No Man's Land product reviews

With the political landscape of the US in recent years and the fact that nearly 75 million people voted for Trump in 2020 belies the unwieldy fact that a large proportion of the population may agree with his sentiments that all Mexicans, that "Theyâ ™re bringing drugs. Theyâ ™re bringing crime. Theyâ ™re rapists.". The kind of sentiments that breed hate towards other people, and give Americans in an unfortunate situation someone else that they can place all of their blame on. No job? Blame it on the Mexicans. No chicken nuggets available at McDonalds? Blame it on the Mexicans. The anger and hostility that occurs between the two sides of the border are largely one-sided, but it has a clear effect on both sides.

No Man's Land is an effort to bring an understanding to each side. An appeal to look beyond the black-and-white labels of thugs and gun-toting cowboys and realize that all people are widely varied with different statuses, religions, and priorities. For the most part, No Man's Land achieves what it is trying to do, but it lets itself down in the small details, uneven narrative, and getting itself bogged down in the usual tropes of white saviour and thug stereotypes.

After an altercation, Jackson (Jake Allyn) finds himself fleeing from America in search of forgiveness, being tracked concurrently by a Texas Ranger (George Lopez), and a drug runner. On the other side is Gustavo (Jorge A. Jimenez) who is searching for revenge. Through Jackson and Gustavo, No man's Land runs two different conflicting narratives; one is drama-based with the aim of learning empathy towards another countries people, whilst the other is a thriller-based cat-and-mouse chase in a modern Western environment. Where the film is at its strongest is during Jake Allyn's teachable moments; they are quiet, introspective, and intimate. Moments that don't work as well as they should because of the cat-and-mouse element. Likewise, the thrilling chase elements are less impactful due to the constant time-outs for the intimate moments that step so far away from the chase that all sense of tension is lost.

For a film that wants to show the Mexican's in a better light, the repeated use of an over-the-top gun-toting shaved hairstyle drug-runner, it's peculiar, to say the least. As far as the people that end up dying compared to those that survive, well, it's also firmly one-sided. Every single person that Jake comes across in his adventures is the nicest person in existence, that gives without wanting, and it creates another black-and-white stereotype when the film should be focused on highlighting the shades of grey.

The fact that it spends nearly two hours teaching our white lead empathy, slowly learning to value the lives of Mexicans through small, slow, and subtle interactions is brilliant. It is simply a pity that it doesn't allow the same treatment for our Mexican lead, who is invariably demoted to a small bit part in a story that revolves around him. Jimenez does a brilliant job bringing the emotions to the screen, and it is a wasted opportunity that he isn't provided an adequate arc equivalent to that of Allyn's character.

Had the story disregarded the Texas Ranger's involvement after the first twenty minutes, No Man's Land could have explored without the need for unnecessary changes in tension, or constant location changes. With all of the extra characters needed, and the thriller set pieces in place, it leaves the story with more than its fair share of ham-fisted clunky dialogue to try and ensure that its point has been put across; sometimes words are not needed.

Whilst the message is clumsily provided with clunk dialogue and unnecessary tropes, No Man's Land does an adequate job at raising awareness. By no means perfect, it is suitable enough to be an enjoyable viewing experience. George Lopez and Frank Grillo are good but have very small roles in the film, The film still reeks of white privilege and bias, but there is enough going both ways to be able to recognize the vestiges of humanity in nearly every character; enough to make the audience question it's own intolerances at least. And that's all you can really ask for.