NO MAN’S LAND

US, 2020, 114 minutes, Colour.

Jake Allyn, Frank Grillo, Jorge A. .Jimenez, Andy McDowell, George Lopez, Alex MacNicoll, Andres Delgado.

Directed by Conor Allyn.

There are heavy overtones in the phrase no man’s land, the land in between hostilities, possible peace, and people homeless. In this film, it is the territory between Texas and Mexico, the area of American ranchers as well as refugees crossing the border.

While the film has many aspects of a contemporary western, especially the family on the ranch, the son is working for their father, prospects, there is also the presentation of modern Mexico, the vast extent of Mexico, ranchers, towns, and a portrait of ordinary Mexicans the film also serves as a moral fable.

In the confrontation between the ranchers and the refugees, a young boy is killed. One of the sons of the ranchers, who has college prospects in baseball, but who also likes to work on the ranch, is responsible for the death of the boy. His brother is shot and taken to hospital for surgery.

The son, played by Jake Allyn who co-wrote the screenplay, with the film directed by his brother, Conor Allen, experiences guilt, remorse, travels into Mexico, tangles with some gun shooters who have been exploiting the refugees, fleecing money at the border, threatening violence. However, he is also taken in by a sympathetic family and works with their horses. He decides that he will travel to the town where the boy is to buried, travelling on a bus and befriending an English teacher reading Huckleberry Finn to her son, opening his eyes to the lives of ordinary Mexicans who are not refugees. There are further incidents before he reaches the town, taken by the Texas Ranger commissioned by his parents to find him.

There is a funeral procession, a Mass, the son going to the church, going to apologise to the father who forgives him. In the meantime, the violent man turns up, a shootout, but the reconciliation holding and the son returning home to his family. The film extends its moral fable aspects with his decision to return to Mexico, to share life with the Mexicans, the Mexicans whom he had not understood, living and working with them, some kind of atonement.

1. The title? The Texas area between US and Mexico? And the film dedicated to all those who find themselves in any no man’s land.
2. The Texas settings, the landscapes, the ranches, the cattle runs, the border rivers, the Mexican settings, the no man’s land, the vast extent of Mexico, the ranches, the roads, the towns? The musical score?
3. The stance of the filmmakers concerning Mexicans, migrants and refugees, American stances, prejudices, violence, confrontations with the refugees, deaths? The lives of ordinary Mexicans, good and bad, with the emphasis on the good, Jackson’s experience, the family taking him in, the old couple helping him on the run? And the family who experience the death?
4. The father, his leading the refugees, his reputation, the boy, his death, the father angry, vengeance, teaming up with Luis?
5. Jackson and his family, his father running the ranch, the support of his wife, the two sons, Jackson and his baseball talent, college, the possibility of a future, yet his wanting to work on the ranch? His bond with his brother?
6. The picture of the refugees, the leader, Jackson’s encounter with the boy, then with the group? The family interpreting the group as hostile? Yet their not being violent, but the boy with the gun? The interchange, the shots, the boy being killed, Jackson with the gun, Lucas and his being shot? The repercussions for the family? Lucas in hospital, the parents and their concern?
7. The focus of the film then on Jackson, his background, attitudes, critical of Mexico and Mexicans, supportive of his family, American stances? The impact of the shooting of the boy? His sense of responsibility? Going into Mexico, riding, in the town, the encounter with Luis, the hostility and violence, his getting away? The couple in the van, his talking with them, their helping, welcoming him into the house, the family, the daughter speaking English, the horse, his training it, their gratitude, his being part of the family?
8. Jackson, conscience, wanting to make amends, confiding in the daughter, her buying him the ticket, on the bus, his surprise of the vastness of Mexico, travelling south, thinking all Mexicans wanting to be refugees to the US, the mother, English teacher, reading the boy Huckleberry Finn, his reactions, Jackson reading to him?
9. Luis and the father of the boy in pursuit, holding up the bus, the confrontation, their holding the mother and son and getting the information of his destination? His escape, the pursuit, the shots? The father and his reaction to Luis, severing the relationship, Luis saying he was wanting to help? The father driving home for the funeral?
10. Jackson wandering, the old man, the welcome, his wife and the food, his carvings?
11. The family, anxiety, the phone calls, Lucas and the surgery?
12. Ramirez, the Texas Ranger, the attitude of the family, the demands on him, his going into Mexico, the mother’s assertion, his travels, the bar, the information, tracking down Jackson, taking him, their going into the town?
13. The father, going home, his mother and support, the coffin with the son? The procession through the town, going to the church, the mass, the priest and talk of forgiveness? Jackson seeing the procession, going into it, going to the church, the encounter with the father, the father with a knife, cutting the bonds, Jackson sorry, the embrace? Luis, the gun, Ramirez and the shooting? Jackson saved?
14. Jackson going home, the encounter with Lucas, with his parents, his decision to go back to Mexico – his sense of atonement?
15. The atmosphere of a contemporary Western, the Mexican sequences, the reality of migrants, violence and hostility? The film as a moral fable about repentance and atonement?