WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.500 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:03.500 --> 00:00:06.080 going to do something a little different. Usually, 00:00:06.099 --> 00:00:08.800 we take you to the cutting edge of tech or, you 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:10.419 know, the middle of a political scandal. Right. 00:00:10.539 --> 00:00:13.619 But today, I want to transport you to a place 00:00:13.619 --> 00:00:17.440 that feels incredibly specific, almost suffocatingly 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:20.300 specific, yet somehow it seems to explain the 00:00:20.300 --> 00:00:23.600 entire human condition. That's a big claim. It 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:26.120 is, but I think this one holds up. I want you 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:29.140 to picture a town. It's the 1950s. We are in 00:00:29.140 --> 00:00:31.600 the middle of the Spanish countryside. It is 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:34.820 dusty. It is dry. The meseta, the high plains. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:37.619 Exactly. The sun is beating down on stone buildings 00:00:37.619 --> 00:00:40.159 that haven't changed in 300 years. The clock 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:42.859 seems to tick slower here. It's a place where 00:00:42.859 --> 00:00:45.219 the biggest news of the year might be a goat 00:00:45.219 --> 00:00:47.719 getting loose. It is the kind of place that feels 00:00:47.719 --> 00:00:50.439 forgotten by history. And in the context of the 00:00:50.439 --> 00:00:53.200 1950s, that feeling of being forgotten wasn't 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:56.039 just a vibe. It was a geopolitical reality, wasn't 00:00:56.039 --> 00:00:58.780 it? It absolutely was. But then a rumor starts. 00:00:59.100 --> 00:01:01.659 And this isn't just the Baker is cheating on 00:01:01.659 --> 00:01:03.759 his wife kind of rumor. This is a rumor that 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:06.439 the sky is about to open up and rain gold. The 00:01:06.439 --> 00:01:09.900 rumor is that the Americans are coming and they 00:01:09.900 --> 00:01:11.579 aren't just coming to visit. They're coming with 00:01:11.579 --> 00:01:14.299 the legendary mythical wealth of the Marshall 00:01:14.299 --> 00:01:17.480 Plan, which. For a starving village in post -war 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:19.719 Spain was essentially the equivalent of aliens 00:01:19.719 --> 00:01:22.180 landing and offering infinite energy. It's a 00:01:22.180 --> 00:01:25.280 miracle. It is a miracle. So the town of Villar 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:27.939 del Rio decides they need to secure this bag. 00:01:28.140 --> 00:01:30.680 They need to get that Marshall Plan money. But 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:33.079 they have a problem. They look in the mirror 00:01:33.079 --> 00:01:36.799 and realize we're kind of boring. They're just 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:40.299 dusty Castilian farmers. So they decide that 00:01:40.299 --> 00:01:42.260 to get the cash, they have to stop being themselves. 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:44.280 They decide to pull off what I'm calling the 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:46.950 Great Masquerade. It is a profound psychological 00:01:46.950 --> 00:01:49.450 pivot, really. They decide to give the Americans 00:01:49.450 --> 00:01:52.109 exactly what they think Spain looks like, not 00:01:52.109 --> 00:01:54.689 what it actually is. Which means they erase their 00:01:54.689 --> 00:01:56.890 actual identity to become a caricature. Right. 00:01:56.989 --> 00:01:59.189 They decide that Americans only understand one 00:01:59.189 --> 00:02:02.019 version of Spain. The party version, the only 00:02:02.019 --> 00:02:05.219 version. Right. The version from operas and Hollywood 00:02:05.219 --> 00:02:09.460 movies. So this serious, austere town decides 00:02:09.460 --> 00:02:12.180 to dress up as Andalusia. We're talking flamenco 00:02:12.180 --> 00:02:14.900 dresses, bullfighting posters, flower pots on 00:02:14.900 --> 00:02:17.599 every single wall, the full stereotype. It's 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:20.259 the Instagram trap 70 years before Instagram 00:02:20.259 --> 00:02:23.740 existed. They are curating their reality to please 00:02:23.740 --> 00:02:26.840 a wealthy influencer, essentially. That is such 00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:29.360 a good way to put it. Today, you've probably 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:32.060 guessed, we are doing a deep dive into the film 00:02:32.060 --> 00:02:35.639 Welcome, Mr. Marshall. Or, Be Menido, Mr. Marshall. 00:02:36.139 --> 00:02:39.840 in spanish released april 4th 1953 directed by 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:42.939 the absolute master luis garcia berlanga it was 00:02:42.939 --> 00:02:45.659 written by berlanga juan antonio bardem and miguel 00:02:45.659 --> 00:02:48.139 mijora and look if you just read the plot summary 00:02:48.139 --> 00:02:51.120 it sounds like a wacky sitcom episode down dresses 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:53.840 up to fool tourists yeah exactly but this film 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:56.319 is widely considered a masterpiece of spanish 00:02:56.319 --> 00:02:59.439 cinema and honestly one of the most biting political 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:02.439 satires of the 20th century and that is our mission 00:03:02.439 --> 00:03:04.860 today we are going to unpack how a comedy about 00:03:04.860 --> 00:03:07.689 a small village became a razor sharp critique 00:03:07.689 --> 00:03:10.409 of a dictatorship of international politics. 00:03:10.689 --> 00:03:13.949 And I think of our own desperate need to be liked. 00:03:14.050 --> 00:03:16.030 And we'll look at the double satire because this 00:03:16.030 --> 00:03:17.889 movie is laughing at the Spanish, but it's also 00:03:17.889 --> 00:03:19.990 laughing at the Americans laughing at the Spanish. 00:03:20.050 --> 00:03:23.310 It's so layered. So many layers. And we cannot 00:03:23.310 --> 00:03:26.349 forget the behind the scenes drama. There's a 00:03:26.349 --> 00:03:28.789 story involving the Cannes Film Festival and 00:03:28.789 --> 00:03:31.389 a Hollywood legend that is almost as dramatic 00:03:31.389 --> 00:03:33.569 as the movie itself. Oh, the Edward G. Robinson 00:03:33.569 --> 00:03:35.430 incident? Yeah, we have to get to that. And I 00:03:35.430 --> 00:03:37.949 can't wait. It is juicy. But let's start with 00:03:37.949 --> 00:03:40.569 the context. Because this movie has a weird origin 00:03:40.569 --> 00:03:42.789 story. It wasn't supposed to be a satire at all, 00:03:42.849 --> 00:03:45.389 was it? No, not even close. This is one of those 00:03:45.389 --> 00:03:47.689 happy accidents that changes cinema history. 00:03:48.650 --> 00:03:50.750 Berlanga was originally hired to make a completely 00:03:50.750 --> 00:03:52.990 different kind of product. He was commissioned 00:03:52.990 --> 00:03:55.990 to create a vehicle for a singer. A vehicle. 00:03:56.110 --> 00:03:57.710 When you say vehicle, you mean a marketing tool, 00:03:57.810 --> 00:04:00.550 a promo piece. Precisely. A singer named Lolita 00:04:00.550 --> 00:04:03.430 Sevilla. She was a budding star. She was a flamenco 00:04:03.430 --> 00:04:06.550 singer, a Coppola singer, very popular. And the 00:04:06.550 --> 00:04:09.129 production company, Union Cieninia, wanted a 00:04:09.129 --> 00:04:11.229 movie where she looked beautiful, sang a few 00:04:11.229 --> 00:04:13.930 emotional songs, danced a bit, and sold records. 00:04:14.169 --> 00:04:16.870 Right. The brief was essentially, make her a 00:04:16.870 --> 00:04:19.970 star. A standard, glossy, musical puff piece. 00:04:20.350 --> 00:04:22.889 Girl sings, boy falls in love, everyone claps. 00:04:23.509 --> 00:04:27.629 The end. That was the plan. But Berlanga? Well, 00:04:27.709 --> 00:04:30.449 he had a subversive streak a mile wide. He took 00:04:30.449 --> 00:04:32.529 the commission and he kept the singer. She plays 00:04:32.529 --> 00:04:34.310 the character Carmen Vargas in the film, but 00:04:34.310 --> 00:04:36.889 he completely flipped the premise on its head. 00:04:36.990 --> 00:04:40.000 So he didn't just ignore the brief. He weaponized 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:42.500 it. He really did. Instead of making a movie 00:04:42.500 --> 00:04:45.180 that celebrated Spanish folklore in that simplistic 00:04:45.180 --> 00:04:48.259 touristy way, he made a movie about how Spanish 00:04:48.259 --> 00:04:51.100 folklore is used as a commodity to sell the country. 00:04:51.319 --> 00:04:54.000 That is such a boss move. Yeah. Here's the pop 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:56.360 star you wanted, but I'm going to use her to 00:04:56.360 --> 00:04:59.040 mock the very industry that created her and the 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:01.709 government that promotes this image. It's brilliant. 00:05:01.910 --> 00:05:04.709 But to understand why the satire hit so hard 00:05:04.709 --> 00:05:07.569 and why it was so incredibly risky, we have to 00:05:07.569 --> 00:05:10.089 look at the world in 1953. This is the post -war 00:05:10.089 --> 00:05:12.689 era. Europe is rebuilding. The Marshall Plan, 00:05:12.850 --> 00:05:15.110 officially the European Recovery Program, is 00:05:15.110 --> 00:05:17.649 in full swing. America is just pumping money 00:05:17.649 --> 00:05:20.069 into Western Europe. Billions of dollars. Germany, 00:05:20.230 --> 00:05:23.170 France, Italy, the UK, they are getting factories, 00:05:23.269 --> 00:05:25.370 infrastructure, food. It's a massive economic 00:05:25.370 --> 00:05:27.930 stimulus package. But looking at the map, there 00:05:27.930 --> 00:05:31.519 is a big Spain -shaped hole in the money. A very 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:34.579 dry hole. Spain was under the dictatorship of 00:05:34.579 --> 00:05:37.399 Francisco Franco because the fascist regime had 00:05:37.399 --> 00:05:40.100 been, let's say, friendly with the Axis powers, 00:05:40.300 --> 00:05:42.600 Hitler and Mussolini, during the war. They weren't 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:45.639 exactly neutral. Not really, no. So after the 00:05:45.639 --> 00:05:48.399 war, Spain was a pariah. It was politically isolated. 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:51.839 The Allies, the UN, they excluded Spain from 00:05:51.839 --> 00:05:54.199 the Marshall Plan. So while the rest of Europe 00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:56.139 is getting jump -started with American cash, 00:05:56.379 --> 00:05:59.060 Spain is just stuck in the mud. It was worse 00:05:59.060 --> 00:06:02.259 than stuck. We have to talk about a concept called 00:06:02.259 --> 00:06:04.579 autarky. Autarky. That sounds like a bad sci 00:06:04.579 --> 00:06:07.579 -fi villain. It's a bad economic policy. Franco's 00:06:07.579 --> 00:06:09.740 regime, partly out of necessity because they 00:06:09.740 --> 00:06:12.040 were isolated and partly out of a very strong 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:15.040 nationalist pride, pushed this idea of total 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:17.480 self -sufficiency. We don't need the world. Spain 00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:19.620 eats its own bread. We have the Spanish spirit. 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:22.540 They tried to produce everything internally from 00:06:22.540 --> 00:06:25.240 cars to crops. And let me guess, that didn't 00:06:25.240 --> 00:06:27.699 work out so well. It was an absolute catastrophe. 00:06:28.199 --> 00:06:31.240 By the early 50s, the policy had completely collapsed. 00:06:31.459 --> 00:06:33.620 There were widespread shortages of everything. 00:06:33.939 --> 00:06:37.259 Bread, fuel, medicine. The country was literally 00:06:37.259 --> 00:06:40.939 hungry. Power outages were common. So when we 00:06:40.939 --> 00:06:43.120 see the town of Villar del Rio wanting the Marshall 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:46.379 Plan, it's not just greed. It's not just, oh, 00:06:46.420 --> 00:06:49.120 I'd like a new car. No, it represents the total 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:52.240 abject failure of the regime's core ideology. 00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:55.240 They were starving, and they knew the only way 00:06:55.240 --> 00:06:57.279 out was outside help, even if they couldn't admit 00:06:57.279 --> 00:06:59.360 it publicly. That adds such a dark undercurrent 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:01.339 to the comedy, doesn't it? They aren't just dressing 00:07:01.339 --> 00:07:04.259 up for fun. They're dressing up because the self 00:07:04.259 --> 00:07:07.600 -sufficient Spain idea was a complete lie. Exactly. 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:10.079 The masquerade is born out of desperation. It's 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:12.720 a performance of last resort. Okay, let's go 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:15.240 to the village, Villar de Rio. The film describes 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:18.600 it as a typical Castilian village. For our listeners 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:20.379 who haven't backpacked through central Spain, 00:07:20.540 --> 00:07:23.100 paint the picture. What does Castilian mean in 00:07:23.100 --> 00:07:26.180 this context? Think stark. Central Spain, the 00:07:26.180 --> 00:07:29.220 Meseta, is a high plateau. It's not the land 00:07:29.220 --> 00:07:31.240 of lush gardens and fountains you might see in 00:07:31.240 --> 00:07:34.160 tourist brochures. No orange groves. No orange 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:37.019 grows. It is the land of wheat fields, hard stone, 00:07:37.339 --> 00:07:40.120 freezing winters and absolutely scorching summers. 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:43.740 The culture there is traditionally sober, serious, 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:47.139 austere. It's the land of Don Quixote, dusty 00:07:47.139 --> 00:07:49.579 and noble, but also very grounded and plain. 00:07:49.779 --> 00:07:53.240 So definitely not the land of flamenco and castanets 00:07:53.240 --> 00:07:55.879 and polka dot dresses. Not at all. That's Andalusia 00:07:55.879 --> 00:07:58.300 in the south. The culture of Castile and the 00:07:58.300 --> 00:08:00.620 culture of Andalusia are as different as, say, 00:08:00.680 --> 00:08:03.019 the culture of rural Vermont and the culture 00:08:03.019 --> 00:08:05.680 of New Orleans. That's a great analogy. So if 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:08.360 a town in Vermont suddenly decided to throw a 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:10.839 Mardi Gras parade to impress a visitor from Brazil, 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:13.139 it would look ridiculous. And everyone would 00:08:13.139 --> 00:08:14.839 know it was fake. That's the central joke of 00:08:14.839 --> 00:08:17.339 the film. The village is run by a cast of archetypes. 00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:19.740 Berlanga gives us these specific characters that 00:08:19.740 --> 00:08:22.779 represent the forces of Spain. We have to start 00:08:22.779 --> 00:08:25.620 with the mayor, Don Pablo. Played by the legendary 00:08:25.620 --> 00:08:28.600 Jose Isber. You can't overstate how beloved this 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:31.500 actor is in Spain. His voice is iconic. He plays 00:08:31.500 --> 00:08:34.220 the mayor as hearing impaired, elderly and raspy 00:08:34.220 --> 00:08:36.879 voiced. He's a bit disconnected, literally and 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:39.740 metaphorically. He seems like the classic benign, 00:08:39.740 --> 00:08:41.879 incompetent leader. He's got this ear trumpet. 00:08:42.019 --> 00:08:44.559 Yes. And he's always a beat behind the conversation. 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:47.480 He is. He wants the best for the town, but he 00:08:47.480 --> 00:08:49.820 has absolutely no clue how the modern world works. 00:08:50.059 --> 00:08:52.340 He represents the state well -meaning, perhaps, 00:08:52.600 --> 00:08:55.720 but deaf to reality. Then there's the Hidalgo, 00:08:55.820 --> 00:08:59.580 Don Luis. What exactly is a Hidalgo? A Hidalgo 00:08:59.580 --> 00:09:01.960 is a member of the lower nobility, the landed 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:05.779 gentry. Don Luis, played by Alberga Romay, represents 00:09:05.779 --> 00:09:09.620 this old, decaying aristocracy. He is the guy 00:09:09.620 --> 00:09:11.720 who is technically poor now, but he absolutely 00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:15.070 refuses to admit it. He lives in the past. Completely. 00:09:15.250 --> 00:09:17.769 He talks about his lineage, his ancestors who 00:09:17.769 --> 00:09:19.669 fought in the glorious wars of the Spanish Empire. 00:09:19.830 --> 00:09:22.529 He's obsessed with the glory that's long, long 00:09:22.529 --> 00:09:24.850 gone. He's the guy who thinks the world still 00:09:24.850 --> 00:09:27.389 revolves around the 16th century when Spain was 00:09:27.389 --> 00:09:30.710 the superpower. Exactly. And to him, the Americans 00:09:30.710 --> 00:09:33.590 aren't saviors. They're upstarts. He looks down 00:09:33.590 --> 00:09:36.129 on them. He has the sense of historic superiority, 00:09:36.470 --> 00:09:38.389 even though his roof is probably leaking. And 00:09:38.389 --> 00:09:40.769 then you have the priest, Don Casme. The moral 00:09:40.769 --> 00:09:43.759 authority. In 1950s Spain, under Franco, the 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:45.600 church was incredibly powerful. It was one of 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:48.820 the pillars of the regime. And Don Cosme is deeply, 00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:52.139 deeply suspicious of the Americans. Why? Wouldn't 00:09:52.139 --> 00:09:53.840 he want the money for the poor of his parish? 00:09:54.179 --> 00:09:58.490 He might. But he fears the cost. To the conservative 00:09:58.490 --> 00:10:01.649 Spanish Catholic mind of that era, America represented 00:10:01.649 --> 00:10:05.289 Protestantism. It represented Hollywood, liberalism, 00:10:05.389 --> 00:10:08.929 divorce, bikinis, essentially heresy. The whole 00:10:08.929 --> 00:10:11.429 modern world. The whole package. He is the gatekeeper 00:10:11.429 --> 00:10:13.250 of the town soul, and he's worried the Marshall 00:10:13.250 --> 00:10:16.210 Plan is a Trojan horse for sin and moral decay. 00:10:16.490 --> 00:10:18.590 And finally, the catalyst for all the trouble. 00:10:19.230 --> 00:10:22.690 Manolo, the impresario. Manolo is the agent for 00:10:22.690 --> 00:10:24.789 Lolita Sevilla's character. He's the outsider. 00:10:24.990 --> 00:10:27.330 He's the hustler. He's played by Manolo Moran, 00:10:27.429 --> 00:10:30.110 another giant of Spanish cinema. And his claim 00:10:30.110 --> 00:10:33.110 to fame, his entire source of authority, is that 00:10:33.110 --> 00:10:35.710 he has spent time in Boston. I love that detail. 00:10:35.809 --> 00:10:38.250 Not New York, not L .A., Boston. It's so specific 00:10:38.250 --> 00:10:40.750 and slightly odd. It gives him this bizarre authority. 00:10:40.909 --> 00:10:43.029 He tells everyone, I know the American mind. 00:10:43.110 --> 00:10:45.610 I know what makes them tick. He positions himself 00:10:45.610 --> 00:10:48.429 as the expert consultant, the cultural translator. 00:10:48.750 --> 00:10:51.399 We all know a Manolo. The guy who did a semester 00:10:51.399 --> 00:10:53.860 abroad and comes back acting like a seasoned 00:10:53.860 --> 00:10:56.139 diplomat. And his advice is the engine of the 00:10:56.139 --> 00:10:58.919 plot. The town council is panicking because the 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:00.759 diplomats are coming. They want a slice of the 00:11:00.759 --> 00:11:03.419 pie. And Manolo steps up and says, look, I know 00:11:03.419 --> 00:11:05.340 Americans. If you want their money, you have 00:11:05.340 --> 00:11:07.659 to give them the Spain they expect to see. And 00:11:07.659 --> 00:11:10.580 the Spain they expect isn't this dusty, serious 00:11:10.580 --> 00:11:13.870 wheat farming village. No. In the international 00:11:13.870 --> 00:11:16.649 imagination, and frankly, thanks to romantic 00:11:16.649 --> 00:11:20.370 operas like Carmen and movies, Spain is Andalusia. 00:11:20.409 --> 00:11:22.710 It's gypsies, it's passion, it's bullfights. 00:11:22.990 --> 00:11:25.649 Manolo argues that a boring Castilian village 00:11:25.649 --> 00:11:28.389 isn't sexy enough to get a grant. They need to 00:11:28.389 --> 00:11:31.019 rebrand. So the grand scheme is hatched. They 00:11:31.019 --> 00:11:33.179 decide to fake it. They go all in. And this is 00:11:33.179 --> 00:11:35.860 where the satire bites the hardest. The locals, 00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:39.940 these serious stoic peasants, put on these flamboyant 00:11:39.940 --> 00:11:43.000 and delusion costumes. They hire Manolo's client, 00:11:43.220 --> 00:11:46.460 the singer, to perform. And they physically alter 00:11:46.460 --> 00:11:48.419 the architecture of the village. They turn the 00:11:48.419 --> 00:11:51.340 town into a movie set. Literally. They paint 00:11:51.340 --> 00:11:54.120 the stone facades white to look like the famous 00:11:54.120 --> 00:11:57.620 white villages of the South. They hang fake wrought 00:11:57.620 --> 00:12:00.720 iron grates on the windows. They import geraniums. 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:03.980 They construct a false reality from top to bottom. 00:12:04.059 --> 00:12:05.879 There is something so humiliating about it, isn't 00:12:05.879 --> 00:12:07.399 there? It's not just a prank. It's a complete 00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:09.659 submission. That's the key. It's a commentary 00:12:09.659 --> 00:12:12.500 on cultural performance. Berlanga is arguing 00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:14.899 that Spain was prostituting its own identity 00:12:14.899 --> 00:12:18.000 to please the Americans. They're saying our reality 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.580 is invaluable. Our true selves aren't worth saving. 00:12:20.740 --> 00:12:23.379 So we will become whatever caricature you want 00:12:23.379 --> 00:12:25.679 us to be if you just give us a tractor. And you 00:12:25.679 --> 00:12:27.580 mentioned earlier that there's a double layer 00:12:27.580 --> 00:12:30.120 here. It's not just about the Americans. Right. 00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:33.340 Because who else was promoting this Andalusian 00:12:33.340 --> 00:12:36.179 image as the one true Spain? The Franco regime 00:12:36.179 --> 00:12:39.019 itself. For tourism. For tourism and for national 00:12:39.019 --> 00:12:41.879 identity. The dictatorship used flamenco and 00:12:41.879 --> 00:12:44.279 bullfighting as tools to unify the country and 00:12:44.279 --> 00:12:46.860 project a certain image abroad. They tried to 00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:48.960 smooth over the deep cultural differences between 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:51.340 Basques, Catalans, Galicians, and Castilians 00:12:51.340 --> 00:12:54.259 by presenting this monolithic Spanish identity. 00:12:54.720 --> 00:12:57.320 So when the village puts on the costumes, they're 00:12:57.320 --> 00:12:59.779 mimicking the Americans' ignorance, yes, but 00:12:59.779 --> 00:13:01.820 they're also mimicking the lives of their own 00:13:01.820 --> 00:13:04.179 government. Precisely. It's layers upon layers 00:13:04.179 --> 00:13:06.440 of fake, which is what makes it so brilliant. 00:13:07.049 --> 00:13:09.129 But the movie doesn't stay in the realm of social 00:13:09.129 --> 00:13:12.149 comedy. It takes a hard left turn into the surreal. 00:13:12.210 --> 00:13:14.210 We have to talk about the dream sequences. Yes. 00:13:14.309 --> 00:13:18.129 Part two. The absurdist core. This is my favorite 00:13:18.129 --> 00:13:20.190 part of the film. The preparations are done. 00:13:20.309 --> 00:13:24.309 The town is unrecognizable. Night falls. And 00:13:24.309 --> 00:13:26.129 the main characters go to sleep. And we get to 00:13:26.129 --> 00:13:28.649 see their subconsciouses at work. And Berlanga 00:13:28.649 --> 00:13:31.210 takes us inside their heads. These aren't just 00:13:31.210 --> 00:13:33.549 random dreams. They are psychological profiles. 00:13:33.889 --> 00:13:36.970 They're a window into the soul of 1950s Spain. 00:13:37.169 --> 00:13:40.139 They are. Each dream reveals the specific anxiety 00:13:40.139 --> 00:13:43.340 or stereotype that character has about the invaders, 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:45.480 about the Americans. Let's start with the mayor, 00:13:45.620 --> 00:13:48.440 Don Pablo, the slightly deaf, slightly incompetent 00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:51.220 leader. What is his vision of America? He dreams 00:13:51.220 --> 00:13:53.879 he is in a Western. Naturally. Of course he does. 00:13:54.039 --> 00:13:56.200 He's in a saloon. There's a poker game. It's 00:13:56.200 --> 00:13:57.940 rowdy. He's the sheriff trying to keep order. 00:13:58.179 --> 00:14:00.960 And certainly a massive bar brawl breaks out. 00:14:01.139 --> 00:14:03.419 Chairs are smashing overheads. People are getting 00:14:03.419 --> 00:14:06.230 thrown through windows. There are gunshots. It 00:14:06.230 --> 00:14:09.049 is pure, unadulterated chaos. It's basically 00:14:09.049 --> 00:14:12.149 a John Ford movie on acid. It is, and it shows 00:14:12.149 --> 00:14:15.590 the incredible power of Hollywood. Even in this 00:14:15.590 --> 00:14:18.370 isolated village, the primary image of America 00:14:18.370 --> 00:14:21.049 is filtered through cinema. But notice the tone. 00:14:21.659 --> 00:14:25.139 It's violent. The mayor sees America as dynamic, 00:14:25.320 --> 00:14:28.919 sure, but also lawless and dangerous. He's the 00:14:28.919 --> 00:14:31.600 man of order and his nightmare is chaos. Exactly. 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:34.159 He fears that the sleepy, predictable order of 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:36.539 his village is about to be completely overturned 00:14:36.539 --> 00:14:38.919 by these loud, violent cowboys. And we have the 00:14:38.919 --> 00:14:41.950 Hidalgo Don Luis. the old nobleman his dream 00:14:41.950 --> 00:14:43.950 is fascinated because it deals with history it's 00:14:43.950 --> 00:14:46.009 so much more abstract it is the most intellectual 00:14:46.009 --> 00:14:48.490 of the dreams i think he dreams of the arrival 00:14:48.490 --> 00:14:50.669 of a conquistador on the shores of the new world 00:14:50.669 --> 00:14:53.330 but the roles are slippery he is projecting the 00:14:53.330 --> 00:14:55.409 history of the spanish empire when spain was 00:14:55.409 --> 00:14:58.669 the superpower onto this new reality so he sees 00:14:58.669 --> 00:15:02.370 the americans as the new conquistadors Or is 00:15:02.370 --> 00:15:04.629 he the conquistador? It's a bit of both. He sees 00:15:04.629 --> 00:15:07.169 a reversal of history. Spain used to be the one 00:15:07.169 --> 00:15:08.990 arriving in ships to take gold and impose its 00:15:08.990 --> 00:15:11.149 culture. Now the ships are coming the other way. 00:15:11.250 --> 00:15:14.289 It's a nightmare of lost status. He views international 00:15:14.289 --> 00:15:17.429 relations not as cooperation, but as a zero sum 00:15:17.429 --> 00:15:20.110 game of conquest. He's terrified that he is now 00:15:20.110 --> 00:15:22.490 the indigenous population about to be colonized. 00:15:22.769 --> 00:15:26.110 Precisely. That is a deep. deep insecurity to 00:15:26.110 --> 00:15:29.289 expose. The terror of a fallen empire realizing 00:15:29.289 --> 00:15:31.750 it's no longer the one calling the shots. Okay, 00:15:31.789 --> 00:15:33.990 now we have to talk about the priest, Don Cosme. 00:15:34.590 --> 00:15:37.370 His dream is honestly shocking that this was 00:15:37.370 --> 00:15:39.710 filmed in 1953 under a Catholic dictatorship. 00:15:40.029 --> 00:15:42.669 It is a fever dream of cultural and religious 00:15:42.669 --> 00:15:45.149 terror. It starts with the imagery of a Holy 00:15:45.149 --> 00:15:47.389 Week procession. Just to clarify for the listeners 00:15:47.389 --> 00:15:50.690 in Spain during Easter, penitents wear these 00:15:50.690 --> 00:15:53.350 long robes and tall pointed hoods called cap 00:15:53.350 --> 00:15:55.730 roads. They cover the face to an American eye. 00:15:55.809 --> 00:15:58.929 They look exactly like KKK robes, but they predate 00:15:58.929 --> 00:16:01.649 the Klan by centuries. Right. It's a sacred, 00:16:01.750 --> 00:16:05.059 solemn image in Spain. But in the priest's dream, 00:16:05.240 --> 00:16:08.240 that visual rhyme becomes a horror show. The 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:11.460 procession transforms. The hoods stop being Catholic 00:16:11.460 --> 00:16:13.720 penitents and turn into members of the Ku Klux 00:16:13.720 --> 00:16:17.080 Klan. That is a terrifying visual pun. So bold. 00:16:17.419 --> 00:16:19.279 It is. And they grab him. They drag him before 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:22.399 a tribunal. And who is the tribunal? The Committee 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:24.820 on Un -American Activities? The McCarthy hearings. 00:16:25.019 --> 00:16:27.759 Yes. In his dream. Yes. And the soundtrack. It's 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:30.240 blasting, dissonant, aggressive jazz music. Okay, 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:32.519 let's unpack this cocktail of horror. We have 00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:35.990 the KKK. McCarthyism and jazz. What is going 00:16:35.990 --> 00:16:38.629 on in the priest's subconscious? It is a collision 00:16:38.629 --> 00:16:41.090 of every single conservative fear of America. 00:16:41.309 --> 00:16:44.230 To him, jazz represents moral looseness, sexuality, 00:16:44.590 --> 00:16:47.490 the foreign other, a loss of control. The KKK 00:16:47.490 --> 00:16:50.169 represents a warped, violent Protestantism, a 00:16:50.169 --> 00:16:52.610 heresy that hates Catholics. The perversion of 00:16:52.610 --> 00:16:54.830 religious iconography. Exactly. And the committee 00:16:54.830 --> 00:16:57.789 represents the political witch hunts. He is terrified 00:16:57.789 --> 00:17:00.830 that America will bring this chaotic mix of persecution, 00:17:01.230 --> 00:17:04.259 racial violence, and moral decay. to his pious 00:17:04.259 --> 00:17:06.319 little town. He thinks the Americans are coming 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:09.240 to steal his soul, not just fix the roads. Precisely. 00:17:09.279 --> 00:17:11.460 It's such a brilliant critique of the darker 00:17:11.460 --> 00:17:14.299 side of the American 1950s. Berlanga is saying, 00:17:14.420 --> 00:17:17.440 you think you're the land of the free. We see 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:20.359 the witch hunts. We see the racism. It's incredibly 00:17:20.359 --> 00:17:22.819 bold. And then finally, we have the peasant. 00:17:23.210 --> 00:17:26.250 the common man his dream is completely different 00:17:26.250 --> 00:17:28.809 from the others it's the only positive dream 00:17:28.809 --> 00:17:31.470 which in a way makes it the saddest he dreams 00:17:31.470 --> 00:17:33.950 the americans are the three kings the biblical 00:17:33.950 --> 00:17:37.500 magi the three wise men In Spain, they're the 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:39.420 ones who bring the gifts at Christmas, not Santa 00:17:39.420 --> 00:17:42.220 Claus. So in the dream, the Americans fly over 00:17:42.220 --> 00:17:44.299 his field in a plane and parachute a package 00:17:44.299 --> 00:17:47.059 down to him. He runs to it, he opens it, and 00:17:47.059 --> 00:17:49.160 it's a brand new tractor. Just a tractor. Just 00:17:49.160 --> 00:17:51.799 a tractor. No jazz, no cowboys, no complicated 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:54.460 historical metaphors. Just a machine to help 00:17:54.460 --> 00:17:56.400 him feed his family. It cuts through all the 00:17:56.400 --> 00:17:58.519 ideology. The peasant doesn't care about the 00:17:58.519 --> 00:18:00.319 culture war. He cares about his back breaking 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:02.940 in the fields. To him, the American is a divine 00:18:02.940 --> 00:18:06.279 provider of technology and sustenance. It highlights 00:18:06.279 --> 00:18:09.099 this massive gap between the elites who worry 00:18:09.099 --> 00:18:12.079 about identity and heresy and the poor who just 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:15.319 want to eat. So everyone wakes up. The dreams 00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:18.839 fade. The sun comes up. It's the big day. Part 00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:22.490 three. The climax. Or as I like to call it, the 00:18:22.490 --> 00:18:24.950 great deflation. The town is ready. The costumes 00:18:24.950 --> 00:18:27.890 are on. The false facades are up. The band is 00:18:27.890 --> 00:18:31.150 warmed up. The singer is poised. The entire village 00:18:31.150 --> 00:18:33.109 lines the road. They are holding little American 00:18:33.109 --> 00:18:35.869 flags they made. The anticipation is just palpable. 00:18:35.970 --> 00:18:38.769 You can feel it. And then on the horizon, dust. 00:18:39.319 --> 00:18:42.140 A dust cloud. The motorcade appears. Big black 00:18:42.140 --> 00:18:44.759 American cars. Cadillacs, probably. They get 00:18:44.759 --> 00:18:47.759 closer. The villagers start to cheer. The mayor 00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:49.880 steps forward to give his welcome speech, holding 00:18:49.880 --> 00:18:53.150 his ear trumpet. And the cars. Just keep going. 00:18:53.269 --> 00:18:54.730 You don't even tap the brakes. They don't slow 00:18:54.730 --> 00:18:56.910 down. Not even a little bit. They speed through 00:18:56.910 --> 00:18:58.769 the village at 50 miles an hour. They just zoom 00:18:58.769 --> 00:19:01.029 past the band, past the singer, past the fake 00:19:01.029 --> 00:19:04.170 white walls. In seconds, they are gone. Wow. 00:19:04.289 --> 00:19:06.329 And we are left with that image. The dust settling. 00:19:06.569 --> 00:19:09.369 The silence returning. The villagers just standing 00:19:09.369 --> 00:19:12.009 there looking at the empty road, looking at each 00:19:12.009 --> 00:19:14.589 other in these ridiculous costumes. It is the 00:19:14.589 --> 00:19:18.970 ultimate anticlimax. And it is devastating. The 00:19:18.970 --> 00:19:21.069 miracle just drove by. They didn't even look 00:19:21.069 --> 00:19:24.500 out the window. It really drives home the insignificance 00:19:24.500 --> 00:19:26.279 of the village in the grand scheme of things. 00:19:26.500 --> 00:19:29.619 To the Americans, to the architects of the Marshall 00:19:29.619 --> 00:19:32.819 Plan, Villar del Rio is just a blur on the way 00:19:32.819 --> 00:19:34.460 to somewhere else. It's not even a footnote. 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:37.670 It's just road. Exactly. Geopolitics doesn't 00:19:37.670 --> 00:19:40.529 care about their little masquerade. And the aftermath 00:19:40.529 --> 00:19:44.130 isn't just emotional. It's financial. Oh, right. 00:19:44.309 --> 00:19:47.250 The bill. That's the kicker. They went into debt 00:19:47.250 --> 00:19:49.569 to throw this party. They bought the costumes 00:19:49.569 --> 00:19:51.569 on credit from the local merchant. They bought 00:19:51.569 --> 00:19:54.049 the paint on credit. Now the party is over. The 00:19:54.049 --> 00:19:56.349 guests didn't show up and the bill is due. The 00:19:56.349 --> 00:19:58.410 reality of the poverty hits them harder than 00:19:58.410 --> 00:20:00.369 before. They have to take down the decorations. 00:20:00.750 --> 00:20:03.130 They have to return to being themselves. Only 00:20:03.130 --> 00:20:05.089 now they're poor. But there is a moment here. 00:20:05.160 --> 00:20:07.980 a resolution that saves the film from being purely 00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:11.740 cynical. And it involves Manolo, the agent. The 00:20:11.740 --> 00:20:13.660 guy who got them into this mess in the first 00:20:13.660 --> 00:20:16.400 place. Yeah. The Boston expert. Throughout the 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:18.819 movie, he's been a bit of a snake, you know, 00:20:18.839 --> 00:20:21.539 a bit of a self -interested operator. But when 00:20:21.539 --> 00:20:24.539 he sees the devastation, when he sees the townspeople 00:20:24.539 --> 00:20:26.660 having to give up their personal belongings to 00:20:26.660 --> 00:20:29.990 pay the debt, he steps up. What does he do? He 00:20:29.990 --> 00:20:33.009 takes off a gold ring, he wears a ring he claims 00:20:33.009 --> 00:20:35.309 he got from his friends in Boston, and he hands 00:20:35.309 --> 00:20:37.490 it over to the mayor to help pay the town's debt. 00:20:37.670 --> 00:20:40.549 That is a powerful moment of redemption. It is. 00:20:40.609 --> 00:20:43.809 It's a moment of solidarity. The fantasy is dead. 00:20:44.009 --> 00:20:46.829 The savior isn't coming. All they have is each 00:20:46.829 --> 00:20:49.309 other. It grounds the film back in the dignity 00:20:49.309 --> 00:20:51.750 of the Spanish people. They messed up, they looked 00:20:51.750 --> 00:20:53.630 foolish, but they are in it together. I want 00:20:53.630 --> 00:20:55.589 to pivot to the production of this film, because 00:20:55.589 --> 00:20:57.930 the way it was made... And a whole other layer 00:20:57.930 --> 00:21:00.650 of realism. They filmed in a real village, didn't 00:21:00.650 --> 00:21:03.329 they? Yes, a place called Guadalix de la Sierra, 00:21:03.349 --> 00:21:06.130 about 50 miles north of Madrid. And Belonga made 00:21:06.130 --> 00:21:08.930 a crucial choice. He didn't hire a bunch of extras 00:21:08.930 --> 00:21:12.089 from central casting in Madrid. He used the actual 00:21:12.089 --> 00:21:14.650 villagers. So the faces we see in the crowd, 00:21:14.869 --> 00:21:17.710 those weathered, sun -beaten faces, those are 00:21:17.710 --> 00:21:21.049 real Castilian peasants from 1953. They are playing 00:21:21.049 --> 00:21:23.990 themselves. All the non -principal roles are 00:21:23.990 --> 00:21:26.769 the real inhabitants of Guadaliques. And there 00:21:26.769 --> 00:21:28.789 is a famous story about the heart's desire scene 00:21:28.789 --> 00:21:30.869 that really highlights this. Oh, I love this 00:21:30.869 --> 00:21:32.950 story. Break it down. So there's a scene where 00:21:32.950 --> 00:21:35.130 the townspeople line up to tell the authorities 00:21:35.130 --> 00:21:36.910 what they want from the Americans, what they'd 00:21:36.910 --> 00:21:40.369 ask for. The script had specific funny lines 00:21:40.369 --> 00:21:42.410 written for them. You know, I want a fur coat 00:21:42.410 --> 00:21:44.970 for my wife, things like that. Right, for comedic 00:21:44.970 --> 00:21:47.789 effect. But during filming, the villagers started 00:21:47.789 --> 00:21:50.470 ignoring the script spontaneously. They started 00:21:50.470 --> 00:21:52.630 asking for things they actually needed in real 00:21:52.630 --> 00:21:55.490 life. Like what? We need a fountain in the square. 00:21:55.730 --> 00:21:57.970 We need better irrigation for the crops. We need 00:21:57.970 --> 00:22:00.470 seeds. My son needs a new pair of shoes. Really 00:22:00.470 --> 00:22:03.750 basic, essential things. So the line between 00:22:03.750 --> 00:22:06.950 fiction and documentary just evaporated. Completely. 00:22:07.150 --> 00:22:10.309 And Berlanga, being a genius, kept it in. He 00:22:10.309 --> 00:22:12.730 told the cameras to keep rolling. He realized 00:22:12.730 --> 00:22:15.029 that this was more powerful than any joke he 00:22:15.029 --> 00:22:18.549 could write. He wanted to offer a human picture 00:22:18.549 --> 00:22:21.730 of Spain. He wanted to show that while the politicians 00:22:21.730 --> 00:22:24.170 were playing 4D chess with international relations, 00:22:24.549 --> 00:22:27.109 the actual people just wanted water for their 00:22:27.109 --> 00:22:30.019 fields. It gives the satire a soul. It stops 00:22:30.019 --> 00:22:32.279 it from being mean -spirited or condescending. 00:22:32.380 --> 00:22:34.519 Exactly. We aren't laughing at the peasants. 00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:36.940 We're laughing at the absurdity of their situation, 00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:39.619 and we feel for them. It's a very humane kind 00:22:39.619 --> 00:22:41.700 of satire. And what about the budget for this 00:22:41.700 --> 00:22:43.380 thing? I can't imagine it was a huge production. 00:22:43.720 --> 00:22:46.579 No, not at all. It was shot in 10 weeks for about 00:22:46.579 --> 00:22:50.059 3 .5 million pesetas, which at the time was roughly 00:22:50.059 --> 00:22:53.619 $70 ,000 U .S. dollars. $70 ,000. That's not 00:22:53.619 --> 00:22:56.460 a lot, even for 1953. It was a shoestring budget, 00:22:56.599 --> 00:22:58.799 and this was Berlanga's first full -length... 00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:00.940 film directed alone, so he had a lot to prove. 00:23:01.140 --> 00:23:02.700 Which brings us to the elephant in the room. 00:23:02.859 --> 00:23:05.619 This was 1953. Franco was at the height of his 00:23:05.619 --> 00:23:09.119 power. Censorship was notoriously strict. How 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:11.940 on earth did an anti -regime satire get made? 00:23:12.200 --> 00:23:15.240 This is the great irony of Welcome, Mr. Marshall. 00:23:15.640 --> 00:23:19.400 The film depicts Spain as poor, backward, and 00:23:19.400 --> 00:23:22.740 delusional. That is a direct contradiction of 00:23:22.740 --> 00:23:26.130 the regime's triumphant propaganda. So why didn't 00:23:26.130 --> 00:23:28.390 the censors just burn the negative? How did it 00:23:28.390 --> 00:23:30.869 get past them? Because they completely misread 00:23:30.869 --> 00:23:33.130 it. They were so obsessed with the American angle 00:23:33.130 --> 00:23:35.450 that they missed the critique of Spain. You're 00:23:35.450 --> 00:23:38.390 kidding. No. They looked at the plot, Americans 00:23:38.390 --> 00:23:41.089 speeding by, ignoring the Spanish, and they thought, 00:23:41.130 --> 00:23:43.829 aha, this is an anti -American film. It shows 00:23:43.829 --> 00:23:46.069 the Yankees are arrogant. It shows the Marshall 00:23:46.069 --> 00:23:48.369 Plan is a sham. So they thought it was compatible 00:23:48.369 --> 00:23:50.750 with the regime's narrative. Right. The regime's 00:23:50.750 --> 00:23:53.089 backup narrative was, we don't need the Americans 00:23:53.089 --> 00:23:55.779 anyway. We're better off on our own. So they 00:23:55.779 --> 00:23:57.539 interpreted the film as a validation of that. 00:23:57.579 --> 00:23:59.759 They essentially approved a movie that mocked 00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:01.519 them because they thought it was mocking their 00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:04.539 enemies more. That is incredible. Jalanga Trojan 00:24:04.539 --> 00:24:06.900 horse the movie right past the censors. He did. 00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:10.200 But the irony gets even deeper, almost painfully 00:24:10.200 --> 00:24:13.019 so, when the film goes to France. The Cannes 00:24:13.019 --> 00:24:16.079 Film Festival, 1953. This should have been the 00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:18.660 film's victory lap. It was selected to compete. 00:24:18.839 --> 00:24:21.000 The European critics went wild for it. It was 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:23.759 funny, fresh, visually distinct. It was a frontrunner 00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:26.200 for the Palme d 'Or, the top prize. Right. But 00:24:26.200 --> 00:24:29.000 there was a judge on the jury named Edward G. 00:24:29.099 --> 00:24:31.559 Robinson. The Hollywood legend. The guy who played 00:24:31.559 --> 00:24:34.200 the gangster in Little Caesar. Mayday! The very 00:24:34.200 --> 00:24:38.019 same? But we have to understand Robinson's headspace 00:24:38.019 --> 00:24:41.660 in 1953. Back in the U .S., the Red Scare was 00:24:41.660 --> 00:24:44.849 raging. Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House 00:24:44.849 --> 00:24:47.829 Un -American Activities Committee, HUAC, were 00:24:47.829 --> 00:24:50.289 hunting for communists in Hollywood. And Robinson 00:24:50.289 --> 00:24:52.289 was a target. Right. He was on one of the blacklists 00:24:52.289 --> 00:24:54.829 for a while. He was. Robinson was a liberal. 00:24:54.990 --> 00:24:57.390 He was Jewish. He was an art collector. And he 00:24:57.390 --> 00:25:00.670 was very vocal about social justice. He had been 00:25:00.670 --> 00:25:03.329 accused of being a communist sympathizer. His 00:25:03.329 --> 00:25:06.109 career was on the line. He was desperately publicly 00:25:06.109 --> 00:25:08.650 trying to clear his name and prove his loyalty 00:25:08.650 --> 00:25:11.210 to the United States. So he goes to con, probably 00:25:11.210 --> 00:25:13.299 under a lot of stress. sits down to watch this 00:25:13.299 --> 00:25:15.420 Spanish comedy. And he sees the dream sequence. 00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:18.119 He sees the scene where the priest is dragged 00:25:18.119 --> 00:25:20.500 before the Committee on Un -American Activities 00:25:20.500 --> 00:25:24.559 by people in Ku Klux Klan hoods. Oh, boy. Imagine 00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:28.059 being Edward G. Robinson in that moment. You 00:25:28.059 --> 00:25:30.240 are fighting for your life against H .E. Ray 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:34.960 C. And here is a foreign film that visually equates 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:38.839 the U .S. government with the KKK. To him, it 00:25:38.839 --> 00:25:40.960 wasn't just a clever joke. It was a grotesque 00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:44.240 insult. It was anti -American propaganda. That's 00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:46.339 exactly what he called it. It's tragic, really. 00:25:46.579 --> 00:25:48.740 The thing that made the movie brilliant, its 00:25:48.740 --> 00:25:51.059 boldness, is the thing that killed its chances 00:25:51.059 --> 00:25:53.859 with him. He threatened to quit the jury if the 00:25:53.859 --> 00:25:56.799 film won the main prize. He vetoed it. He effectively 00:25:56.799 --> 00:25:59.099 blocked it from the palm door. So let's get this 00:25:59.099 --> 00:26:02.119 straight. The Spanish fascists allowed the film 00:26:02.119 --> 00:26:04.200 because they thought it was anti -American. And 00:26:04.200 --> 00:26:06.240 the American liberal blocked the film because 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:07.920 he thought it was anti -American. And neither 00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:09.599 of them stopped to realize that the film was 00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:12.539 actually about Spain. It's a perfect storm of 00:26:12.539 --> 00:26:15.460 political paranoia. Everyone saw their own boogeyman 00:26:15.460 --> 00:26:17.099 in it. But the other judges must have known it 00:26:17.099 --> 00:26:19.359 was good. They did. They knew it deserved something. 00:26:19.779 --> 00:26:21.960 So they couldn't give it the palm door, but they 00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:24.099 invented a special mention for a comedy film. 00:26:24.569 --> 00:26:26.549 and gave an award for the screenplay just to 00:26:26.549 --> 00:26:28.990 honor it. It was a moral victory. And despite 00:26:28.990 --> 00:26:32.710 the drama, the film was a hit. Jane Cianfara, 00:26:32.990 --> 00:26:35.410 writing for the New York Times at the time, predicted 00:26:35.410 --> 00:26:38.589 it would wake up Spain's slumbering film industry. 00:26:38.890 --> 00:26:41.049 And she was right. It really was a turning point. 00:26:41.190 --> 00:26:43.609 Let's talk about that legacy. It's been over 00:26:43.609 --> 00:26:47.450 70 years. Does this movie still matter? It matters 00:26:47.450 --> 00:26:51.210 immensely. First... as a piece of cinema it is 00:26:51.210 --> 00:26:54.390 the cornerstone of modern spanish comedy so many 00:26:54.390 --> 00:26:56.529 filmmakers trace their roots back to berlanga 00:26:56.529 --> 00:26:58.589 but more importantly it has entered the language 00:26:58.589 --> 00:27:02.569 the phrase welcome mr marshall bienvenido mr 00:27:02.569 --> 00:27:06.230 marshall is an idiom in spain today how is it 00:27:06.230 --> 00:27:08.809 used what does it mean in conversation it's a 00:27:08.809 --> 00:27:11.009 warning it's shorthand for don't believe the 00:27:11.009 --> 00:27:21.339 hype Here we go again. Exactly. People will say, 00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:23.140 careful, this looks like Welcome Mr. Marshall 00:27:23.140 --> 00:27:25.869 all over again. It's a cautionary tale against 00:27:25.869 --> 00:27:29.130 delusion. It's the skepticism of the burned believer. 00:27:29.410 --> 00:27:31.329 And there was a perfect real world example of 00:27:31.329 --> 00:27:33.569 this not too long ago, right? We saw this play 00:27:33.569 --> 00:27:37.069 out very recently, around 2012, 2013, in the 00:27:37.069 --> 00:27:39.589 middle of the Spanish economic crisis. There 00:27:39.589 --> 00:27:42.589 was a project called Euro Vegas. I remember this. 00:27:43.349 --> 00:27:46.069 Sheldon Adelson, the American casino magnate. 00:27:46.089 --> 00:27:48.930 That's the one. He wanted to build a massive 00:27:48.930 --> 00:27:51.589 gambling resort near Madrid. The politicians 00:27:51.589 --> 00:27:53.589 were desperate. They were promising thousands 00:27:53.589 --> 00:27:56.230 of jobs, billions in revenue. They were ready 00:27:56.230 --> 00:27:59.150 to change smoking laws, labor laws, tax laws, 00:27:59.269 --> 00:28:02.160 basically anything Adelson wanted. They were 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:04.299 putting on the Andalusian costume again. Exactly. 00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:06.220 They were dancing for the American billionaire 00:28:06.220 --> 00:28:09.099 and the public saw it immediately. The comparison 00:28:09.099 --> 00:28:11.960 was unavoidable. Protesters started calling the 00:28:11.960 --> 00:28:14.940 project Bienvenido, Mr. Adelson. They literally 00:28:14.940 --> 00:28:17.900 used the film's title to mock it. They even projected 00:28:17.900 --> 00:28:20.359 the movie onto walls during demonstrations. It 00:28:20.359 --> 00:28:23.559 was incredible. That is the power of art. 60 00:28:23.559 --> 00:28:26.200 years later, the best way to critique the government 00:28:26.200 --> 00:28:29.119 was to quote a black and white movie. It just 00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:31.299 shows that the fundamental dynamic hasn't changed. 00:28:31.819 --> 00:28:34.079 Smaller economies are always looking for an outside 00:28:34.079 --> 00:28:36.599 savior, whether it's the Marshall Plan or Euro 00:28:36.599 --> 00:28:39.799 Vegas or, dare I say it, inviting Amazon to build 00:28:39.799 --> 00:28:42.039 a new headquarters in your city. We are always 00:28:42.039 --> 00:28:44.960 tempted to perform for the entity with the money. 00:28:45.079 --> 00:28:48.779 Always. And what about the village itself, Guadalix 00:28:48.779 --> 00:28:51.160 de la Sierra? Did they ever get their tractor? 00:28:51.380 --> 00:28:53.180 I was going to ask. What happened to the real 00:28:53.180 --> 00:28:56.619 town? Well, they got a place in history. If you 00:28:56.619 --> 00:28:59.480 visit Guadalis today, you will find a commemorative 00:28:59.480 --> 00:29:02.619 plaque. The main square has been renamed, and 00:29:02.619 --> 00:29:05.019 right there in the town square, there is a sculpture. 00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:07.720 What's the sculpture of? It depicts the locals 00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:10.900 dressed as Andalusians holding the welcome signs. 00:29:11.220 --> 00:29:14.240 That is so meta. The fake identity they adopted 00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:16.559 in the movie has now become their real identity 00:29:16.559 --> 00:29:19.119 as a tourist attraction. Time flattens everything 00:29:19.119 --> 00:29:21.480 into heritage, doesn't it? The performance has 00:29:21.480 --> 00:29:24.259 become the reality. So let's wrap this up. We've 00:29:24.259 --> 00:29:26.579 looked at the history, the dreams, the politics. 00:29:26.819 --> 00:29:29.400 What are the big takeaways here for someone watching 00:29:29.400 --> 00:29:32.119 this in the 21st century? I think there are three 00:29:32.119 --> 00:29:34.799 layers to this onion. First, it's a warning about 00:29:34.799 --> 00:29:37.880 identity. The film shows the danger of self -erasure. 00:29:38.500 --> 00:29:41.160 When you change who you are to please a master, 00:29:41.359 --> 00:29:43.819 you lose your dignity, and usually you don't 00:29:43.819 --> 00:29:45.859 even get the reward. Right. They ended up with 00:29:45.859 --> 00:29:48.640 nothing but the debt. Authenticity, even if it's 00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:50.720 poor and dusty, is better than a rich man's costume. 00:29:51.259 --> 00:29:53.759 That's the first lesson. It's about the savior 00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:56.799 complex and politics and economics. The film 00:29:56.799 --> 00:30:00.279 exposes the huge gap between high level geopolitics 00:30:00.279 --> 00:30:03.240 and the reality on the ground. The Marshall Plan 00:30:03.240 --> 00:30:05.599 was a strategy for the containment of communism. 00:30:05.980 --> 00:30:09.000 It wasn't a charity for Spanish peasants. We 00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:11.200 have to be realistic about international aid 00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:13.559 and foreign investment. It's never just about 00:30:13.559 --> 00:30:15.839 generosity. There's always an agenda. And the 00:30:15.839 --> 00:30:17.819 third. I think it's the resilience of the community. 00:30:18.910 --> 00:30:21.289 This is the most hopeful part. The film ends 00:30:21.289 --> 00:30:23.829 with the Americans leaving. The dust settles. 00:30:24.529 --> 00:30:27.309 But the people remain. They clean up the mess. 00:30:27.609 --> 00:30:30.210 Manolo gives his ring. They help each other pay 00:30:30.210 --> 00:30:32.509 the debts. That's the most beautiful part. The 00:30:32.509 --> 00:30:35.269 miracle didn't happen, but life goes on. It suggests 00:30:35.269 --> 00:30:37.490 that salvation doesn't come from the sky. It 00:30:37.490 --> 00:30:39.269 doesn't come from a motorcade of black cars. 00:30:39.329 --> 00:30:41.150 It comes from the person standing next to you. 00:30:41.230 --> 00:30:43.769 It really makes you think, we are still doing 00:30:43.769 --> 00:30:46.529 this today. We are still waiting for the American 00:30:46.529 --> 00:30:49.519 motorcade. Maybe today it's not diplomats with 00:30:49.519 --> 00:30:52.680 foreign aid. Maybe it's, you know, tech bros 00:30:52.680 --> 00:30:55.099 from Silicon Valley promising that AI will solve 00:30:55.099 --> 00:30:57.240 all our problems. Or a crypto boom that's going 00:30:57.240 --> 00:30:59.460 to make everyone rich overnight. Exactly. Or 00:30:59.460 --> 00:31:01.420 a foreign investor who's going to revitalize 00:31:01.420 --> 00:31:04.039 our town. We're always scanning the horizon for 00:31:04.039 --> 00:31:05.960 the dust cloud. We're always ready to put on 00:31:05.960 --> 00:31:08.960 a costume. We are. And welcome, Mr. Marshall, 00:31:09.140 --> 00:31:12.400 asks us a very uncomfortable question. What silly 00:31:12.400 --> 00:31:15.079 costume are we currently wearing in the hopes 00:31:15.079 --> 00:31:18.819 that the motorcade stops for us? And maybe, just 00:31:18.819 --> 00:31:21.460 maybe, we should stop looking at the road and 00:31:21.460 --> 00:31:24.319 start tending to our own fields. A profound thought. 00:31:24.380 --> 00:31:26.539 The tractor isn't coming. We have to push the 00:31:26.539 --> 00:31:29.720 plow ourselves, together. That's it for this 00:31:29.720 --> 00:31:32.519 deep dive into Welcome, Mr. Marshall, a comedy 00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:34.680 that is so much more than a laugh. Thanks for 00:31:34.680 --> 00:31:36.220 listening, and we'll see you next time.