"Herod's Law" may be succinctly described as the "smoking pistola." The pistol wielded by the protagonist named Vargas enables his improbable rise to power in a corrupt Mexican system.
Set around the period of 1940s, "Herod's Law" is a vintage satire of small town corruption. It also draws upon Shakespeare's "Macbeth" for a character driven by ambition to gain power and fortune, seizing on every opportunity for kickbacks in his position of mayor of the village.
Egged on by his equally motivated wife, Vargas takes the payoffs from the locals, including a local brothel and the village priest. But he is on a collision course with doom that has been experienced by his equally venal predecessors.
In this wildly satiric and dark comedy, things come to a head for Vargas when his political party falls, and his own wickedness is discovered. The culmination is the image of his crucifixion on the large electrical pole that embodied his slogans of "Modernity" and "Social Justice." But at his darkest moment, Vargas experiences a resurrection, somehow saved by divine intervention. The last we see of Vargas is him recounting a speech in Congress in which he has by now moved up the political ladder and even offers a justification for his bloody deeds.
The film is well-scripted, well-photographed, and well-performed as a lively social satire. The acerbic wit is not merely directed at Mexico, but has a universal resonance where human nature brings out the worst in people.
Set around the period of 1940s, "Herod's Law" is a vintage satire of small town corruption. It also draws upon Shakespeare's "Macbeth" for a character driven by ambition to gain power and fortune, seizing on every opportunity for kickbacks in his position of mayor of the village.
Egged on by his equally motivated wife, Vargas takes the payoffs from the locals, including a local brothel and the village priest. But he is on a collision course with doom that has been experienced by his equally venal predecessors.
In this wildly satiric and dark comedy, things come to a head for Vargas when his political party falls, and his own wickedness is discovered. The culmination is the image of his crucifixion on the large electrical pole that embodied his slogans of "Modernity" and "Social Justice." But at his darkest moment, Vargas experiences a resurrection, somehow saved by divine intervention. The last we see of Vargas is him recounting a speech in Congress in which he has by now moved up the political ladder and even offers a justification for his bloody deeds.
The film is well-scripted, well-photographed, and well-performed as a lively social satire. The acerbic wit is not merely directed at Mexico, but has a universal resonance where human nature brings out the worst in people.