Get the Gringo

With a career spanning more than thirty years, Mel Gibson has run the gamut of stage and film. Mad Max Rockatansky, William Wallace, and Prince Hamlet have all shared his face, and after repeated controversy that, would be tantamount to career suicide in Hollywood, Mel Gibson has always returned with a new fresh project and lease on limelight. “Get the Gringo” is American cinema’s most recent film experience, written by, financed from and starring Mel Gibson. ‘Gringo’ was also directed by Adrian Grunberg; the pair having most recently collaborated on films such as Edge of Darkness and Apocalypto; several supporting cast members are also graduates of earlier Gibson films.

The story of “Get the Gringo” is centered on Mel’s ‘driver’ character, the name of whom is ultimately never revealed. After a brief chase from American authorities, he lands, quite literally, on Mexican soil with several large bags of money, the spoils of a recent heist. The corruption of the Mexican Authorities leads them to arrest our titular ‘gringo’, and banish him to La Mesa Penitentiary, “El Pueblito”- a real Mexican prison located just over the border in Tijuana. As our Gringo gets comfortable in his new confines, he befriends a young boy, and becomes involved with the boy’s past, and learns of the value he holds for the criminal kingpin of El Pueblito. An animated cast of criminals and thieves populates the prison yard, and the Gringo must use his survival instincts to survive the unforgiving society, and help his new cohorts along the way.

Very little is written of the real La Mesa Penitentiary. However, currently there are more American prisoners in El Pueblito than any other Mexican prison institution, or any jail on foreign soil for that matter. Run almost as a prison colony rather than a penitentiary, authority is not an omnipresent force. Criminals and drug dealers run the operation within the prison walls, and authority keeps them contained. Weapons and drugs are readily available, shops and restaurants are set up in the main yard, buying and selling wares of questionable legality, and sections even permanently house families of inmates, many with small children; who are free to come and go as they please. Everything in El Pueblito is for sale, including basic necessities. Food, clothing, shelter-which includes a jail cell, (you don’t get one of those when you arrive) and drinking water, are all up for barter. This is the environment vividly painted in ‘Get the Gringo’, which was actually filmed in a prison, though not Le Mesa. Unsurprising, as the most recent news out of El Pueblito involves multiple prison riots, murders, rapes, and neglect from officials.

Mel Gibson has had his fair share of allegations and scandal, from accusations of anti-Semitism, to homophobia, racism, and a life long battle with alcohol abuse. His persistent creation of interesting stories and depth of character has resurrected his place in Hollywood again and again. While ‘Gringo’ received generally positive reviews, long periods of inactivity made it feel slow at parts, at just over an hour thirty, this is an especially dark tarnish to the genuinely interesting performances in the film, as well as a vivid story arc; which has been a departure from what Gibson does best- sweeping epics such as Braveheart and Passion of the Christ, and the anticipated “Berserker”, a Viking-age period piece, originally slated to star Leonardo DiCaprio. While not the best movie of 2012, Gringo is worth the cost of admission; but don’t expect a life changing experience,` ultimately a quirky, often times humorous action flick, that suffered in the box office due to limited release and straight-to-video on demand distribution, even with the box office draw of Gibson. Get the Gringo was released to Video On Demand in July of 2012, and was recently published to Netflix on Demand, also available by Amazon on Demand, DVD and Blu-Ray.