MALA NOCHE - DVD review

I first became aware of the name Gus Van Sant when he made his infamous shot-for-shot remake of "Psycho" (1998). Today, he jokes that he did simply to take a bad idea out of the pool so nobody else would use it. At the time, I thought Van Sant was a major hack, an opinion that did not change when I discovered he was also the man who directed "Good Will Hunting" (1997) which a friend of mine once described as "a movie about a genius, written by two morons."

Then Van Sant's career took an odd turn. After finishing off his Hollywood tour of duty with the respectable "Finding Forreseter" (2000), van Sant suddenly turned into an avant garde filmmaker with "Gerry" (2002), a genuinely structuralist film, and "Elephant" (2003), his lyrical and deeply affective tale of a school shooting. He followed up with the equally lyrical but somewhat less affective "Last Days" (2005), and now with the luminous and occasionally tedious "Paranoid Park" (2007). All of this from the guy who treated us to the sight of Vince Vaughn masturbating?

I've been a huge fan of Van Sant's current phase (though I'm somewhat lukewarm about "Last Days") but I never took the time to check out his earlier, pre-Hollywood phase. Rather, it should be described as his mid-Hollywood phase. Van Sant actually began his career in Hollywood in the 70s, and moved back to Oregon after failing to connect with the studios. There he began to churn out a string of low-budget indie darlings, the best known of which are "Drugstore Cowboy" (1989) and "My Own Private Idaho" (1991).

The first, and perhaps the best of these features, is the seldom-seen "Mala Noche" (or "Bad Night," 1985), based on a book by Oregon poet Walt Curtis. Film distribution requires that every movie be categorized somehow, and it seemed easiest simply to call "Mala Noche" a "Gay Film" or, a few years later, to see it as a forerunner of "New Queer Cinema." It is a film about openly gay characters but unlike so many films of "Queer Cinema" none of its characters take on the burden of representing anything but themselves.

Walt (Tim Streeter) works at a liquor store, and openly, achingly lusts after a beautiful young Mexican man named Johnny (Doug Cooeyate). Walt doesn't hide his desire. The film begins with his narration: "I want to drink this Mexican boy" and soon enough he tries to buy a cheap fuck with Johnny for $15. Johnny is the unattainable object of desire, however so Walt settles for a hard screw by Johnny's friend Pepper (Ray Monge). An odd triangle develops between the three men, all of them young but Walt much older than the two illegal immigrants, with each person taking advantage of the other quite matter of factly.

Walt is hardly an idealized gay character. As desperately as he wants Johnny, he also thinks of him and other Mexicans as inferior, "stupid," and objects for him to buy and possess. He professes guilt later in the film for treating Johnny and Pepper as commodities, but it isn't exactly heartfelt. Like most Americans, he wants to hire them for cheap labor, though Walt is looking for work of a more libidinal kind. He's not a thug, though, just a young man who is so naturally charming and well-liked that he expects to get his way all the time.

Van Sant's first feature film shows much of the visual flair he would perfect in his later films. Though there's nothing structuralist about "Mala Noche," it is shot, both by necessity and design, in a high-contrast black-and-white style. In many scenes, a hot spotlight lights up one or two characters with the rest of the scene fading from dull grey to inky black. John Campbell photographed the film, and also worked with van Sant on "My Own Private Idaho" and the unfortunate "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" (1993). Many of the outdoor scenes are beautifully conceived as well, particularly a lazy road trip that the three men take.

"Mala Noche" stumbles when it takes a stab in the dark at "social significance" by depicting the hapless plight of Pepper and other Mexican immigrants. When it sticks to the pure and simple theme of open and desperate lust, it succeeds quite admirably. I think it's Van Sant's best film before "Gerry."

Video

The film is presented in its original 1.33:1 full screen aspect ratio. Like most recent Criterion full screen transfers, the image is pictureboxed which means some viewers will see bars on the left and right sides of the screen. "Mala Noche" was filmed on 16mm for $25,000, so you can't expect the digitally restored transfer to look sparking clean, but it still looks fantastic. There is at least one scene where a hair on the top of the screen is quite prominent, but there's no fixing the source material. Regardless of any minor flaws, this transfer looks fabulous, doubtless the best the film has looked since its first screening.

Audio

The DVD is presented in Dolby Digital Mono. Optional English subtitles support the English audio; non-optional titles that are burned into the print translate the Spanish dialogue.

Extras

The DVD only includes an interview with van Sant recorded for Criterion in February 2007 (25 min.) and a 1995 documentary about "Peckerneck Poet" Walt Curtis (63 min, directed by famed animator Bill Plympton), the author of the book on which "Mala Noche" is based. A storyboard gallery and trailer round out the collection.

The insert booklet features an essay by Dennis Lim.

Film Value

While walking out of the theater after his remake of "Psycho," I could never imagine myself saying that I think Gus Van Sant is one of the best American directors working today, but I'll say it anyway. "Gerry," "Elephant," and "Paranoid Park" are all gems of varying clarity. "Mala Noche" isn't on a level with any of those three, but it proves that the director's talent was manifest from his very first feature.