Becker
and Miguel Sandoval

to thank for the extraordinary job
they did on casting.

- As well as you, of course.
- Oh no. On the contrary!

It's the script.

But this guy isn't cast.
This is a real cop.

This is one of the funniest
sequences... among others!

This is improvised.
This was never in the script.

He's really giving them a ticket.

There are several moments in the film
that just appeared out of nowhere.

This is shot in the old race track
in Mexico City.

Where they used to have
Formula One motor racing.

We were unable to obtain
the support

of the Mexican Federal
Highway Police,

so we ended up having to recreate
the academy

at the old race track.

It worked out quite well.

Along with everything else. The cars,
the uniforms. Everything is invented.

Since we didn't get any cooperation
from the Highway Police

we had to invent
our own police force

Pedro Armendariz!
Pedro Armendariz.

He's the son of Pedro Armendariz,
the famous actor,

and an extraordinary actor himself.

Standing behind him in this scene is
Cecilia Montiel, the Production Designer.

Playing La Patrullera, I guess.

This is the point of the film.

This is the scene
in which everything is explained.

As the English translation says,
"They've always committed a crime".

It's actually,
"They've always broken the law".

"They've always broken the law."

It's also one of the basic concepts
that we discussed

while we were
conceptualising the film

which is the impossibility
of doing good.

That the best intentions
are never enough.

That somehow or other you're
doomed to commit a mistake

that someone is punished by.

Especially by being so grandiose
as to think that you can do good.

This is the day of the total eclipse
in Mexico City.

That's right. A shot of which
we snuck in later on in the film.

But this is very unusual
because it went completely dark.

The streetlights came on,
the birds went to sleep,

and then woke up again.

It must have happened about
20 minutes before we did this shot.

It was an extraordinary event.

So Pedro receives his shield,
his gun and his certificate.

That, we assume, is his brother
on the right, videotaping him.

This is very much
the same ceremony in which...

they are given their badges
and their pistols,

and their guns.

In the actual highway patrol.

Obviously, as you well know

we got most of our story points,

and our information regarding the
highway patrol from Alfonso Granados.

Who actually had been
a highway patrolman.

He'd been a highway patrolman
as a young guy.

He left the highway patrol at 22, 23
and ended up being a driver for films.

We met him on our location scouts
for Walker.

And in the long hours of...

Driving around in
a Volkswagen camper!

From one place to another,
location scouting

he told us the story of his life.

Which then became somewhat
an interpretation of this.

Modified, of course.

A lot of what Poncho said

although it changed in the writing
of the script, the essence of it is there.

The highway patrolmen don't last
very long out on the highway.

A couple of years.
The attrition rate is phenomenal.

When I went to meet the heads
of the highway patrol in Mexico City

to ask for their support, they liked
the material because it did reflect.

They knew that we had been speaking
to ex-highway patrolmen,

and they recognised
that it was authentic.

It reflects the realities of their lives.

In another way they didn't like it
because it wasn't a very heroic portrayal.

They appreciated it but they weren't
going to give us a lot of support.

The real issue with them
was the end of the film

which is the issue with most people.

- This is actually the transition shot.
- Now the colour is correct.

The yellow tint should have left your
screen and the colour should be bright

because we're entering Mapimi,
in Northern Mexico.

The adventure of Pedro supposedly
happens around this town of Mapimi

where many years ago they shot
part of El Topo, Jodorowsky's film.

But in reality
we shot all over Northern Mexico

as we will probably note
as we go on.

There's Vanessa Bauche.

Here's Ernesto Gomez Cruz,
a wonderful Mexican actor.

One of the best actors they have...
The cast of this is superb.

This is like The Towering Inferno
of Mexican cinema.

We have so many outstanding
and well known Mexican actors

even though to a foreign audience
they might be quite unknown.

It was an extraordinary situation that
we were able to make this film at all,

and then to be able to make
with the liberty that we had to do it.

And to do everything
in a moving master

because in the film,
there is no internal cutting.

There's no cutaways to close-ups.

You'll even notice on this.

They pull a stop
as they go out through the door

which is pretty audacious.

The DP, Miguel Garz�n,
really did an extraordinary job

in being able to pull this off
as he did.

It was an incredible
physical strain for him.

We were shooting probably three
sequences a day, would you say?

It could have been. And sequences
as long as three minutes.

A three minute sequence
might take a whole day to get right.

We were shooting
two or three shots a day

I mean, by shots a day, set-ups.

But each set-up would take us
an hour or two to set up.

To walk through it, to rehearse it
and then finally go for it.

Once we started it we ended up shooting
maybe three or four shots at most,

and we usually had it.

And no Steadicam. It's all camera
on the shoulder of Miguel Garz�n.

This is an old converted garage

that we made as the headquarters
for the Federal Highway Patrol.

Did we shoot that in Mapimi?

- This is Mapimi, isn't it?
- Is it Dinamita?

Dinamita was the little town
that we'll go to later

I've got a feeling we shot the police
headquarters in Torreon.

No. In Mapimi as well.

- Or was it Durango?
- That's right.

So when we go to the police yard,
we're not in Mapimi, we're in Durango.

This is definitely Mapimi.

Pedro's first arrest.

In the background, the cinema is
playing a film called Rojo Amanecer

which was also shot
by Miguel Garz�n,

and had been a great controversy
in Mexican cinema

because it dealt with the massacre
of students in Tlatelolco in 1968.

It was directed by Jorge Fons,
who's a well known Mexican director.

He did an extraordinary job
on the film.

It was after seeing
Rojo Amanecer

that you and I decided that
Miguel Garz�n should shoot our film.

Which was a surprise
to our Mexican production team.

They didn't understand
what we were going for.

But at the same time,
it was an extraordinary choice.

It's because this is the opposite
of Rojo Amanecer.

Rojo Amanecer
all happens indoors

in one flat,
overlooking the massacre.

- You never see the massacre...
- Actually occurring.

You just hear the sounds
and see the reactions of the people.

It's very claustrophobic.

At the same time he showed
such an extraordinary mobility

within a small...

Within a very confined space.

It convinced us that if he can do that,
that he would do an extraordinary...

These are...

These are the heat waves that you
buy by the yard for road movies!

They sell these
at a special effects place!

No, actually what it is
is the dips in the roads.

Oh those. Ah yes.

This is a first for me.

The first film I've done
where the hero believes in God.

I don't think Walker believed in God.

But Pedro does.
Pedro is a very sincere guy.

He's a creyente..
He wants to do good.

All of this is still Durango.

The next scene is out on the highway.
Those Velasco skies.

The thing about Durango
is that since it's up at 8000 feet

the clouds hang to the horizon
much better.

There are our three friends
with the iguanas.

Who ended up staying with you
at the hotel.

Because we shot all over northern
Mexico, the three kids with the iguana

originally were just extras
in the background in Dinamita.

But when we'd shot them we thought
we should use these kids again...

Sure enough, one day, Rene Maruri,
the Extras Coordinator

just showed up his car
with these three kids.

And we go,
"Where are their parents?"

"The parents just gave them to me.
Here you are."

The parents were happy
to get rid of them for a while!

They had eight,
so they get rid of three, it's better!

They just sent the kids,
so we gave the kids their room

in the hotel we were staying in.

But they didn't like to be by themselves
because they saw a frightening film.

They saw Gremlins 2 on the TV.

So they ended up having to sleep
in the spare bed in my room

with my then partner,
Cecilia Montiel.

Oh no!
Look who's in the background.

There's Karl Braun.

Who we had originally met in Spain

where he was the Production
Manager for Straight to Hell.

Then he was in Walker as an actor.

He played Bruno Von Namzer,
the German General who rides a bull.

And there you are, too.

But I'm shy and I'm staying
in the background. Unlike Charlie.

And so here's the corruption.
Here's the villainous gringo

who likes to drink German beer.

See, Pedro isn't going to drink
his beer.

"In case you change your mind."

This is the first conversation

between Pedro
and his long-time friend, Anibal

about how they're supposed
to rack up their quotas.

So they talk about the drug dealing
in the region.

Obviously the tequila
wasn't very good.

It's funny because in reality,
very close to here

we stopped on our way
from Durango to Sombrerete.

- In a place called Nombre de Dios.
- Nombre de Dios. "Name of God".

And we bought maybe
15 gallons of mescal

which the crew got very happy about
for a weekend if I remember correctly.

And that was also the weekend
when the t-shirts arrived.

The Highway Patrolman t-shirts.

Which got the crew
in trouble with the local cops.

They thought our crew members

were members
of a rival police organisation

trying to muscle in
in the town of Sombrerete.

A brawl between real policemen and
fake policemen was narrowly averted.

All the cops are different corporations.

There are the Judiciales,
the Federales de Caminos.

There are different
police organisations.

Police organisations
are always in competition.

- This is no different.
- Exactly.

It's like in Los Angeles or Liverpool

you've got different cops
and they hate each other.

They're all in competition
and they never cooperate.

That's why you get
such efficient service from them!

Here he's carrying out
what he learned at school.

Just stop the car first and then find
out what crime they've committed.

Not only that
but he turns down his bribe.

- There's Claudia Becker.
- The Casting Director.

This is only the second time
that Claudia acted.

The first film that she acted in

was Bring Me the Head
of Alfredo Garcia for Sam Peckinpah.

This is the second film
that she acted in

I don't know how many years
she has been casting films.

What I love about this sequence
is how she asks for the cigarette.

A running theme
through this entire film

is that even the innocent are guilty.

Everybody's guilty!

There's Roberto Sosa being doubled
by one of the stunt guys

Miguel did point out that
that guy's head

is about three times as wide
as Roberto's head.

And so we called that guy
not the double, but the triple.

This is the voice of Carlos Puente,
the Editor

inviting us to enjoy
the delicious chilaquiles.

The story point here is that
he's been up all night doing his job.

They work in 24 hour shifts.

So he's coming to the end of his shift
and obviously he's hungry.

His hunger leads him into trouble,
which he obviously did not expect.

This is Zaide Silvia Guti�rrez.

A very fine actress who started
her career with Arturo Ripstein.

In a film with Ernesto Gomez Cruz
and Blanca Guerra

- called El Imperio de la fortuna.
- The Empire of Fortune.

- She's an extraordinary actress.
- Brilliant.

The part that she played
wasn't easy to pull off,

and she really did
an extraordinary job.

Look at the sky!
The sky did a pretty good job today.

I think we had Velasco for the film!

Once again, I think this has to do with
the altitude in which this was shot

I went back to Durango
about a month ago,

and it hasn't changed one bit.

Those clouds are still there!

They've hung them up for shooting!

It is amazingly beautiful, Durango.
An amazingly beautiful state.

They used to shoot
a lot of westerns there.

That's right. John Wayne
had a ranch there called "La Joya".

They shot
Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid.

They also shot The Wild Bunch.

The Wild Bunch they shot in Durango
but also shot it in Parras, Coahu�la

.where we also shot.

Now we're in a town
called Sombrerete.

This is Sombrerete.
This is the town in Zacatecas.

Which was just south of Durango.

It's the state of Zacatecas.

We based here partially because
it had a different look from Mapimi.

There were locations here
that we couldn't get in Mapimi.

One of them was outside
Sombrerete. The desert

de Los �rganos.
The big national park.

There's Farnesio Bernal, who's also
an extraordinary Mexican actor.

Farnesio, I think, is in Bring Me
the Head of Alfredo Garcia as well!

I like this particular scene very much.

It's very typically Latin American
in every sense.

The courtship that occurs between
men and women in Latin America

is usually done in front of parents.

This is very typical

of how Latin American couples meet
each other, how they get together.

This was your experience
in Peru and in Mexico City?

Everywhere in Latin America, yes.

After the film played at San Sebastian
and we drove back to Madrid

we got in a debate
with a Spanish actress

about the female characters
in the film.

Her objection was that they didn't
seem to have much of an out.

They seemed to be trapped in these
roles, of either the wife or the prostitute.

She felt that we were just being
reactionary for portraying that.

I think it's very honest,
this portrayal

because this isn't Mexico City
and Madrid.

This is a rural town in the third world.

Women don't have a lot of options
in places like that.

This woman can't go away
and become an actress,

or a politician or a TV newsreader.

Yet at the same time,
she has her own way of controlling.

She runs her father's farm.

She's actually very strong willed.

She has her own agenda
and she applies it.

She's not portrayed as someone
who is lacking in ability.

No. In fact,
by the end of the picture

it's pretty clear that the women
are running the show.

But isn't that how it usually is?

Our friend's objection was that they
have to do it through stealth.

But they're pretty overt about it.

This is the horrible video sequence!

The video quality was so good

that we had to deteriorate the image
much more than it originally was.

Actually, the extraordinary thing
about

what we had decided to do
with the structure of the film

is that we made sure that every cut
propelled us in time.

So here we're cutting from the first time
that they have breakfast together

directly to them getting married

without having the courtship
and the first date.

And without cutting away
to other things.

What I thought you would do
would be they would meet

then we'd cut to some cop stuff,
then the wedding

more cop stuff,
then they'd have a kid.

But you just did one scene
after another.

So it becomes
less about policemen

than about the domestic life
of this couple.

The thing is that

the police work itself becomes
very tedious and very boring.

It's much more interesting
to combine it

with this material because then you
get a domestic version of a cop film.

In reality it's one of the things
that we set out to do.

We wanted to cloak the film
in the appearance

of an action film, when in reality
we were trying to make an art film.

Here she's pregnant and they're
arguing about needing money.

This span of time, between when
they first meet and this sequence

a good year has gone by.

It's interesting to say an art film.
I suppose it's sort of.

What we were thinking of as well were
the films directed by Emilio Fern�ndez

in the 40s and the 50s, in what they
called the golden age of Mexican cinema.

Fern�ndez was a very macho guy

famous for shooting producers,

and for acting
in American movies

where he would play
the bad Mexican.

But as a director
he was very sensitive,

and quite feminist in his approach.

So he would make films
like R�o Escondido,

and work with actresses
like Mar�a F�lix,

and create very strong
female characters.

The discussion that we had
with the Spanish actress

was not well founded.

We also had a discussion
at the beginning of the film

about the ending
that we originally had.

The ending that we originally had
was, we felt, more humanistic

than what was acceptable to the...

- But we can discuss that at end.
- Yeah.

No, the chicks were right!

So, Guillermo Rios is the cop
in the background

who's always giving Pedro
a hard time.

And the mechanic to whom Anibal
gave the stereo

is Rene Pereyra, a very strong
Mexican theatrical actor

who's done a fair number
of films as well.

It's extraordinary. These guys were
ready for their close-up all the time,

and these close-ups
run eight minutes long.

Their capacity to maintain character
and their lines,

and just continue no matter
what occurred, is extraordinary.

And it has to do
with a theatrical background.

They're trained to continue,
no matter what happens.

The set falls, continue acting.
Keep going.

At this time,
although we show George Bush

we felt that it would be unwise to show
the image of the President of Mexico.

The President of Mexico on the wall
is actually the Second Assistant Director.

But even this taboo
has now been broken

by Luis Estrada's film
La Ley de Herodes

where he actually talks about the
ruling party, he names the President,

and basically accuses them all
of being corrupt.

But we were as outspoken
and as truthful as we could be.

I think that for the times
it was quite audacious.

Then again we were shooting right
on the heels of Rojo Amanecer.

And we were foreigners too!

Luis actually is a Mexican director and
the son of another Mexican director.

Here we are
in a place called Chocolate.

This is where The Wild Bunch
begins, when they ride the horses in.

There's the train tracks there.

They ride the horses
down the tracks,

and the kids are playing
with scorpions and ants.

Funnily enough, the actor that Pedro
is about to go and see

inside the old railroad car at Chocolate
is an actor from The Wild Bunch.

That's Jorge Russek

I like these hanging bags of water

which are, in these parts
of the world, to keep flies away.

We would see that in Nicaragua.
They would hang plastic bags of water.

And here's Jorge Russek

Jorge died quite recently.

A number of the actors in this film
have started to die off, unfortunately.

But Jorge was a really good guy.

He drove up with his wife, Julie,
from Mexico City, in his pick-up.

He had a pick-up truck
with a camper on the back.

In this sequence,
Pedro finally capitulates

to the extensive
"doing business as usual,"

and finally takes money for letting
this man go by with the pigs.

It obviously is a critical point
in terms of the storyline.

He said he won't do it,
there are some things he won't do,

and now he's going to do them.

It just has to do with the fact that as
much as our intentions are to do good

in the end,
life itself just wears you down.

Nah!

It's true.

In reality, I think this film is our
reaction to having made Walker,

and the reaction to Walker

I think it does have something
to do with that.

And how we felt.

We truly believed in how
making a film like Walker

could change political perception
on a situation.

In reality, we were not successful.

It gave way to a much more realistic
approach, in this particular film

of how life really occurs
and what life is really about.

The other funny thing
about Walker was that

there was such alarm
about Walker

in the film community here,
in the States.

And such a determination
to suppress the film

and not have it appear
in cinemas

sell the videotapes for 90 bucks
so no one will buy them.

And you see in the end that
you don't really need to exercise

that form of censorship
and that form of suppression.

Because look at the film of
Luis Estrada, La Ley de Herodes.

It's had a hugely wide
distribution in Mexico

goes out of it's way to denounce
the PRI as a corrupt institution.

But it's not going to stop the PRI
from winning elections.

The truth of the matter
is a film is only a film.

It's just a film.

This is paranoia by governments
towards arts in general.

Art is just art. It doesn't have
the political power behind it.

It may criticise politics,

but it's not going to change
anything that's happening.

But that takes a long time.

People are starting
to understand that a bit more.

The systems of control are in place,
they're not going to go away,

and everything exists to benefit
the ruling class, corporations

a handful of wealthy families.

It doesn't matter what country
you're in, it's always the same.

This is when Pedro
finally meets Vanessa Bauche.

- This is Vanessa's first acting role.
- Really?

Yeah. Extraordinary performance.
An incredibly talented young actress.

She was only 19
when she made this film.

- Very beautiful.
- And looks the same

I saw Vanessa when we were
in Mexico City last,

and she looks the same as she did
when she was 19.

It just means that she's 27 or 28.

I suppose, yeah.

At 27 or 28 you can still look quite...
Especially being an actor.

There's Rene Pereyra wearing
his UCLA t-shirt in the background

to stress the UCLA connection.

This is shot at the Bombay

in Mexico City,
which is right next to Garibaldi.

This is an actual club,

and a lot of the girls are the girls
that had worked all night,

and then stayed for the following
day to continue working with us.

And within the bar there, we've got
a little crane with a platform on it

Miguel starts out on this platform,
the crane comes down

he steps off the platform,
walks around the room,

and gets back on the platform
and the crane goes up at the end.

And that was one of the simpler shots
that we did with Miguel Garz�n.

Actually, it's incredibly effective.

This is actually shot
at Estudios America...

This is an editing room
in Estudios America...

That was converted.

Both Cecilia Montiel and Bryce
Perrin did an extraordinary job

in getting this
to look the way that it did

I think they had a colour plan

to try and replicate
the colours of Rufino Tamayo.

I think that was their intention

I think the colour scheme is quite
similar to the paintings of Tamayo.

But she's the one that told me that.
I can't say that for sure.

Only the Production Designer
will know for sure.

She really is extraordinarily beautiful.

It's interesting.
Pedro has really fallen hard now.

He's taken a bribe and then he's gone
to the whorehouse

which is something
he hasn't done before.

Bad day at the office!

This sequence was shot
in a house in Mexico City.

This is the most complicated shot.

It was the last shot that we did
in the film.

- Was it the last shot?
- It was the very last day.

Pedro comes home, finds a carrot.
Roberto's one of those actors...

He won't eat the carrot on the rehearsal
in case you say, "Don't eat that carrot!"

He'll wait till the take
and then he'll get the carrot.

The father has fallen asleep
in front of the TV,

and what is he watching?

He's watching RoboCop!

And obviously
this is our commentary

about the difference between
a live cop and a stealth cop.

It's RoboCop 2, because it was
Jon Davison and Irvin Kershner.

At one point I had been asked to
direct RoboCop 2 by Jon Davison,

and didn't do it, partially because

you managed to come up with
this very weird deal from Japan

where the Japanese would finance
a Mexican film about the highway patrol.

And so we ended up including
that little fragment of RoboCop 2

courtesy of Jon Davison
and Irvin Kershner.

And here, Zaide's having a bad day.

I love her considering
which weapon to use.

The collection of knives
that she has there.

Of course the father is fast asleep.

There's a similar trajectory between
this film and La Ley de Herodes...

Even though Damian Alcazar
in La Ley de Herodes

becomes much worse
than Pedro does.

But there's a similar tendency
in both films.

This is one of the most
controversial scenes in the film.

This is about domestic corruption.

It's about what is acceptable
between couples...

and what money will buy
in terms of that.

You're saying that because he's
brought all this money to the house

she'll forgive him for betraying her?
How cynical you are!

I don't think so.

What I'm saying is
that sometimes you look the other way

depending on what happens or what
the situation is and what is convenient

- I love this little fan.
- He has his little fan.

His whole car is equipped.

More grotesquerie, directors coming up
with this kind of horror thing!

One of the concepts that we talked
about was making this film realistic

in the sense of,
we never see car crashes.

We never see a shoot out
till the very end.

You always see
the aftermath of violence.

That's one of the other concepts
that we discussed.

I remember now
why we have that severed leg.

When we were in Nicaragua
in post-production.

We were working on the film in
a house outside the city of Granada.

We were around the flatbed
one evening, looking at a scene,

and there was this god-awful
crash outside.

We all went out
and there were just bodies.

A car had ploughed into the back
of a parked lorry,

and there were bodies
and body parts lying in the road.

And yet you didn't see the accident.
You only heard the sound.

And you run out
and it's already happened.

You were very valiant, Lorenzo.

While the rest of us
were standing around

you actually got the taxi drivers

to put people in taxis
that weren't too severely injured,

and take them to the hospital.

So you were on the ball, Lorenzo.

I don't think it has anything to do
with being particularly courageous.

On the ball, though.
You kept your head.

That was very good. That's what
a good producer should be

I remember this as being one of the most
extraordinary shooting days that we had

Mauricio Rubi.

And Sergio Calderon

Sergio Calderon
is sitting in the car with Mauricio.

You only see Sergio briefly but if
you've seen the film Men in Black

Sergio is the head
at the beginning of the film.

He was very pleased
because they made a toy out of him.

You can actually get
a Sergio Calderon doll.

Not this guy, Mauricio,
who's a very good actor,

but the guy sitting in the car
with him is Sergio.

But you're right. You can see
the moisture in the sky here.

There's a storm coming.

You don't see them on camera but
in the second part of the sequence

there were lightning flashes going
while we were shooting.

Once again,
this falls into our concept of

realising how violence
is first depicted.

He doesn't know he's been shot.

And this is what happens
to a lot of people.

A shoot-out begins
and then they look down,

and they suddenly think,
"Oh my god, I've been hit!"

Obviously, once he's been hit
there's not anything to do.

In some films they'd have him
get in the car and go after...

And chase them!

But not in this one.

People who get shot don't get up.

Something which is a reality.

What's going to happen now
isn't really reality though.

Eduardo Lopez Rojas,
another deceased actor...

who died quite recently, after they
completed La Ley de Herodes.

He was involved in Los Angeles
theatre, Eduardo.

He actually had a sort
of bi-country career.

This is when the principal character,
Pedro Rojas, finally meets his father

out in the middle of the desert

I originally scripted this sequence
to be at the hospital.

But I think your choice
of doing it here is extraordinary.

It has a lot more to do with

the absolutely surreal nature
of the location,

and what became
a momentary storm.

- There's no real effects here.
- There's no wind machine added.

All of a sudden this storm came in.

It created an extraordinary light

extraordinary physical,
geographical climate conditions.

What's happening in the story, although
Pedro doesn't know it at this point

is that his father is dying.

And his father is coming to visit him
before he goes off to the other world.

Of course, all these yucca plants
in the back

just contribute
to this otherworldly effect.

- And there's the eclipse.
- There's the shot of the eclipse.

Obviously, Pedro getting shot
in the leg conveys...

The thing about his father,
who also has a bad leg.

Not only the father,
but it's a turning point in the story

where he starts
losing that innocence.

- Yeah, by now...
- He's well on his way.

Once again, here we cut
from no birthing sequences...

Yeah, it's just here. There's the kid.

Pedro still thinks his father
came to visit him in the desert.

He doesn't realise that his father,
in fact, died while he was in hospital.

The actual implication
is that the father is already dead.

It's the ghost that has come
to visit him in the desert.

But how nice
to be making this in Mexico.

You couldn't do an American police
film where the ghost shows up.

Where Mel Gibson's ghostly dad
shows up to give him a hard time!

- I'm sure we could do it.
- Well, you could.

No, you couldn't!

No, it's too tightly
controlled over here.

The nature of drama

in American cinema,
and even in British cinema too

is very constipated.

If you're doing an exciting cop movie
you're not going to have any ghosts.

Because the genres
are very rigidly controlled

by the market researchers
from the studio.

But this isn't really a typical
cop movie in any sense.

No, but in Mexico you can do this
and nobody thinks it's that odd.

Nobody complained
about the ghost of his father.

And the Japanese
didn't seem to mind it.

The Japanese Executive Producers
didn't seem to have a problem.

For them it was a samurai film.

That's how we sold it to them -
a samurai film in Mexico.

And it truly does follow
that structure.

A young innocent upholder of the law
goes off to uphold it somewhere else.

And finds that things aren't the way
he was told in samurai school.

Obviously, here he commits
the fatal flaw.

The inevitable mistake
of the young macho.

When I spoke
to the highway patrol in Mexico

that one of the fantasies
that they all had

was to, somehow or other,
save a prostitute.

From herself, I guess.
I don't know from whom!

To reform a prostitute.

But what that also entails
is taking a woman

who has her independent
source of income,

and making her dependent on you.

That's right.

It's amazing how pissed she is
without raising her voice.

He has committed a grave error.

The inevitable drug scene.

Baking powder.

- Or is it...
- Baby laxative.

Filthy!

We haven't really talked a lot
about the music.

No, we haven't. The very nice score
of Zander Schloss.

A very beautiful bit

of music there

Zander, the composer, was one
of the few people on the film

who wasn't based in Mexico.

At the time, he was a member
of two bands in Los Angeles.

Thelonious Monster
and The Circle Jerks.

But had worked with Joe Strummer
on the score of Walker.

He played all the guitar on that
and did some of the arranging,

and we thought,
"This guy can do our film".

So the problems of Pedro continue.
He's wrecked his car...

How many cars did we have?

We had eight of these cars.
They didn't all run.

I think three of them ran.

Terry was in charge of the cars.

She did a very good job.

She also had that assistant,
the mechanic...

He's behind there, the mechanic.
He's grinning broadly.

- There he is.
- Behind Rene Pereyra.

A real mechanic.

Guillermo Rios is good.
He's a very intense chap.

This is the problem with these cops.

One of the reasons
that this corruption is endemic

is because they're expected
not only to bring back fines

to keep the organisation going,
but to pay for things.

If they break things,
if they lose a gun

if they have to have a gun,
they have to pay for it!

Great.

Again, in an American film,
they'd be having a fistfight right now.

They'd be fighting it out
in the police locker room

guys would be separating them.

Somebody would be going,
"Get your ass in here!"

And they don't do it. He's never
going to fight with his bosses.

He's never going to throw a punch
at anybody because he'd get fired.

This entire section is about

his inevitable slide.

These are, what are called
in Mexico, Juniors.

At the time, this is ten years ago
or more.

Juniors were sort of disliked.

They were viewed like this.
Like rich cry babies.

Unfortunately the culture of Mexico

in the last ten years,
has changed quite drastically.

And what you're supposed
to aspire to be

is one of these rich jerks with
a skateboard, in the American style.

But when we made the film
there was general consensus

that decent Mexicans
don't dress like this

don't act like an American.

What Pedro doesn't realise is that
this kid really is the son of a governor.

He really does know the President
and Pedro's in trouble again.

This is shot right outside Durango.

Near that abandoned base
where they shot...

"Fat Man and Little Boy."

They recreated the set
of the Los Alamos nuclear base.

Which is a location we never used.
We couldn't think what to do with it.

It was too big to use
as the police headquarters.

Now here comes the governor

Gerardo Moscoso
who was our doctor.

A very good actor.

"It's the first thing we teach you"
Oh yeah!

This is a terrible thing.
What Guillermo Rios has done

is he's sided with the governor
against his own police corporation

by opening the door
for the governor

Guillermo did say that in reality
he wouldn't do that.

That the solidarity between the cops
wouldn't allow him

to open the door for the governor.

The blue wall of silence.

But I said, in order to emphasise
what a creep you are to authority

go and open the door
for the governor.

But he's right.
In reality he wouldn't have done that.

Pedro is really beating up
on himself now.

He's refusing to drive a decent car.

He's not interested
in the shiny new gun of Anibal.

Here we are
in the psychiatrist's office.

This is a scene based on your
interview with the highway patrol.

This was shot in the production
house that we all lived in.

In Mexico City.

Which is a very beautiful old house
near the Estudios Churubusco.

The psychiatrist was to have been
played by Arturo Ripstein, the director.

But Arturo, at the time, had long hair
of which he was proud,

and he didn't want to cut it.

So at the last minute a very
good actor, Alonso Echanove

took over the role of Dr Bola�os.

Pops a couple of Prozac, bites
his fingernails, lights a cigarette...

That's the doctor for me!

This is also shot outside of Durango.

Jorge Fegan, a wonderful actor

who was also in Rojo Amanecer.
Also now sadly dead.

A funny actor.

Karl Braun reappears in the story.

Again, all one take.
Garz�n has covered everything

in what normally would have
been done in close-ups, cutaways.

He shot the whole thing in one take.

What's extraordinary
about using this method

is that it actually allows you
to experience the film in real time

rather than in this compression
of images.

Each sequence, you're transported
into a real-time scenario.

For as long as that moment lasts.

The cuts come when
there's a geographical change

like when in a minute, when we're
going to see Anibal, or a time change.

Here he's done a 360 degree pan.

There's about 30 crew people
behind him

that have to keep moving
as Garz�n moves the camera around.

This is one of the few shots
that he actually did on a tripod.

And it is a pretty extraordinary shot.

He captures his movement from the front
of the car, all the way into the car,

and never loses his head
or his face for a minute.

Now Pedro's trying to get going.

We had to haul these cars
all over northern Mexico.

We were afraid that these cars

since they didn't have
actual license plates

that the Mexican highway patrol
was going to run interference with us.

But they actually behaved
very well with us.

Well because you and Alejandra
Liceaga, the Production Manager

struck this deal that if we would
invent our own police corporation

that they would let us make the film.

Which was probably just as well.

The highway patrol
were driving little black Mustangs.

These are ginormous Dodge Darts
that we've got

which are more
impressive looking cars.

This is also outside of Durango.

A lot of drive-bys outside of Durango
because of the canyons,

and the impressive nature
of the landscape.

This is one of the few shots
that you can see

this very interesting scar that Roberto
Sosa has on the side of his face.

Which contributed, I think,
almost as a part of his character

Roberto was a child actor.

His parents got him into the acting
thing when he was quite young,

and he, as a result of that,
got a nervous tumour on his face.

Their family didn't have money,
they sent him to public hospital.

And the doctors just get in there
with a razorblade

cut it out, stitch him up
and send him home.

He gets home,
looks in the mirror and thinks

that's the end of my acting career.
He was only 13.

Of course, the perverse thing
is that film directors love that scar.

So whenever he does a feature,
you have the scar,

but when he does a soap opera
they cover it up with make-up.

This is one of the most extraordinary
shot sequences in the film.

This and the shot that follows.

This is a pick-up truck. Miguel is just
sitting in the back of the pick-up

which is being pushed
by the crew members.

And in a moment, we assume
time has gone by, he's still running.

Now, Miguel is on the front
of the pick-up truck

standing on the bumper,
being held on by ropes.

And the pick-up truck is being pushed
along behind Roberto Sosa.

As we get closer to the car

the pick-up truck slows down,
stops, the grips release the ropes

Miguel Garz�n steps down
off the bumper and starts to walk.

There we are.

Again, Pedro's got there too late.
The shoot-out's already happened,

but he can't even find his partner.

He goes from the asphalt
to the desert.

After we shot this sequence

we heard that, in this same spot
a few weeks previously

a bunch of Judiciales had got
into a fight with drug dealers,

and had been killed
right in the same area.

Which is interesting
because the concept is

the cops are so corrupt,
which a lot of them are.

But at the same time they have
these very dangerous jobs,

and at times they get killed.

I had never contemplated doing a film
about the police before

because I wasn't that keen
on the police.

But as a result
of the experiences that we had had

I felt that we couldn't be too critical
of people

because life isn't that simple.

Including the funeral sequence
would have been breaking

some of the structural advantages
that we had.

It was falling too much within
what would have been expected.

It was too obvious.

The funeral sequence was very funny.

It was the three widows of Anibal.

It turned out that Anibal
had three wives and three babies,

and they're all there at the funeral.

- But it was too funny.
- It was too obvious.

And it wasn't the point
we were trying to make.

That, by the way,
is my favourite line in the film.

"Please make an exception
in this case"

I have found, in the years
since Highway Patrolman

that "Please make an exception
in this case"

is the most useful sentence
that you can possibly utilise.

You acknowledge
that whoever you're dealing with

doesn't do this kind of thing
normally, whatever it is.

On this occasion,
perhaps they can make an exception.

And I have found that useful
in terms of all manner of things.

In all matters of negotiating.

Trying to get air cargo
out of Narita Airport

on a Sunday, when it's closed.

You just keep on saying, "Please
make an exception in this case,"

and you don't leave, and eventually,
they make an exception.

In this sequence,
they're obviously drinking to Anibal.

And on the television
there's a sequence going up

about re-approving Mexico.

Yes, Mexico has to be certified
every year by the US Congress

which is very insulting
to the Mexicans.

Because the whole deal
about the drug trade

which is devastating
and corrupting Mexico

is that the drug trade is there
for the benefit of the Americans!

Well the market
is the United States,

and their country just happens
to be on the way to the market.

This is a great source of division
between Mexico and the United States.

Funnily enough, I was on a flight

out of Mexico to Europe
that stopped in Washington,

and I found myself sitting next
to the Foreign Minister of Mexico.

Everybody gets on the plane
and greets him, shakes his hand

I'm saying, "How do you know
so many people on this plane?"

And we get into a conversation.

He was going to Washington.

Various third world countries go
to the United States and say,

"Until you guys can control
your arms trade"

"we can never control
the drug trade."

The United States is the greatest
provider of arms in the world.

Not only nuclear weapons and jets
but small arms.

Machine guns, handguns.

As long as these weapons
pour into the third world

as long as Latin America
is full of American weapons

the cops, the local authorities, are
never going to get a handle on crime.

It's well known that the guerrilla wars
in South America are fuelled by

the exchange
of weapons for cocaine

in Columbia and in Peru
and in different places.

And that in every case, the military
and their paramilitary allies

are making money out of it
and exchanging guns for drugs.

They're the ones who have
got the guns in the beginning.

But as the United States prepares
for a war against Colombia

the blame is always placed
on left-wing rebels.

Here are the iguana kids again.

He's in a fury now.
He just wants to arrest somebody.

He just wants to do some justice.

No, I think this is

his final lame attempt
at trying to do good!

I think that once again he's...

trying to find some way
to get back

to what originally inspired him
to be a cop.

And taking three kids to school is
as innocuous as can be, so he thinks.

But he'll see.

- I think this is Dinamita.
- This is Dinamita, yes.

But once again, no good deed
will go unpunished.

So he's turned over the children
to Farfan, the head of Special Effects.

In the blue shirt.

We also have to take
into consideration that

our character
is now under the effects

of the drugs given to him
by the psychiatrist.

Yes, he's on some sort of
early version of Prozac or Zoloft...

which is exacerbating
his homicidal tendencies!

And he's looking for a rabid dog.

He's such a brave actor, Roberto.

Unlike most of the English-speaking
actors I've met

he's really prepared to devote
himself to the character.

And he's not afraid
to appear ridiculous or silly.

When he crosses the bridge,
we said...

"You've also got a fear of heights."

"Not only do you have all these other
problems but you're afraid of heights."

So he plays it that way. He crosses
the bridge in a very timorous manner.

This is Malena Doria.
Another extraordinary actress.

Once again,
the impossibility of doing good.

And the extras.
These are the people in the town.

These are the people of Dinamita,
showing up to watch the filming.

Once again, this is where Zander's
music really does an extraordinary job.

This is near Mapimi.

This is called Puente Ojuela, which
is a bridge that connects two mines.

And I think you did an
extraordinary reveal here.

You don't really understand
why he's holding onto the side.

But as you zoom out here

it becomes evident that
this is one of the most

hair-raising bridges
I've ever crossed

Cecilia had to do repairs
to the bridge before they let us use it

I think there was just a couple.

It wasn't that much.

So he's come to help
a young girl in need.

The mother of the two children.

This is a real sky.
This isn't a process shot.

That's actually what the sky
looked like outside.

One of the extraordinary things
about this film

is that we didn't use
any camera cars.

All of it was car mounts.

Not one camera-car shot.
It's incredible.

I think, as a car-based film,
it works better than Repo Man

I think that sometimes
all those camera cars and stuff

it takes you away from the actors.

It becomes about the car
and not about the person in it.

But with the car mount looking in the
window, you're always on the actors.

- The actors also have to drive.
- They have to drive themselves.

They're not being towed.

And so he's returned.

This is the back lot
of Estudios America

.which is now part
of Televisi�n Azteca.

There were two film studios
in Mexico...

- In 1991
- But now there's only one.

Great location.

This is the only scene in the film
that we re-shot.

We did a version of this scene
that just didn't seem to be working

because we were playing it on
the two characters in the background.

On Maribel and her boyfriend, Emilio.

When we saw the rushes
we just thought

this isn't a film about those two
guys, it's a film about Pedro Rojas.

And so we re-shot the scene

with them all in the back
and Pedro in the foreground.

This is also one of the few scenes
where we have a dolly move.

Yeah, he's on tracks.

He's on tracks, which is

completely opposite everything
that we had done up to that point.

A homage to Ripstein
is coming up now.

In Ripstein's films, the characters
used to ask the time,

and the reply would be, "Late".

When we were preparing
the video version of this in England

I did have the opportunity
of putting an effect

of the binoculars on the shot.

But we didn't want that.

You know, that binocular effect!

I'm not sure
it really served a purpose.

No, I left it off.

It's such a naturalistic film

that to go for that
would have been, once again

going against the established
set parameters.

There are special effects, in terms
of things blowing up and gunshots,

but there's no actual process shots
or mattes in the film.

What you see is what's really there.

He doesn't listen.

Who does?

This is all shot around Dinamita
and Mapimi.

A lot of abandoned mines.

This shot you could have
put a binocular matte on,

but we decided against it originally.

The binocular matte
always looks hokey.

Anyway, by that time,
I think we had run out of money.

I think so. There was no money
for binocular mattes!

Not enough money
for binocular mattes!

You need to mix the film and deliver.

This movie's so poor,
they can't even afford a helicopter!

He takes off his identification.

This was a complicated sequence
to shoot.

- There's Damian Alcazar.
- On the right.

He's got a leading role
in Bajo California

Damian is quite a movie star
in Mexico.

He's the lead in Bajo California
which is a pretty good film.

He's the lead in La Ley de Herodes
which is, of course, a brilliant film.

With great acting.

And he's the lead in Dos cr�menes.

So he's actually, in the sense
that there are movie stars in Mexico

he's the movie star.

"Por mis hijos."
He doesn't have any hijos.

I hope it came that Pedro is so nuts
he could have killed them

I'm not sure it does come across.

My wish is that the audience
would think

the guy is so crazy,
he can murder those two people.

It's interesting because the character
still has several surprises for us in store.

It's this combination

of wanting to still do good,

and absolute self-interest.
Motivated by both.

- This is shot in Parras.
- The Wild Bunch location.

Where the horses fall down
the sand dune

during one of the transitions
in The Wild Bunch.

- Extraordinary location.
- Beautiful.

This particular piece of music

was the cause
of an ongoing dispute

between Zander Schloss
and the actor Del Zamora.

Because Del came up with the...

Da da da da!

And Zander just did
all the other music.

And somehow Del didn't get
a credit for the...

Da da da da!

But I would like to go on record
as saying that those

da da da da, four notes,
were thought up by Del Zamora.

They sound more like
Beethoven to me!

At the beginning of the third
or something!

So at this point,
gathering the stash that he has

hidden away in the desert

we don't know exactly how long
he's been putting the stash together

I would think a year or so.
I think he's been at it for a while.

And the Virgin Mary
on the wall of the whorehouse.

Little shrines to the Virgin Mary
everywhere in this film

just like in Mexico.

- Coming out the door is our...
- Extras Casting, Rene Maruri.

I love the texture, in terms of the
production design, in this particular set.

That and the house of Pedro.

It has a colour palette
that is unusual for films.

And the designer of this film

went on to do a variety of films
with us and with other people,

and ended up spending about ten
times the budget of El Patrullero

on the art department
of The Mask of Zorro.

Some of the locations... I don't think
you can see them clearly in the film,

but some of the locations
that she designed

Cecilia designed a mine set
for The Mask of Zorro

that's a square mile
of construction.

With working elements,
huge wheels revolving

people in cages, a graveyard...

Ah! Another shrine to the Virgin Mary.

This is fake rain, obviously.

This is one of the more difficult shots
just because it involved so much rain.

It then has to match the following.

The rain was shot in Mexico City,
this was shot in Durango,

but we have to wet down though,
I suppose.

One of those continuity problems.

This is based on a shot
from R�o Escondido

directed by Emilio Fern�ndez.

Again, it's on a tripod.
It's one of the few shots on a tripod.

And there's a tiny little pan
that turns a single into a two shot.

And then as Pedro steps back
it becomes a single again.

This is so much more interesting a way
of shooting and composing

than just close-up of one guy,
close-up of the other guy.

It's also interesting that you see
a lot of activity outside the window.

In fact it contains everything.

It contains two singles, a two shot
and all of the background action,

but there's been no cut.

So the focus switches from

Gomez Cruz at the beginning

to Roberto Sosa at the end.
But they're both isolated.

Even when they're together in frame,
they're right on the edges of it.

Even though, in a certain way

he's proving a successful police
officer and he's bringing in money

he's becoming distanced
from his own guys as well.

There's the entrance
to the Sierra de �rganos

which is outside Sombrerete,
in Zacatecas.

An incredible location.

Along the lines of Monument Valley.

- And here's another shot on a dolly.
- Good grief! Another dolly.

You can hardly notice it though.

I wonder how many days we shot here.
Was it for just one day or was it two?

I think we had a couple of days

I slept in a tent out there one night.

So we must have had at least
two days in the �rganos.

This is the best kind of filmmaking.

It was always my dream
that we would go to the countryside

to wild places
that you wouldn't normally go,

and make films there.

With four northern states...
actually three...

Coahuila, Durango and Zacatecas.
Three northern states.

The helicopter was originally going to
be lent to us by the governor of Durango.

But he ended up having to leave with it
to go see some flood in the north.

So we ended up having to bring
the helicopter from Mexico City.

Again, it's all one shot.

We talked about breaking the
sequence up into different elements.

But from the arrival of the helicopter,
Pedro tracking it

the landing, another shoot-out,
takes off again, all in one take.

And not one reviewer of this film
made any comment about that

which really surprised me.

The extent to which people who
are professional watchers of films

don't notice things.

Even though the film
got good critical responses

of the films I've done,
it got the best critical response

nobody noticed
that everything played in a master.

What it does is it draws you in.

I suppose it's good in a sense if the
technique doesn't draw attention to itself.

We had one sequence in here
of him actually burying...

Burying the gringo
who was just killed.

But we thought that was useless too.

It's funny. The elements
that you actually need

to convey a story
are sometimes a lot less.

As long as there's an exploding
police car, it's pretty much OK.

The film's going to be OK.

But it is interesting. Of all the films
that we had done up until that point

this follows the script
just page for page.

There's no deviation

I remember one day,
we got ahead of ourselves,

and we had a few hours spare,
we were half a day ahead,

and so we tried
to invent a sequence.

And we shot a sequence with two
narcos waiting by a railroad track,

and Pedro watches them.
It was useless.

It was useless.
It did nothing to further the story.

It's a very tight script,
even though it changed,

but the changes were all done
prior to the shooting.

This is an extraordinary sequence

because you have the entire vista
and the camera's on a crane,

and then the camera
will actually go into...

It goes underground!

Also all shot in one take.

I'm very impressed
by the special effects in this.

We had worked with Marcelino Pacheco
who's a wonderful special effects guy

I was disappointed that we
couldn't get Marcelino for this,

and that we were going to work
with the Farfans.

But it really turned out good.
Farfan did a very good job.

Here we're also finding
our general concept

that no shoot-out should last
more than seven or eight bullets.

This is the only person who gets shot
on camera apart from Pedro.

All the other violence
takes place off screen.

- The location is truly extraordinary.
- It's tremendous.

And almost unknown.

How often have you seen
this location in a film?

Well, by now, a few more times.

I saw a couple of Mexican cowboy
films from the 70s that they shot there.

I think Cisco Kid was also shot there.

And now it's been a bit known.

This is the scene that the Federal
Highway Patrol in Mexico objected to,

and the reason that we didn't get
the support from them to shoot it.

It had to do with the fact that
Pedro Rojas decides to abandon...

Ah! He quits
and doesn't stay on board.

This is something they feel
very sensitive about.

The resignation is so high among the
cadets that first go out into the field.

The job is incredibly difficult,
incredibly demanding,

and not a lot of them survive.

They had conveyed to me that if I had
been willing to change this sequence,

and he had taken a desk job

that we would have had the support
of the Federal Highway Patrol.

And the way you convey the turnover
of these guys, I think, is very clever.

What we're about to see is one of
the best scripted moments in the film.

It's your description of what we see
when we open the draw in his desk.

All those badges. Without dialogue,
you know exactly what the problem is.

Her kid got bigger.

The original ending of the film,
the one you were talking about

was a more traditional ending

in the sense that Pedro
and his wife survived,

but the prostitute, Maribel,
died of a drug overdose.

With the drugs that he gave her.

And so he feels the responsibility
of taking on the children,

and then goes back home
and shows up with the children.

With Maribel's two children
at the house of Griselda.

But that was pointed out to us
as highly unlikely

Alejandra Liceaga,
the Production Manager,

and Cecilia Montiel

said that no woman would accept
these two extra offspring...

From another woman.

Which, of course,
we were somewhat appalled by.

Naively thinking her maternal
instincts would override...

The fact that they were the children
of another woman.

So we changed the script to something
which is much more traditional,

and what is called
in Mexico, casa chica.

The literal translation is small house.

What happens is that after a man
establishes his first house

he goes on to establish a second
house and a third household,

and becomes a cacique
or an empire.

And what Malena Doria just said

is the other thing that an actor said
to me, "No Mexican would ever do this".

One is when Guillermo Rios
opens the door for the governor.

And the other is when
Malena Doria says,

"We'd invite you to eat
but there isn't enough".

She said no Mexican woman
anywhere on the planet would say,

"We'd invite you to eat
but there isn't enough".

But I said, "Leave it in
because it's so funny."

"That you are so mean!"

Well, I think
that the whole point is that

she's trying to sell the point
that they're in dire economic need.

And obviously, Maribel is going
to push the point of

"What are you going to do
with me?"

And so pressure him into accepting
his responsibility as...

The father of the casa chica.

The financier of the casa chica

I like this ending better.
It's more ambiguous.

How is Pedro going to pay
for these two households?

- He doesn't have any income.
- He's going to become more corrupt.

Yeah, he's going to go back
to the desert,

and find the rest of the drugs
and sell them.

But look at him.
Look how happy he is.

He's playing with his wedding ring,
he's got a little smile.

But does he?
Yes, he has a smile. Slightly.

And that's it. Pedro Rojas.

There are the iguana kids
throwing rocks at him.

And the sign says,
"Paying taxes is participating".

Which, of course,
is the ultimate irony.

But we thought we'd throw it out there
for everybody to think about.

Just trying to drag this country into
another world in which it does not belong.

Actually it's the second film that
you've made that ends with children.

- Sid and Nancy does too.
- That's right.

But Sid and Nancy is bogus.
This is actually authentic

I don't believe anything
in Sid and Nancy anymore.

But I think that this is a very truthful
film and I'm very proud of this one.

And the closing song is being sung
by Tito Larriva

chicano rocker from The Plugz
and Los Cruzados.

Well, Alex, I must say
it's quite entertaining doing this.

It's been very nice. Thank you

I know you're very busy
producing films,

and I'm very pleased that you
were able to join us here today.

Any time.
This is the best film I ever made.

The best film I made too.

- Well, congratulations.
- It's a love fest!

It's the most unified film
that I've done

I'm very proud of Walker

in terms of what we pulled off
and the ambition of it,

but this is the more unified film,
the more completely successful.

I think it has to do with a lot
of different elements.

It has a lot to do with the style
and how it was shot

I think also the style. By that point

we'd learned enough about films
to establish a style

which I hadn't done before this

I'm very pleased about the way
it turned out.

Also, to end our love fest, I'd like to
congratulate you on the subtitles.

Because you did
the English subtitles, didn't you?

That's right.
Even though I change them...

They change somewhat
but they're very authentic.

They're very close
to the original language.

If possible, if the author is bilingual,
the author should do the subtitles.

Now that I've seen the end credits

my heart goes out to goes out
to all these people that helped us.

Such a great crew. A wonderful crew
and a wonderful experience.

It's unusual to go and make a film

with the kind of licence
that we had to make this.

It gives you the ability
to utilise all your best instincts.

We were very free,

and yet, at the same time,
also quite disciplined.

And also being able to...

get away from this filmmaking
by committee

which is a ridiculous enterprise.

Yeah, this is the thing
I'm happiest with.

This is the only film I've done
that I wouldn't change anything in