The Moya View

Sundance: Heroic

Image courtesy of Teorems
Plot via Sundance:

Eighteen-year-old Luis (Santiago Sandoval Carbajal) enlists as an infantry cadet in the Heroic Military College in the hopes of becoming an officer and supporting his struggling family. Tucked away in the mountains and surrounded by statues honoring Aztec gods, the school is constructed from giant slabs of stone and ruled by even more rigid rules of conduct. The curriculum combines mundane military training with rituals of abuse and humiliation. When Luis catches the eye of sadistic Sergeant Sierra, he learns new lessons in cruelty and extracurricular criminality.

Review notes:

In David Zoannaโ€™s second feature Heroic there are no heroics. There is just the relentless torture and abuse all military cadets of Mexicoโ€™s version of West Point, The Heroic Military College, must endure.

Think of the first half of Kubrickโ€™s Full Metal Jacket, but much worse.

The college looks like an Aztec temple. The brutal interplay between Luis (Santiago Sandoval Carbajal) and the sadistic Sergeant Sierra (Fernando Cuautle) encounters levels of degradation only exceeded by those seen in Pasoliniโ€™s Salo. And believe me, that is the kind of movie you donโ€™t ever want to sit through twice.

The great irony- these military abusers are barely older than the cadets they are training. Like in Salo, these abusers have unlimited power. Every encounter is fetishy recorded under the eye of CCTV.

The frequent hazing scenes are intercut with cadets marching in formation, attending lectures, being told over and over about how Mexican soldiers โ€œmust uphold the rights of civil society.โ€

They live and will know only this dog eat dog, violent, hierarchal existence.  Every resistance to it is crushed along with their spirit.  You dare not even befriend a stray dog.

Heroic is obviously meant to be an allegory on the rampant violence currently plaguing Mexico. 

Heroic gets a 3 out of 5 or a B.


Credits:

DIRECTOR(S)
DAVID ZONANA
SCREENWRITER
DAVID ZONANA
PRODUCER
MICHEL FRANCO
DAVID ZONANA
ERร‰NDIRA Nรšร‘EZ LARIOS
CO-PRODUCER
JONAS KELLAGHER
KRISTINA Bร–RJESON
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
JOSร‰ NACIF
MARCO POLO CONSTANDSE
PRINCIPAL CAST
SANTIAGO SANDOVAL CARBAJAL
FERNANDO CUAUTLE
Mร“NICA DEL CARMEN
ESTEBAN CAICEDO
CARLOS GERARDO GARCรA
ISABEL YUDICE
YEAR
2022
CATEGORY
FEATURE
COUNTRY
MEXICO/SWEDEN
LANGUAGE
SPANISH AND NรHUATL
RUN TIME
88 MIN
COMPANY
TEOREMA

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