Harry Dean Stanton

Luis Guzman Dept: So far, so fluffy. What mildly distinguishes it is the light and breezy pacing, a short but welcome appearance by Harry Dean Stanton as a cranky farmer cum early victim, another by Luis Guzman as the chubby deputy cum reluctant hero, and Jee-woon Kim. He s the Korean director imported for the gig, and right from the opening frame a silent night on a two-lane blacktop under a canopy of stars Kim brings to the action a clean precision that sets it apart from Hollywood s noise-and-chaos norm. You can see the difference in that slick escape sequence; in a follow-up scene across a police roadblock; and especially in a unique car chase through a corn field a Mustang races after the Corvette until, hidden from each other by the tall stalks, they stop to engage in a quiet cat-and-mouse game, whereupon speeding gives way to loitering. The cliche gets a delightful twist, according to Globe and Mail. And that s precisely when the subtext starts to resonate. Arnie come to America, the Dream pursued, is obviously the classic immigrant s tale. Yet his realized Dream is classic not only in its success but also, just as emphatically, in its limitation. Ultimately, for all his accomplishments, Arnie remains the foreigner who can never quite melt into the melting pot. He earned riches and fame, but only by staying within his assigned role the robotic Teuton with a robot s sense of humour. He married into American royalty, the Kennedy clan, where he pursued political office and other women exactly like the Kennedy men of yore but, unlike them, paid a scandalous price. And like that other inferior actor, he made it all the way to the California governor s mansion but, unlike him, couldn t even aspire to venture into the greatest and whitest house of all and but, first, the simple text. Arnie plays to the extent he can a backwater sheriff in an Arizona border town, where there ain t much sheriffin to do. His underemployed deputies the young greenhorn, the chubby veteran, the bright-eyed gal are the usual comic relief. By contrast, Cortez the drug lord Eduardo Noriega is a busy bad guy. A posse of FBI agents are transporting him to a federal prison, but, en route, he makes a slick escape with the aid of his private SWAT team, then hops into a souped-up Corvette to speed toward a certain sleepy Arizona border town. There, the rest of his gang have gathered to await his arrival and to facilitate his flight by weirdly enough building a bridge across a canyon into Mexico. Of course, Arnie gets wind of the approaching villain and waits too. The clock ticks down, High Noon is imminent. The result: occasionally amusing, sometimes entertaining. Which brings us to the subtext, and to Arnie. Naturally or unnaturally , no one will confuse his character for anyone but Arnie, not with that facelift and permanent tan and Ahnode accent. From body-builder to Terminator to Governator, Arnie has always played Arnie. The script does specify that the small-town sheriff was once a big-time cop in Los Angeles, yet only so a winking Arnie can coyly warn: L.A. s not all that you think it is. Later, when High Noon brings the confrontation with the Mexican-born drug lord, Arnie is also heard to say: You make us immigrants look bad. Here, the script doesn t even bother to explain the immigrant reference. Hey, it s Arnie, we know already. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.