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¿A dónde vas?

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As Schwarzenegger approaches the scene, the marquee of the Arcade Theatre glows in the background, it reads “Los Muchachos Perdidos” and lists the headlining stars as Corey Feldman and Jami Gertz. From the mid-1960s into the early 1990s, Spanish-language films of various sorts screened in several venues in Broadway’s theater district. Exhibited films included features from the Mexican film industry, as well as subtitled versions of Hollywood films. The title “Los Muchachos Perdidos” illustrates this practice, in this scene the Spanish-language version of Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys (1987) is an intertextual signifier, but less as a specific filmic text and more as a practice of translating Hollywood and American media.

Throughout this clip, Spanish acts as a cultural layer that emphasizes the exoticism and otherness of this downtown environment. Unlike any of the film’s other locations, Spanish is the dominant language and persons of color are the majority in the two scenes that take place on Broadway. In this scene, street vernacular, spoken Spanish, punk and Latino music are used to construct a setting of chaos and lawlessness. As he approaches the secret club, Kimble is challenged by an abusive doorman with the question “¿A dónde vas?” (Where are you going?) Kimble answers with an elbow to the face and a headbutt. As Kimble backtracks to his car warning another group that he loves his car, a character reassures him, “Yo man, I’m just gonna keep an eye on it for you, alright?” Luckily, this is the film’s only dialogue attempt at a Black American idiom.

Later in the scene, after Kimble has completely shot up Cindy’s hiding spot, he silences the club’s punk music (Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom’s “The Party Starts Now”) by obliterating the stereo. After the punk music has faded away, a merengue song becomes audible, as though Latin music is the street’s natural pulse. The camera moves into a mid-shot with Kimble and Cindy seated on a couch in the warehouse/ club, while a large “Bridal Shower” sign in red neon shines behind them. These are certainly signs of Broadway, and in attempting to portray the street the film include the sign, the music, the people as cultural, linguistic, and racial signifiers. However, this is precisely the problem. By reducing the street’s cast of characters to signifiers for the white, main characters’ narrative, which include Kimble’s journey away from the urban and its motivated violence, and Cindy’s caricatured descent into drug addiction and death, the film does a disservice to the location’s complexities. In fact, the film’s only character who changes is John Kimble. Broadway is depicted especially broadly to provide a stark contrast to the utopia Kimble is to be rewarded with at the end of his transformation.

Contents of this annotation:

  1. Schwarzenegger on Broadway