Term Paper on "Spy Kids (2001): A Radical Departure"

Term Paper 5 pages (1715 words) Sources: 2

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Spy Kids (2001): A radical departure or consistent with Robert Rodriguez's cinematic style?

In contrast to the violent, action driven-films that are the usual hallmark of Robert Rodriguez's cinematic style, Spy Kids (2001) seems to use members of his usual acting troop (including Antonio Banderas) in an apparent, more wholesome parody of the spy genre. The film begins with a flashback of a married couple, Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez, during their life before they were married. Ingrid tells the tale of the couple 'meeting cute' in typical Hollywood fashion, to her children Carmen and Juni. Once upon a time, they were two spies attempting to do one another in. Gregorio and Ingrid fought, then found out they really loved one another and decided to marry and give up their respective lives of espionage.

At first it is uncertain if the children's favorite bedtime story is true or not: there is a tongue-and-cheek style to the film which suggests that neither the parents nor the children (and by extension, the audience) should take it too seriously. The father in the flashback scene, played by Banderas, even has a thin mustache that makes him look like Boris Badenov Rocky and Bullwinkle fame. However, soon the cartoon-like texture becomes real enough that it is clear that the parents are facing a life-and-death situation. Despite the 'kid flick' Hollywood veneer, Spy Kids' setup is not so different from El Mariachi, part one in the Spanish language Mariachi crime trilogy that originally brought Rodriguez cross-over fame in Anglo cinema. El Mariachi (1992) is about a simple aspiring musician who becomes caught in the crossfire of dueling figures from the underworld. Spy Kids is about a typical American family striving for normalcy in a world that is no longer normal -- a world that threatened by spies and criminals. From the 'once-upon-a-time opening' the film quickly shifts to scenes of cartoonish violence that are part "roman a clef" and part "Play Doh Fun Factory" in the words of the New York Times reviewer (Mitchell 2001).

Of course, unlike the protagonist of El Mariachi, Gregorio and Ingrid are not entirely dragged into the spy game once again -- they want to get back to their old 'tricks' to some degree, especially Ingrid, who is tiring of her role as a mere wife and mother. Although Ingrid calls parenthood a "compelling mission in its own right," she and her husband seem eager to disappear from their domestic abode to perform a critical assignment. However, rather than meet with success, they are surprisingly kidnapped by the evil henchman of their nemesis, Fegan Floop.

Although the tone remains consistent, at this point the focus of the film radically shifts. The film inverts the usual spy plot of 'child in peril' films, where the spy is often seeking to save a small child the evil clutches of a madman. Instead, Rodriquez shifts the film's focus to the children of the two married spies, who used to work for two different 'sides' until uniting in wedlock. "Spy Kids is partly an adventure in which children get to be the adults; freed from parental restrictions, they get the chance to go off and save the day with their own ingenuity and smarts. But beyond that, it's also a story about parents' finding their own independence in the context of raising their kids. The movie's message -- that families are stronger when they allow for both parents' and kids' independence and breathing room -- is refreshingly subtle and sophisticated, without ever dragging down the movie's unabashed entertainment value" (Zacharek 2001).

The spy kids have two aims. First, they must rescue their parents -- and then they must save the world from the evil Floop who is trying to infiltrate the world of the rich and famous through their children. The children, Carmen and Juni, must unravel the web of intrigue that has caught the family in its grasp. This is not really a radical departure from the Rodriguez style. Rodriguez's films are always populated by unlikely heroes and heroines -- individuals fleeing from the law, women who are just as aggressive as men, or simple musicians. Children are the most unlikely heroes in this world, but they have unique insight into the evils of Floop, given that his 'cover' is as an innocuous host of children's television. The plot is a kind of Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Stepford Wives-revisited tale. Floop is secretly cloning real children and replacing the originals with copies that will do his bidding. Although the fake children are strong, the clones lack brains -- this is the critical problem with Floop's plan. It also underlines the film's theme of the need to have independent children who can think for themselves.

The complementary theme of the lack of trustworthiness of surface appearances and malleability of identity are popular themes in Rodriquez's other films. Even the idea of the mistrustfulness of external realities (as with most spy films, ordinary objects may become weapons or high-tech gadgets with the press of a button) echoes the very adult El Mariachi, whereby an accidentally switched guitar case has deadly consequences. So is the idea of a lone hero or heroine: while family and friends from the parent's 'spy days' help them out, by and large the children are 'on their own.'

It was noted that although this is all in 'good fun,' Rodriguez brings a certain level of seriousness to the kid adventure drama. Roger Ebert observed: "What's neat is the way the kids don't act like kids: They go about their business seriously, and along the way little Juni gains the self-confidence he needs (at school, he was the target of bullies)" (Ebert 2001). The film uses the images of the children's world, only gives them an added level of threat and seriousness. For example, a sophisticated GPS is hidden in bubble gum and the parents' car doubles as a submarine. The technology in the 'safe house' where the kids hide from Floop has a distinctly Toys-R-Us quality to it, as does the "combo aircraft-speedboat-submarine with a plump fish design that looks like something Captain Nemo might have dreamed up" (Ebert 2001). This is more 'James Bond' than consistent with the palette of Rodriguez's Mariachi trilogy, although the potential for the ordinary to become deadly, from musical instruments to parked cars, is an obvious visual and thematic echo.

The character's personal lives and their professional lives are also seamlessly intertwined, suggesting that family obligations and friendships are not separated from real world, violent conflicts -- family feelings become mixed with emotional rivalries and hatreds as in the Mariachi trilogy. There is no escape in one's personal life -- the Mariachi loses his hand and his beloved music, so he must become a killer. The spies cannot put aside their old lives even though they are now parents -- their services are needed, and even their children cannot shirk their duties. The fusing of personal and professional, ordinary and hyper-violent is also conveyed in Spy Kids as issues that are serious for children, such as bullying at school, are given a great deal of moral weight in the film, even though they are solved in a fantastic fashion. (Not every bullied young boy can boost his self-esteem, after all, by becoming a spy).

Much noted by critics regarding Rodriquez's film when it was first released was its unapologetic use of Hispanic characters as part of the typical American spy family. The Mariachi saga proved to be a great cross-over hit in the Anglo film market, much to the surprise and delight of many critics. In Spy Kids, although it is clearly a mainstream Hollywood film, the characters' Latino heritage is not shown to be unusual, but taken for granted as normal in a positive fashion: "it should be noted that Rodriguez has made a mainstream family film in which most of the heroic roles are assigned to Hispanic characters (at one point, the Banderas character even jokes about all the Latinos on Floop's TV show)" (Ebert 2001). This joke is an obvious reference to Dora the Explorer, the popular Latina child who is the delight (or bane) of many parent's existence because of her wholesome cartoon image -- yet the inability of Dora's success to fully translate into mainstream acceptance of real-life Hispanic characters. Rodriguez's film is an argument for the centrality of Latinos in films that are not explicitly 'Hispanic' in focus and theme.

Of course, some critics might argue that Spy Kids is not a breakthrough in terms of the way it presents Hispanic characters because it seems like an oversized cartoon itself: "It should also be observed that he avoids disturbing violence, that the entire movie is in a cheerful kidding spirit, and that the stunts and skills exhibited by the kids look fun, not scary. The props, even the boat-plane-sub, look like extensions of their toys, not like adult inventions that have been scaled down" (Ebert 2001). 'Disturbing violence'… READ MORE

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