Literary Movie Review: Sin Nombre

About a month ago, I watched a film in my global literature class. After watching the film we were asked to react to it, with special emphasis on universal or particular (to a country or individual) themes. After writing my reaction, I saw that, in my opinion, my reaction looked like a literary movie review. So, without further ado, this is my take on the movie, Sin Nombre:

In my opinion, Sin Nombre absolutely harbored universal themes, despite being isolated in a Hispanic culture and despite being about a Hispanic issue (of trying to get to "the north"). One universal theme that jumped out at me is sacrifice. I'm reminded of Jesus Chirst and sacrifice whenever I see Willy wearing his cross around his neck. He is symbolically Jesus, despite the fact that he was part of a gang who killed people of rival gangs and that he himself killed rivals as well as his leader who was, in all honesty, downright mean and unjust (he was like a deceiving devil in disguise because he always acted like a loyal and at times affectionate brother, like when he kisses Smiley on the head, when in actuality he gave overly harsh punishments). Then again, who is totally cleansed of all sins, though it seems to me that Willy tries to do this by sacrificing himself in many ways; we may call it redemption.

Willy first sacrificed himself by killing the gang leader on top of the train. By doing this, he saved Sayra at the expense of his being hunted down from then on. Another form of sacrifice was when he told his gang leader that his girlfriend was his friend, not girlfriend. He knew that if she were his girlfriend, they (the gang) would try to hurt her to get to him (get him to be focused in the gang again and to get him back for punishment for drifting away from the gang). This sacrifice, however, ultimately backfired because the gang leader found out she was "more than friends" with him and killed her (quite unexpectedlly though. The main point was that he was going to do her harm by raping her). One other main sacrifice, occurred at the end of the movie. Willy gets shots many, many times in the lake after telling Sayra that she should cross first. Really, his helping Sayra reach the north, overall, was his sacrifice because, as his relative asked him, "what's in it for you?" His reply: "nada" (nothing). It was all done by his volition.

Not only did this film foster the universal theme of sacrifice. Betrayal is also a "biggie." Betrayal in this film can be seen through many different lenses, many different characters. For instance, Smiley betrays childhood innocence when he enters into the gang. In an instance that stings a bit more, he betrays Willy when he returns to the gang after Willy kills the leader, and he asks to be sent to kill Willy (although this is more to save himself; then again, why would he return to the gang? Perhaps he is a victim of a betrayal forced upon him). Willy betrays his true self by having two identities: Willy and El Casper. Towards the end (or at least after the turning point where he kills the leader) he leans more on Willy (the cleaner self, the sacrificing self) and tries to rid himself of El Casper. He's says he's not part of the gang "anymore." Sayra betrays the invitation to be part of the family of Horacio (she declines to keep the picture of his family). The person whom Willy used to work for betrays both him and Sayra by telling the gang people where they were heading off to and by setting them up (I couldn't believe it!). As mentioned earlier, Lil Mago, the leader betrays different sides of himself. One ironic scene was that best illustrates this is when he is cuddling his baby while counting to thirteen, watching gang members beat up another gang member. Or was it when he was telling Willy to teach Smiley to shoot and kill someone for the first time? In either case, I could not help but laugh a little in disbelief when he seems so affectionate yet wicked.

What to do about the title! Sin Nombre. Without a name. Our protagonist has two of them. The issue of his having two names is confronted when Lil Mago was showing his girlfriend out and she referred to our protagonist as Willy and Lil Mago had to realize that that was his real name, instead of El Casper. Without a name. I am stumped on this one. Perhaps some other universal theme has gone "without a name" under my nose.