Because I've lived in Mexico for 22 years and been able to see and do a lot of things down here that most people don't get to do, I appreciate it when I see Mexico portrayed correctly on the big screen. The original, low budget movie "El Mariachi" was great. It had "the look" just right. Filmed for almost nothing in Cuidad Acuña, it made you feel like you were in Mexico when you watched it. I actually was in Mexico as I watched it.

Parts of the Brad Pitt movie "The Mexican" were okay, some others open to nit-picking. I remember getting a laugh after seeing that movie as I visited my late friend Colonel Phil Maher who was the American Consul in San Miguel at that time. In the movie, Pitt's passport was being held up by the American Consul in San Miguel. I teased the Colonel about it, but he was pretty cagey. "If you had Brad Pitt in a third world dung-hole would you get back to him quickly?" was his answer, smiling as he said it, looking at me over his glasses as he sat at his desk with his nice photos of Reagan, Bush One and Clinton framed behind him on his office wall.*

The new Mel Gibson movie "Get the Gringo" is just great. I read that you may find it titled "How I spend my Summer Vacation". Either way, the portrayal of Mexico and Mexican Prisons is just excellent. Without giving too much away, the movie deals with an American criminal-type (Gibson) who gets himself stuck inside a Mexican Prison. I have had to go into Mexican Prisons twice to see people or talk to them about stuff, and Colonel Maher used to religiously visit all American citizens in Mexican Prisons anywhere within his driving reach -- and he often told me about some of the seedier things he had to see.

Gibson filmed the movie down here, and I recommend it. Whatever you may think of Mel (or not think of Mel), the man can tell a story. Like the original el cheapo version of "El Mariachi" it makes you feel like you are in Mexico as you watch it...and for my friends and I, we really were. He got "the look" just right. I've seen it as close up as I ever want to, and he nailed it.



*I have no photos of the way Phil Maher's office looked in those days, but he had a nice little office. One time, Canadian I.P.S.C. shooter Ivan Runions was visiting me here in San Miguel and we went down to "see the Colonel". Although Maher had a long line of people waiting to see him on regular business his secretary passed Ivan and I right through. As it happens, Ivan had his name in "American Handgunner" that month, and the Colonel had the current issue on his desk. Upon seeing that Ivan was in The Handgunner, Maher pulled Ivan around his desk and sat him down in his chair. Pulling out a camera, the Colonel told me to take a photo of him and Ivan together. Then the Colonel "posed", standing there beside Ivan sitting in his chair, with his arm across the back like they were best buddies.

"Jesus Christ, Colonel!" I blurted out. "You SHOULD be getting your photo taken with me! I taught Ivan how to shoot, I got him into the Sport."

The Colonel was unfazed. "I can get my picture taken with YOU anyday!" was his comment on that. As it happens, I have no photos of Phil Maher and I together, and am unsure we ever had any taken.