The Latin Image :: Latin Americans Romance Love Movies Essays

The Latin Image The romantic and erotic Latin image implied recognition that Latin Americans and Romance peoples produced persons of great beauty and attractiveness.(Rios-Bustamante,21) The most preponderating stereotype that surfaces in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and The Mark of Zorro is that of the Latin Lover. This stereotype may be pictured in a more positive vague because in comparison to other demeaning Latino roles in early American film, the Latin Lover is characterized by suavity and sensuality, tenderness and sexual danger.(Ramirez Berg,115) harmonise to Ramirez Berg, this stereotype we owe to one star Rudolph Valentino.(115) In The Four Men of the Apocalypse, Valentino plays the character of Julio, a man destined to bear the burden of allowing twain his grandfather and his father to relive their lives through him. Alexander Walker speaks of the classic scene. Few film entrances are as stunningly designed as Valentinos in The Four Men of the Apocalyp se..the sequence loses nothing by being so calculatedly staged the impact on audiences was instantaneous. This description shows the impact that Rudolph Valentino had on audiences as the pilot program Latin Lover of the American cinema(even though he wasnt Latino.) Julio is suave and sensual throughout the film, particularly while seductively dancing the tango. Although he is portrayed as this dangerous lover who is worshipped by his models, he is not depicted as a true hero until he offers to fight for his fathers country in the war. It seems as though he actually changes into a man of honor-what anyone least expected from this spoiled son of privilege http//www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/FeaturedVideo/video16.1.htm In The Mark of Zorro, Douglas Fairbanks plays the role of the snappy Zorro, the almost mythical superhero who battles tyrannydefends the rights of both gentry and rabble equally. This film is a good example of the sensuous, desirable Latin Lover stereotype because Fair banks is portrayed both with and without his mask. When Fairbanks is playing the role of Zorro, he is strong, valiant, and romantic. The girl is much more attracted to the dashing Zorro, who romances her in her garden one day. When he embodies the character of fag out Diego Vega, he acts timid and weak, and has trouble winning Lolitas affection. The much stereotyped Latin Lover image was portrayed only by the masked man until the really last scene when Don Diego reveals his identity and protects the woman he loves.