As this year's movie award season takes off, I thought I would again write about watching movies in a different country. Although the movies I am going to discuss are not ones you see in the comfort of a theater, with a bag of poporopos in your lap. I am going to talk about movies on buses.
I have traveled on buses in various countries in Latin America over various distances. Some have been rather comfy, with attendants who are like those on an airplane. They are dressed in bus company uniforms, pass out snacks, and make sure people are comfortable. Some buses have been crammed with people, with more people seated in each row than was intended or imagined, and people standing up and down the aisle, so smashed together that holding on to a seat or a bar overhead is hardly necessary since you are propped up by those around you. But whether a first class bus or a chicken bus, I have seen movies on them, to varying degrees of entertainment.
My friend Monica and I took a bus from Mexico City to Oaxaca one holiday season and the trip took around seven hours. The movies shown on this bus were good for practicing Spanish. The first one was in English with Spanish subtitles, and as you know, I always enjoy that. The second one was a U.S. movie, but dubbed in Spanish, so I had to work a bit harder to know what was going on. The third one was an Italian film with Spanish subtitles. Quite the challenge. But it was an intriguing movie about the mafia, having to do with a child who had witnessed the murder of his family by a rival family. I don’t know what it was called, nor do I know how it ended. I just know that it wasn’t over when we pulled into the Oaxaca bus station and many of the passengers who had been watching it stuck around to see what was going to happen to that little boy. I was hoping to watch it another time, but I still have no idea what it was called.
There was also a chicken bus in Guatemala in which the driver was evidently a huge fan of Vicente Fernandez, a very famous Mexican singer and actor who has made dozens and dozens of albums and been in a mountain of films over the years (think Elvis with a sombrero). Don Chente, as he is fondly known, is beloved all over the Spanish-speaking world, and that was obvious on this particular bus trip. A television was attached to the front of the bus, near the bus driver’s head. And the movie being shown was one with Chente, some crazy chase scenes, some shoot outs, and a lot of mayhem. There was singing, too. A little cheesie, but full of old-school-charm. I was a little nervous that the bus driver seemed so intrigued with the movie when there was this winding road curving around cliffs and large potholes. Hadn’t he seen the movie before? Couldn’t he just listen? Well, somehow he managed to drive, and watch the movie, and sing along to the songs. Vicente Fernandez is a living legend, but I maintain that he is not worth going over a cliff.
On another bus, this one a little more subdued, less crowded, and more comfortable, took my friend Ronja and I across Guatemala, an eight or nine hour trip to San Luis. Ronja had books. I had books. Ronja had her iPod. I had the songs in my head. So when they were about to play a movie, we thought we were about to pass the time with some decent entertainment. We were so very wrong. If I could pick the worst movie ever created in the history of U.S. films, I think in at least the top five would be the Wayans Brothers’ Little Man. Oh, are you not familiar? Here is a synopsis: a three-foot-tall man tricks a couple into thinking he’s a baby. But he’s really some kind of thief. And a pervert with a thing for boobs, which fits right into his role as a baby. You see where I’m going with this. And this was what we’d hoped would help pass the time on the long bus ride to San Luis. It was dubbed in Spanish, which was pretty lucky because I can certainly block out Spanish better than I can English. So yeah ... we went back to our books.
If you ever find yourself traveling by bus in another country, you may get some decent movie entertainment. Or maybe you won’t. Or it could be another way to help you with your foreign language skills. Or it could be a reason to get back to the book that nice British couple passed along to you earlier in your trip. Or you could have an actual, face-to-face conversation with your friend, travel companion, or the person sitting across the aisle from you. Or you could sleep. Any of those suggestions is better than a bad movie on a long bus trip. But if it’s Don Chente, make yourself watch. He is a legend after all. Just make sure the bus driver is watching the road.
To see Don Vicente Fernandez, go here. This is from the 1978 film, El Coyote y la Bronca. I don't think this was the movie being shown on the bus in Guatemala that day, but I wonder if this is how that bus driver takes care of his bus.
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