Perdita Durango
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| Perdita Durango | |
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 Perdita Durango |
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| Directed by | Alex de la Iglesia |
| Produced by | Andrés Vicente Gómez |
| Written by | Barry Gifford David Trueba Jorge Guerricaechevarría Alex de la Iglesia |
| Starring | Rosie Perez Javier Bardem James Gandolfini Screamin' Jay Hawkins Aimee Graham Harley Cross Alex Cox |
| Music by | Simon Boswell |
| Cinematography | Flavio Martínez Labiano |
| Editing by | Teresa Font |
| Release date(s) | 1997 |
| Running time | 126 min |
| Language | English Spanish |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Perdita Durango, released as Dance with the Devil in the US, is based on Barry Gifford's novel 59° and Raining: The Story of Perdita Durango. It is a cross between the crime and horror genres. Perdita (Rosie Perez) is a tough, no-nonsense lady clad in a Tura Satana-style black outfit. She meets Romeo (Javier Bardem), a maniacal criminal who also happens to be an even more maniacal witch doctor. The couple cross the border into Mexico, become lovers and partners in crime as they kidnap a white teenage couple. Along the way they also hijack a truckload of human fetuses and try to evade a determined Drug Enforcement Administration officer (James Gandolfini). The character of Perdita Durango appeared previously in David Lynch's movie Wild at Heart, played by Isabella Rossellini.
The film is at its most horrific in the scenes where Romeo practices santeria. In one ritualistic scene, he drenches himself in blood and smothers his face in a bag of cocaine. He then hacks limbs off a corpse, tears out its heart and writhes around on the ground, channeling multitudes of demons. De La Iglesia contrasts these scenes with gallows humour. Romeo may be a vicious killer but he also loves the music of Herb Alpert. There is a scene where he and Perdita happily groove to the strains of The Dating Game theme. Gandolfini's character speaks with a weasely lisp and has the misfortune of being repeatedly hit by fast moving vehicles, not unlike a live-action Wile E. Coyote.
Perdita Durango is a curious oddity in De La Iglesia's oeuvre. It is his most overt attempt to crack the North American market (where he has only a small but dedicated following) with his first English-speaking film and a cast of recognizable actors like Rosie Perez, James Gandolfini and Javier Bardem. This alienated his Spanish fans who felt that he had sold out, while his penchant for graphic sex and violence scared off potential distributors and mainstream audiences in North America, sending the movie direct to video. This film is a blend of genres (crime, horror, comedy, road trip) with an eclectic cast that features his regular favourites (Santiago Segura) and colourful character actors (Screamin' Jay Hawkins).
[edit] Various versions
The original Spanish version runs 10 minutes longer and features more sex and violence and ended with some characters digitally morphing into the scene finale from Vera Cruz (film).
It is available on VHS/DVD in two versions: the edited 115 min. R-rated version and a 121 min. unrated version. Both of these are shorter than the Spanish version.
[edit] Further note
Perdita Durango appears to coincide with the 1989 Matamoros murders where 30 bodies were dug up by the police and found to be ritually sacrificed. One of the victims was a 21 American student named Mark Kilroy from Santa Fe, Texas. Sara Aldrete Villarreal and her Cuban-American boyfriend, Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, plus four other members of the cult were arrested or killed after gunfights with law enforcement officials.
[edit] External links
- Perdita Durango at the Internet Movie Database
- Official Site
- Perdita Durango: A Case Study examines, in detail, the cuts made from the Spanish version for the U.S. release.
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