RANCHERO film review

Ranchero, one of the entries among the full-length features during the Cinemalaya 2008, was said to depict the significance of food in prison according to the movie’s blurb. Is the food supposed to keep the prisoners alive? Or does the food just helps in prolonging the misery of life prisoners feel inside? These thoughts would make you so interested to watch the movie, which is what I felt. But after watching the film, disappointment came to me.

The idea of putting to film the lives of prisoners for me is very unique. I think there are only few brave directors who are bold enough to tackle such idea and there are only few movies about it. The movie ‘Ranchero’ was able to show what it is like to be in prison. The scarcity of food, practice of religion, hygiene problems and other acts seen only inside prison was shown. Initially, that is a good point for Ranchero.

With regards to the length of the film, it was only short. I believe the film was finished in less that an hour and a half. But, it felt longer than that when I watched it because it was such a drag. There are a lot of long shots that should have been a cut already. I get the point that the director might be trying to show the life inside prison as boring and all and that inmates had nothing to do inside. But, it was really just not working for the film. I mean, why take a long shot of a guy who is just walking and walking and walking. There are also long shots in the film that seemed irrelevant.

The story became more dragging because of the plot. I think the director took too much time in establishing the settings and the mood. There is nothing on the first three quarters of the film but just, walking and cooking and people coming in and out of the frame. There wasn’t really a story in it until the point where a knife was gone missing which is already past fourth quarter of the film. Then the riot which was the climax, then Ricardo breaking down, then the end. It’s like dragging, dragging, dragging, climax and the end. For me, there is a story inside the plot, but it was not well defined, not well established and it came out too late in the film’s plot.

Speaking of the story, it is very much questionable. First, where is the role of food in the film? The role of food is very much emphasized in the film’s blurb so one might guess that the film is about food. But, it was not even highlighted in the film. The only time food was mentioned was when they where cooking and when the ‘rancheros’ took the food to the prisoners and that’s it. It is also not clear whether the story revolved on the lost knife, of the fact that Ricardo is going out the next day, or the riot that just because of the basketball game. Having confusion with the central story of the film makes the theme not that clear as well.

There where also events in the film where the origin was unknown. For example, how did the wardens knew about the missing knife? How did they know it was missing? Why did the basketball game turned into a riot? There are gray spots in the film that made it more complicated and hard to understand.

Ricardo, the main character of the film, was imprisoned for 10 years and is about to go out the next day. The acting of Archie Adamos (Ricardo), for me, is a little held back. He was able to show compassion and concern for Otep, the new guy in their cell, but I felt that he wasn’t really able to deliver what it feels like to be going out of prison. There was no enthusiasm in his action. There is also the absence of concern whether what his life would be after prison, what would he do, how would he survive? He was not able to stabilize a lot of things with his acting. The scene where he broke down just before the end of the film seemed a little forced. It was not even clear why he cried at the end. Never the less, he was not still able to move audiences during the scene.

The only commendable acting in the film was by Garry Lim (Miyong) in the scene where he just killed the guy who stole the knife. His shock and fright that he killed someone inside prison was really seen in his facial expression and body language. Really good. I just think that majority of the characters acted a little too refined for inmates in prison.

Over-all, the film seemed to be a short with the plot it had only with longer shots that made it seem a full-length feature. Though the concept of the film to show the lives of prisoners in the big screen is a great idea, the film was not really able to present its story, theme and point very clearly.