MovieChat Forums > The Mexican (2001) Discussion > significance of the open-air truck appea...

significance of the open-air truck appearing twice

posted 17 years ago by puja21
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shown at the beginning when pitt idles out into the intersection thru a red light & almost gets t-boned. it's a full length flat bed truck but no enclosed cab; just an open air driver's seat.

then shown again when gandolfini pulls the gun on pitt during the tire change scene-- gandolfini sees the same truck coming over the hill & conceals the weapon. i wanna say the driver was wearing a mexican wrestler mask too... equally confused about that.

just seems like it's waaaay too subtle of a device for a film as poorly scripted as this was. random or pretentious msg about the overwhelming impact of seemingly insignificant events a la magnolia, NCFOM, etc?

[–] justalottapage 16 years ago

The 'open air' truck was a truck chassis being driven from one factory to another. They build the chassis cabs at one factory, then drive them to another to be completed. In the US, they would instead be transported by truck carrier or train. In Mexico, they don't have such strict laws so they just drive them.

The director's use of the chassis cabs gave the movie a distinct flavor, and a quirky plot device for Pitt's chararcter to ponder. I thought it was a great addition to the movie !