Buy Me a Gun: The Trouble With Concept Over Content

Julio Hernandez Cordon’s dystopian thriller, Buy Me a Gun – or, Comprame un Revolver – draws upon inspiration from a number of different sources; elements of iconic texts such as Huckleberry Finn and Peter Pan are blended with contemporary classics like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Mad Max. The result of this fusion is an exciting, if not entirely mystifying, union of different tastes, ideas and themes.

Released to online streaming sites Amazon Prime and Mubi just earlier this week, Buy Me a Gun has received nominations at a number of international film festivals and featured at Cannes earlier this summer. Reviews, however, have been mixed, with critic Guy Lodge from Variety calling Cordon’s narrative both “slender and sluggish”.

Yet, Cordon is no newbie, he’s directed a number of feature films such as I Promise You Anarchy (2015) and Gasolina (2008), as well as a series of documentaries. I enjoyed Buy Me a Gun, conceptually it was particularly strong, but I would wholeheartedly agree with Lodge’s critical response. If anything, Buy Me a Gun is a total masterclass in why relying on the power of your concept doesn’t make up for shortcomings in terms of plot and character development.

Let’s start with the concept. Cordon’s narrative is set in an unspecified time in Mexico’s future. The cartel has essentially taken control of/abolished the political system and society has all but fallen apart. Warlords rule the countryside and warring factions commit massacres with total impunity. Women are disappearing, drugs are commonplace, and fear is being used to prop up despotic militias.

It’s in this ugly scenario that we are introduced to Huck – an overt reference to Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn – and her addict father, Rogelio, who funds his crippling drug addiction through hosting roaming militia groups at his baseball stadium – men come, they drink, they play baseball and sometimes they shoot up the whole place. Huck and her father endure a tough existence that can easy be likened to McCarthy’s protagonists in his own dystopian novel, The Road.

After the abduction of Huck’s mother and sister, her father keeps her ankle in chains in fear of people kidnapping her. When she can, Huck hangs out with a group of three orphans who are called the Lost Boys, you can see how Cordon’s overt referencing starts to get a bit muddled. One of the boys, Angel, lost his arm when a militiaman cut it off during the boy’s stint in captivity. The boys’ sole aim now is to get the arm back, which is undoubtedly more of a half-baked, unexplained symbolic quest than anything else.

So, conceptually, the film is actually quite intriguing, and its shoe-string budget positively supports the film’s dystopian visuals and downtrodden themes. In terms of technique, Buy Me a Gun succeeds in creating a tangible, human relationship between Huck and Rogelio (although don’t mistake this for individual character development) and the film also does a pretty good job of generating tension at times too.

However, Cordon’s narrative is not without flaws - of which there are quite a lot. First of all, in terms of story, the plot is incredibly simple, stationary and straightforward. Plot development is slow – which is really weird for a film that has a running time of just 84 minutes – and significant events are undermined by the actions of one-dimensional characters. The general tone of the movie is remarkably flat, an absence of music permeates the story with a lingering sense of emptiness – although you could always argue that this in fact supports Cordon’s bleak visuals.

Ultimately, the film almost feels lost and confused within its own web of cultural references and heavy concept delivery. From the very beginning, the viewer is excited to see what Twainesque adventure Huck will go on throughout the narrative, but the setting remains almost entirely unexplored and these myriad references end up appearing stark and illogical. Characters tend do things for no relatable reason and endeavour to accomplish tasks that have no real depth or substance.

The narrative is, of course, conveyed to us through the perspective of Huck and therefore there is an understanding that events are being observed through the eyes of an innocent youth in a world fuelled by violence, fear and paranoia. However, sometimes it feels like Cordon has trouble relating to Huck’s experience, a problem which greatly impacts the script. Coupled with mediocre child acting, a number of powerful scenes fall completely flat, while others are just plain dull.

However, in saying all of this, I’ve read enough Philip K Dick to know that I can be a sucker for a story that relies heavily on concept alone. While not perfect, Buy Me a Gun is an entertaining watch for anyone who loves dystopian tales or obscure Peter Pan references.