Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

The men make it clear that they have no respect for the Sergeant Major without his
uniform. The uniform constructs a soldier, not the gun Gregorio is using to try to
intimidate them. This mockery is enjoyable, but the unforeseen comment of the child
reveals that it is those in uniform, such as the army and the police, who represent the
country, not the citizens. The audience realises the place they occupy in the social
pyramid. Several bystanders make fun of the Sergeant Major by calling him ‘chaparro’
and making fun of him. Neither his gun nor his position in the army can stop them from
mocking him. Some even try to seduce his girl, including Eufemio and Quijano.
Soldiers may be in a position of superiority when they are on duty, but once they are
not, they are the same as the rest of us.
Alcoriza also criticised the army in his next film, Las Fuerzas Vivas (1975),
representing soldiers as mercenaries, but in this latter case, the story took place during
the Mexican Revolution. Still, it would appear that Echeverría made good on his
promise to tolerate the discussion of a variety of topics.
Conclusions
As we have seen, the issues raised in these films do not differ greatly from those in the
comics. Despite the censorship cinema had suffered historically, various topics were
tolerated even when they were critical of the government and public institutions.
However, it is important to make clear that we can only make this statement in reference
to the films considered here, because every director might have had different
experiences regarding the level of censorship (or self-censorship) exercised.
Calzonzin Inspector and Tívoli are related directly to politics and political
decisions. Calzonzin Inspector is a satire that ridicules negligent politicians and the
oligarchy that supports them, while Tívoli shows how the authorities mistreated the
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