What Are The Differences Between Sleep Dealer And La Mission

1604 Words7 Pages

The two movies La Mission directed by Peter Bratt and Sleep Dealer directed by Alex Rivera upon first glance have almost no similarities but under close inspection they share multiple ideas and themes, however, the two movies are still very different and unique. The two movie are similar in the fact that both main characters face a problem that requires action, both characters employ syncretism at least once in each film, both characters are proud of their ancestry, and both are in some form of a borderland. When acknowledging the movies similarities it is also important to identify the things that make the films unique like how the main characters have different relationships with their family and how La Mission doesn’t give any concrete resolution …show more content…

Borderlands / La Frontera defines a border as something that is meant to “… define that places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them.” (25). Using this definition it becomes clear that Che uses a border which is meant to never to crosses in order to separate himself and the people he identifies with from people we doesn’t. When Che finds out Jes is gay he cannot identify with him anymore essentially putting him on the other side of the border in his mind. Che is now in a sort of borderland as he is trying to put Jes back on his side which ultimately fails causing Che to have to eliminate his mental border in order to get his son back. Memo is in more of a physical border as he is in Tijuana which is a border city, however giving the futuristic setting of Sleep Dealer the borderlands have been changed and the border culture now just involves less wanting to cross the border to get a job but getting outfitted so you can stay in Mexico but work in America. This ties together with the theme of change because Che is thrown into this new mental conflict where he must change himself in order to regain his son and Memo has to physically change his surrounding to this new borderlands in order for him and his family to …show more content…

One of the differences that separate Che and Memo is their individual relationships with their family. Che initially has a very good relationship with his family but once he abandons Jes for being gay it strains his relationship with the remaining members of the family and Che has to fight with himself in order to maintain his good relationship with his family. Memo, on the other hand, may have had some quarrels with his father over whether or not farming milpa was the right thing to do but he always maintained a good relationship with his family even when in Tijuana he would still spend time on video call talking and catching up with his family. This relates to the theme because of Che and how he has to change himself not only to keep a good relationship with his son but also his family while Memo’s relationship with his family experiences a lack of change compared to the changes he is facing in workload and

More about What Are The Differences Between Sleep Dealer And La Mission