by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Better known as Ascent to Heaven, Luis Bunuel's Mexican Bus Ride is a genial surrealistic comedy with many of the earmarks but little of the elegant cruelty of Bunuel's later works. Esteban Marquez plays a young bridegroom who is called away from the altar. Marquez's mother is dying, necessitating a bumpy two-day ride in a rickety bus to the little village where mama resides. En route, Marquez meets many eccentric characters, and is detained in a variety of mirth-provoking ways. Once he's arrived, Marquez is prevented from returning to his wedding by legal squabble's over mama's will.
characteristics
- Inheritance
- Race-against-time
- Seduction
- Peasant
- On-the-road
- Passenger
- Seductress
- Sibling
- Wedding
- Will [document]
- Traveling
- Traveler
- Slice-of-life
- Temptation
- Attorney
