I guess Bradbury wanted to show how an arrogant, pushy director gets his because he deserves it. A movie crew comes rolling into a Mexican village, ignores everyone, and sets up shop to film a soft drink commercial. The guy (played by Gregory Sierrra) who lives above the street sees it as an invasion of privacy and an act of disrespect. He begins to sabotage the shooting by walking in front of the camera, stopping what they are doing. The thing is that they reluctantly agree to move to another spot, but he rallies others to get in the way as well. They move again. Personally, I get the whole respect thing, but there is such a thing as having some respect for the efforts. Anyway, I found the whole thing simplistic and found the Mexican guy quite boorish.
3 Reviews
"It is past time someone behaved. I am the one."
classicsoncall17 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
There's something to be said about guarding one's privacy and having respect for personal property, but the way in which Ricardo Reyes (Gregory Sierra) conducted himself with the film crew and director Lazlo (John Bach) made him look like a jerk in this viewer's estimation. I get the message Bradbury was trying to send here with crass commercialism invading a serene Mexican village, but I thought it could have been done with more finesse without having his main character be so confrontational. The director was no prize either, but at least he was willing to compensate for the intrusion. When he picked up his crew and equipment to move to another location it should have been enough to ameliorate the rigid Ricardo, but the man followed to continue making a nuisance of himself. Disguising his stubborn nature by standing up for some sublime principle might have earned him some applause from the stand-by villagers, but diminished him in the eyes of this viewer.
A deranged message delivered within a hopelessly awful, cheesy story.
fedor88 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
What a dumb set-up... A fairly moronic American TV crew shooting a commercial (which is only a rung lower than a sit-com) has trouble with a fanatical Mexican local who has a chip on his shoulder the size of Guadalajara.
No doubt, Bradbury considers the local's behaviour praiseworthy rather than pathetic, which makes one wonder where Bradbury's moral compass was exactly, and what he thought of Bolivian shrooms.
The TV producer refers to the man as a "village idiot" and that's pretty much the only true and undeniable statement any of these one-dimensional characters say.
The cops show up ages later (why?) so the TV crew resorts to trying to "bribe" the village idiot. Naturally, the village idiot is too high up on his righteous horse to even consider such an "insult" to his imaginary dignity. His imaginary crusade must continue, to the pleasure of Bradbury and his mushrooms.
Predictably, the cop does nothing, and so the village idiot continues sabotaging the film shoot. Even more predictably, the cop turns out to be the village idiot's brother. Anyone not expect this uber-corny, unfunny "twist"?
So why sabotage the shoot? Because the film crew are "misusing" the local vistas and the authentic Mexican mood in a way that displeases this attention-seeking, American-hating psychopath. No, I'm not making any of this up. This is Bradbury pioneering "cultural misappropriation" before it became a thing, years before other virtue-signaling half-wit malcontents formally invented it.
Seriously, Bradbury must have been a mushroom user. He actually thought this premise makes sense AND he believed the audience should/would side with the village idiot. Just one question though: what would have Bradbury done if someone were to prevent the shooting of one of his many dumb Ray Bradbury Theater episodes?
Yes, people are dumb, and they are hypocrites. Try that for size, Ray...
The village idiot actually delivers a CRETINOUS, holier-than-thou speech about freedom and rebellion (without mentioning either by name) - and here's the kicker: he gets a ROUND of applause for successfully sabotaging the shoot! Bradbury had never set foot in Mexico - that much is very obvious. He knows nothing about it, literally zero. Only a cantankerous, deranged idealist could write up such a ludicrous script containing such a nebulous message.
To compound the utter awfulness of this mess, the "Mexican" is played by a crap actor, and the humour is farcical, lame and primitive. And how about the laughable irony of the cop being presented as a walking-talking Mexican stereotype...
Even the music is dumb. Instead of sounding Mexican, it closely resembles Croatian Schlager music. What utter incompetence on all levels.
No doubt, Bradbury considers the local's behaviour praiseworthy rather than pathetic, which makes one wonder where Bradbury's moral compass was exactly, and what he thought of Bolivian shrooms.
The TV producer refers to the man as a "village idiot" and that's pretty much the only true and undeniable statement any of these one-dimensional characters say.
The cops show up ages later (why?) so the TV crew resorts to trying to "bribe" the village idiot. Naturally, the village idiot is too high up on his righteous horse to even consider such an "insult" to his imaginary dignity. His imaginary crusade must continue, to the pleasure of Bradbury and his mushrooms.
Predictably, the cop does nothing, and so the village idiot continues sabotaging the film shoot. Even more predictably, the cop turns out to be the village idiot's brother. Anyone not expect this uber-corny, unfunny "twist"?
So why sabotage the shoot? Because the film crew are "misusing" the local vistas and the authentic Mexican mood in a way that displeases this attention-seeking, American-hating psychopath. No, I'm not making any of this up. This is Bradbury pioneering "cultural misappropriation" before it became a thing, years before other virtue-signaling half-wit malcontents formally invented it.
Seriously, Bradbury must have been a mushroom user. He actually thought this premise makes sense AND he believed the audience should/would side with the village idiot. Just one question though: what would have Bradbury done if someone were to prevent the shooting of one of his many dumb Ray Bradbury Theater episodes?
Yes, people are dumb, and they are hypocrites. Try that for size, Ray...
The village idiot actually delivers a CRETINOUS, holier-than-thou speech about freedom and rebellion (without mentioning either by name) - and here's the kicker: he gets a ROUND of applause for successfully sabotaging the shoot! Bradbury had never set foot in Mexico - that much is very obvious. He knows nothing about it, literally zero. Only a cantankerous, deranged idealist could write up such a ludicrous script containing such a nebulous message.
To compound the utter awfulness of this mess, the "Mexican" is played by a crap actor, and the humour is farcical, lame and primitive. And how about the laughable irony of the cop being presented as a walking-talking Mexican stereotype...
Even the music is dumb. Instead of sounding Mexican, it closely resembles Croatian Schlager music. What utter incompetence on all levels.
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