Review of Mixed Blood (1984) by Dave J — 31 Dec 2008

A gritty farce about gang warfare which does for "West Side Story" what director Paul Morrissey's later masterpiece "Spike of Bensonhurst" did for the "Rocky" and "Saturday night Fever" inspired Hollywood fantasies. Featuring a beautiful and distinctive cast (Richard Ulacia is framed exactly like Joe Dallesandro) of mostly non-professionals, artful Bressonian blocking. The opening sequence establishes a rhythm of exchanged and stolen glances which sets the pace for the music-of-looks that underline the characters relationships and suspicions of each other.

Marilia Pera's mother figure/Brazilian gang leader is analogous to Ernest Borgnine's joyous mob boss in "Spike of Bensonhurst," and this is a similar social criticism and humored depiction of the triangulations necessary to maintaining a family amidst a crumbling social order and the strange and timeless relationship between race and the family unit ; also similarly racist (i.e. honest by today's standards) and moving as the latter film.The major difference is that with Mixed Blood Morrissey is more firmly tied to the formal design of his exacting blocking, as his young gang members march across the beautiful ruins of the lower east side tenements of 1984.

The uplifting Carribean pop provides the hopeful frame to Morrissey's pessimistic and sardonic social view. A major sequence take place in a real nyc store devoted entirely to Menudo merchandise. The difficulty for critics to wrap their heads around Morrissey's work has much to do with how deeply permeating liberal humanistic truisms have become film culture. The final shot and exchange between mother and son is a perfectly articulated and poetic moment of abrupt limbo. Highly recommended.