THE MALDONADO MIRACLE
US, 2003, 99 minutes, Colour.
Peter Fonda, Mare Winningham, Ruben Blades, Eddy Martin, Bill Sage, Soledand St Hilaire.
Directed by Salma Hayek.
The Maldonado Miracle is a small-budget film made for Showtime television. However, it is very interesting from a religious point of view.
Every so often throughout the world miracles are proclaimed: images of the face of Jesus or Mary in all kinds of natural phenomena, crucifixes bleeding, statues of Mary weeping. This is a film about a statue weeping blood in a small and remote town on the Mexican-American? border.
As things progress, the miracle has a natural explanation. But, with a twist at the end, there is an indication that a miracle may have occurred.
The screenplay is both commonsensed as well as somewhat in awe of miracles. The film shows the fuss and superstition of many of the faithful. It also shows the attempts to try to understand and explain what has gone on.
Set in an old mining town where the mine has closed and the town struggles to survive, the parish priest (a surprise with Peter Fonda) encounters a boy who is an illegal migrant. He is pursued by the police and takes refuge in the church. It is from a wound that he suffered that the blood drips from the cross. However, the film is a pleasing portrait of a range of people in the town including Mare Winningham as the woman who owns the diner and Ruben Blades as an ex-convict who owns the bar. Eddy Martin is persuasive as the little boy.
The film was directed by Mexican actress Salma Hayek.
1.A humane story? Religious story? The focus on miracles?
2.The border setting, Mexico, the United States, the fence, migrants and illegals? The agents and the costs for illegal migration?
3.The village, its remoteness, the old mines, deserted, people moving out, the role of the sheriff, the bar and the diner, the priests, the small community, Hispanic and American?
4.The attention to detail, the look of the town, the church, homes? Authentic feel? Musical score? Religious overtones?
5.Jose, his age, his mother’s death, his father’s absence, with his dog? Paying the agent, paying extra for the dog, going through the fence, his wound, going into the town, the police seeing him, running and hiding in the church, his blood dripping down?
6.Josephina, stately, marching through the town, going into the church, seeing the blood, shouting “Milagro,” her reaction, getting her hair done, her nails, sitting enthroned, people coming, her telling the story, the rival setting up instead of her, her fighting them? Her translator?
7.The word getting around about the miracle, the crowds gathering, the television, the priest shutting the church, the sheriff searching for the boy and suspecting what happened, yet the need to have the miracle for the economy? The shopkeeper and the other men in the group? Lyle, his wife and her conversion, confession, her pregnancy? Prayer and devotion? Lyle and his seeing the crippled woman stand?
8.The sheriff and his work, his looking after his mother – the prayer and her glimpse of sanity for a moment? The characters of the other men, the manager, Lyle, Josephina’s son?
9.The portrait of the priest and his assistant? The parish and the jobs? The priest wanting a transfer? The assistant and his believing the miracle? The parish priest and his shutting the church, writing to the bishop, sceptical? The search for Jose, his finding him, helping him, stealing the dog back from the sheriff?
10.Maisie, her work at the diner, nice, her customers, her being unmarried? Jose and his politeness, the tip? Cruz and his talking with her, her taking affront at him, his reading her message? The confrontation, his visiting her? The bond between them?
11.Cruz, the bar, his secret, the background of his imprisonment, telling Maisie the secret, the understanding between them? Their future?
12.The crowds, the importance of the prayer petitions, their being in writing, putting them in the wall, the sheriff writing his petition about his mother, Maisie and her petition?
13.The film’s comment on miracles, superstitions, the media treatment, sensationalising them? Simple faith? Exploiting them?
14.The reality of miracles, in the context of faith and prayer?
15.The blood, the analysis of Jose, the analysis of the blood on the cross – does this indicate that Jesus had O-type blood!
16.The film showing the possibility for miracles?
