White Knight

Eric and I extended our stay in San Diego by a day when we were given tickets to see a movie in the San Diego Film Festival on Saturday.  Two of the actors in the film accompanied us on the water drop and cemetery visit earlier in the week (written about here).  Here is Eric's review of the movie:


I had seen Hector Jimenez, one of the actors that came with us to accompany Enrique, in the movies Voces Inocentes and Nacho Libre. I was impressed with his talent and goofiness so was kind of exited to see White Knight. They had told us that the movie basically featured a member of the KKK who, doing time in prison, was changed by an unlikely friendship with his Mexican cellmate - but that it was a comedy! It sounded unlikely, but we went and were pleasantly surprised.
 
White Knight takes place in east Texas in the 1970's. Leroy Lowe (Tom Sizemore), Grand Dragon of the Texas KKK, is sentenced to 3 years hard labor at a prison work farm. After his white cell mate chokes on a potato, Leroy finds himself living with a Mexican farm worker in for labor organizing. While enduring rehabilitation talks given him by the warden and his potato-centered philosophies, Leroy begins falling unexpectedly in love with the Mexican maid who cleans the warden's office. Going against everything he had been taught to hate, he is forced seek the help of his cellmate Emilio (Hector Jimenez). I'm not going to give everything away, but it is enormously funny and it brings to the surface the deeper issues of prejudice and immigration that we find ourselves struggling with today. Olga Segura who also accompanied us that day in the desert, played her very first movie roll as Magdalena, the maid who cleans the warden's office. Both she and Hector did amazing jobs.

We both really enjoyed the movie and the only critique I have has to do with the lack of geographical accuracy that is found in many movies. There is nothing resembling desert in east Texas, east Texas does not flood when the Rio Grande overflows its banks, etc. But I'm the only one noticing these things so if you get the chance, White Knight comes highly recommended from the both of us.  It should be coming out some time in February so keep your eyes open!

Eric