"Wild Hogs"

Left: William Macy experiences a New Mexico hello.

With the news that Stephanie Skewes was cast in "Wild Hogs" (see previous post), together with the New Mexico locale (where I'm from), there was finally enough incentive to see what promised to be a pretty predictable film.

Sadly, Stephanie Skewes gets only one line, plus several scenes where she's in the background. Nevertheless, she's broken into the big time, and her next film, "Growing Out", promises much more time on camera.

"Wild Hogs" was fairly amusing, but a bit lame: Martin Lawrence and William Macy made the experience enjoyable.

Of course, what really got me was the New Mexico locale. I used to go up to Madrid in the 70's with friend Steve Martin for New Mexico Jazz festivals, held at the old ball park. My dad remembers going up there with his dad in the 30's for exciting boxing matches in the coal camps.

By the early 60's, with the coal mines closed, the town nearly died, but it was reinvigorated in the late 60's with counterculture folks. That was probably the time when the accent on the town's name changed, from Ma - DRID (Spanish), to MA - drid (English): lots of English speakers had moved in. The town's location, more or less in between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but off the main highway, is a help, especially since they can tap into the boom in Santa Fe-related interests. After all, Shirley MacClaine and her crystal crowd is based at her ranch near Galisteo, not that far away from Madrid....

The last time I visited Madrid was in 1995. I picked up some Casas Grandes pottery in a Madrid shop. The pottery came from northern Mexico, in Chihuahua: close enough culturally to be similar to New Mexico pottery (I think the Casas Grandes Indians are related to the ancient Mimbres culture of SW NM), but nevertheless different - much thinner pottery; more elegant. The folks who ran the shop knew their pottery well.

Hollywood is shockingly cavalier with places and locales in movies - they've always been that way. An example from this movie are some of the road scenes, supposedly filmed in Missouri, but which were obviously filmed in the lush, piney, high-elevation Jemez Caldera, west of Los Alamos. They also used the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, just west of Taos, in the same careless spirit.

Nevertheless, these filmmakers were very, very careful with Madrid. Madrid is a real place, after all. They didn't try to change the name of the town, and they repeated the town's name's pronunciation, for the benefit of the slow. I wonder why they were so careful? It's quite striking, really, when Hollywood couldn't care less, usually. They must like the place!

I loved the immediate surroundings of Madrid - the San Pedro and Ortiz Mountains, looking bright, fresh, and glorious. Interestingly, in the 60's and 70's, bikers used to gather at a bar in Golden, NM, not far from Madrid (but not directly featured in the movie). Bikers are part of the folklore of the area. Maybe that's why they picked Madrid for the movie???

The main street of Madrid looked more-or-less familiar, with that sharp bend in the main street, but I didn't see the old ball park (unless that's where the 'chili festival' was filmed) and I didn't see any pottery or any crystals or any jazz musicians. Oh well - can't have everything!