A work of satirical fiction, and a good one
a film review by Eric Jackson
The Tailor of Panama
Directed by John Boorman
With Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine
McCormack, Leonor Varela and Harold Pinter
Columbia Pictures 2001
On June 14 at the Alhambra on Via Espa–a, the Journalists' Forum for
Freedom of Expression (Forum de Periodistas) held Panama's premiere showing
of 'The Tailor of Panama.' When the John LeCarre novel on which the book is
based first appeared, it was roundly criticized by a number of well educated
Panamanians who ought to be able to distinguish news and history from fiction
because they said it cast Panama in a false and unflattering light. Thus the
forum provided members of the audience with a questionnaire, asking our opinion
of the movie, and whether it harms Panama's image and ability to attract foreign
investment.
Actually, I thought that the commercials before the film were more harmful
to this country's reputation than the movie ever could be. All the models
were from Panama's less than 10 percent white minority, and it was one more
damning proof of the racism that pervades corporate Panama, and particularly
the big ad agencies. The message to the vast majority of Panamanian girls
and women was 'white is beautiful, and you're not, so you're not.' What does
that do to Panama's reputation as a place to do business? It tells potential
investors that this society leaves more than 90 percent of its human resources
underdeveloped, just to aggrandize the egos of a tiny minority of the white
minority.
'The Tailor of Panama' is not afflicted with this problem. With a cameo
appearance by Samy and Sandra Sandoval, a musical theme composed by Dino Nugent
and realistic Panama City street scenes that included some fun-looking revelry,
the popular culture portrayed was Panamanian, rainbow and beautiful, in contrast
to the commercials' vanilla imported banalities.
Not everything about our country and its ways of life is beautiful, nor
did the film portray it as such. 'The Tailor of Panama'takes the audience
to a seedy brothel in one scene, and run-down neighborhoods in others. Early
in the film, we get a good sense of the capital's chaotic traffic.
Still, the scene at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort's marina restaurant
ought to drum up some business for Herman Bern's wonderful but underused
luxury hotel development; and the part wherein Brosnan, Rush and Curtis party
on an island along Gatun Lake's Banana Channel surely must spark positive
images of Panama in the minds of plenty of movie goers in other countries.
That part of Panama that comes across as ugly is its business elite, which
is portrayed as rather uniformly disreputable, albeit with a wide spectrum
of sleaze. The tailor, a British ex-convict who has tried to hide his past
and go more or less straight since moving to Panama, is mostly the victim
of juega vivo by his elite customers and his banker. It's the British
spy who bribes and blackmails him into playing the game, as it turns out in
a most maladroit fashion.
The film paints an even darker picture of British spies and diplomats, and
portrays the highest echelons at the Pentagon as a collection of reactionary
fanatics. In the movie we see responsible UK officials putting up a front
as representatives of a great empire that exists mainly in memory as they
stoop to Third World hustles, and US policy makers with far more money and
military might than brains. Add a degenerate scoundrel of a spy to the mix
and Panama becomes the setting for other people's amazing follies.
It's a comedy of errors, with Jamie Lee Curtis and Leonor Varela
playing the Zonian and chola straight women respectively. It had me, and most
of the premiere audience, laughing throughout.
'The Tailor of Panama' is dark humor, and eminently worthy satire. This
is one of those works in which the movie is better than the book. If you haven't
already done so, you should go out and see this flick.
