New Mexico Movies: Bless Me, Ultima

Bless Me, Ultima. From:wikipedia

The movie version of the classic New Mexico novel, Bless Me, Ultima, came out while I was in New Mexico, and I didn't see it then. Lo, the DVD was at the Lafayette Public Library.

Here, I reviewed the book.

Movie: Bless Me, Ultima

Provenance: Filmed in (or around) Abiquiu, New Mexico. 

The trailer below is roll-your-eyes hyperbolic about the so-called controversy of the book. Controversial. Banned. Forbidden. Burned. .... Forget about that part - look at it for the scenery! 

I liked the movie. It was pleasing. The scenery, especially, was magnificent - you can see why New Mexico is called the State of Enchantment. Amazingly, the film-makers were even able to do some justice to the marvelous New Mexico sky.

Something I liked about the trailer is that it reflects the feeling I got from this movie: "From the heart of the land, that is our land; from the heart of the culture that is our culture." Bless Me, Ultima - movie version - comes across as an American story. It is of all of us.

Decades ago, on Sunday mornings, there used to be a Christian ministry that produced half-hour morality stories set in modern times. The stories were fairly simple and the acting was serviceable. Wasn't great theater, but it wasn't bad. In fact, they were entertaining.

The movie, Bless Me, Ultima, reminded me of those half-hour episodes, where characters were presented with moral dilemmas and we saw how they handled them.

Recommended? Yes, for the scenery and for a story of Americana that many of us know little about.