Canoa: A Shameful Memory (1976)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Best movie ever!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A person is able to change its judgment, a mob is already executing the sentence. In this movie, innocent people were judged as guilty of communism, which in certain places, is almost a declaration of allegiance to the devil. And the sentence was carried..There are no surprises on this film. From the first moment you saw the cover, you knew there was going to be murder. The main point of the movie is the way the murders occur, and for what reasons.You can see ignorance and fear at its peak here. At the front you will notice the liquor bottles in the hands of the killers. You will see the crowd with no mind of its own, but blindly charging against those the priest accuses.I personally find the scene where the mob enters Lucas's house the most terrifying. Several people start beating the young men, while their partners, who'll soon be victims, look at them, evidently terrified, noticing that they won't be able to do anything against the insane rage the villagers carry.They are dragged like animals, and then beaten by the entire crowd, who humiliates them, all the while yelling "Communists!" at them.This movie is sickening, but a must-see. It shows, very clearly- perhaps too clearly- the terrible dangers of fanatism, fear, and above all, ignorance.

Reading so much praise to this movie makes me feel that I'm in the late 60's or the early 70's again. Director Cazals has done some good movies, but no master piece at all. So Canoa's not what many of you say it is.First of all, remember that this picture was produced by Conacine, with money from the Government. It was not censored. Never. And tough it has some brilliant achievements (like Salvador Sanchez' as the narrator), the true is that the Mexican government used some historical events in a very tricky way to present the army as the savior of the remaining students that were not killed by the mob. Of course the catholic priest that appears in the movie is hateful, despite the wonderful job of actor Enrique Lucero. But the movie's big point was to distract people from the social reality that politically speaking was very explosive at that time. So the soldiers make the good ones, when the people was hurt by the recent genocide in Tlaltelolco's ground. And Cazals knew it all the time. Not a bad movie, but you have to consider this, as it is presented as "a part of history", but it has other sides to it.

I watched Canoa when it first came out to the movie theaters; I was around 15 and I had lived the 1968's student movement. Tlatelolco massacre was fresh in our minds and hearts and while not referring directly to it, Canoa catches that feeling with honesty and courage. This two qualities are always present in Cazal's work, but this film is his master piece.We have also tho see Cazal's films in the context of the Mexican cinema of the moment, along with the work of Arturo Ripstein, Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, Jorge Fons and many other talented filmmakers. In Mexico their work tend to be overlooked mostly for political reasons.Mario de la Garza

Based on a true story, this movie shows the great differences within Mexico rural and urban areas. Modernity could not be accepted in the rural areas, basically because the ignorant peasants were dominated by certain groups, including, like in this movie, the Catholic Church. Let's remember that the students massacres that had happened in 1968 and 1972 were still fresh in the minds of many Mexicans. Those students had been accused by the Government,of being Comunists. In this particular movie 5 young students of the Capital's State University decide to climb a volcano. Because of bad weather they have to stay overnight in a little village besides the Volcano. The local Priest assumes that they are Communists coming to agitate in his territory and accuses them with the people of trying to close the Church. The mob tries to lynch them. The beauty of this film resides in the fact that fanaticism is shown at its maximum level so as to make us think where this can lead us in our lives. This is true of the corrupt authorities, the Priest that uses Religion to maintain his privileges, the village people that mix Religion and fanaticism, etc. It is a great sociological study of the consequences of these extreme attitudes.