Every outré form of cinema deserves at least one scholarly dissertation about it. They have them about everything from Italian slasher films to ’70s roughie pornos, so why not one about the golden era of Mexican genre cinema?
In other books, this important cultural phenomenon has been long relegated to comical anecdotes about masked luchadores fighting shoddy ape-men and Aztec mummies, when in reality, it was the start of a cinematic revolution in Mexico. Doyle Greene’s MEXPLOITATION CINEMA: A CRITICAL HISTORY OF MEXICAN VAMPIRE, WRESTLER, APE-MAN AND SIMILAR FILMS, 1957-1977 gives this underrated genre its proper due. And yes, while these films are immensely fun, they comprised an influential movement that slowly broke film from the shackles of the oppressive religious standards of the time, paving the way for others.
MEXPLOITATION CINEMA starts off with the stories of two innovators: Don Salvador Lutteroth Gonzalez, the man who brought wrestling to Mexico, and K. Gordon Murray, who brought the films of El Santo, Blue Demon and Las Luchadoras to America, through his pioneering of late-night television broadcasting. The history of Santo – as a real luchador and as filmic superhero – is chronicled, with real respect. Movies like NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES, while looked at as trash here, are given serious critical studies. Author Greene probably goes further and deeper in his breaking down of these films than anyone probably ever has, mostly because I think no one has just ever thought to do so.
This is no snide, glossed-over capsule guide. That may turn off people just wanting a few little bites, but serious students of cult will be fully enthralled. MEXPLOITATION CINEMA is getting a well-deserved place of honor on my bookshelf and will be a well-worn reference guide for years to come, I’m sure. –Louis Fowler
Related posts:
- Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling
- Science Fiction America: Essays on SF Cinema
- The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane!: American Films of the 1970s
- Profoundly Erotic: Sexy Movies That Changed History
- Q&A with KING KONG: THE HISTORY’s Ray Morton
