In January, I went to Spain. This is always for pleasure, but I like to pretend there is a business purpose, too – so on this occasion I was doing location research for my film, DEAD MEXICANS, and also for a werewolf Western my friend Geoff Marslett intends to make: THE CURSE OF SILVER. So I spent a week in the Tabernas desert, taking pictures and getting prices, and looking for local crew. Usually films bring their cast and crew with them – from Madrid, or LA, or wherever they are based – but obviously there are sound reasons, fiscal and practical, to hire people locally. Anyway, I made my report and headed north on the train, back through Madrid, to a small city called Tudela, where I had never been.
My goal was to visit a small but supposedly picturesque desert which has been used in various films and TV shows – the Bardenas Reales. This was more for my film than for Geoff’s. DEAD MEXICANS ends with two of the protagonists in a very different place, so even though it’s still the desert, it’s a very different kind of desert. I’m sure you know what I mean. My thought was to shoot almost everything in Tabernas, and then pop up to Bardenas, with its striking monumental columns, for the final scenes.
The RENFE trip up – partly on an old passenger train, partly on a newer Ave, was flawless, and I settled into a nice hotel room on the main square. Downtown Tudela is a handsome place. Sunday morning I was up bright and early to go and pick up my rental car. A thick mist rolled in off the river as a taxi took me to an industrial park a few kilometers out of town. There it left me. I rang the bell of the auto rental place. No one answered. I waited there a while, wondering if the lessors would show up for their appointment to rent me my car. It being Sunday, the other car rental places in town were closed. As, it turned out, was this place. I hung out a while longer, enjoying my fog-shrouded surroundings, then walked back to town.
Next day I looked into renting a car at the railway station. But here, they won’t rent to a US license holder. Such motorists must take the train to Navarra, it is said, and rent a car there. As far as I could ascertain, there was no bus to the Bardenas Reales. So I returned to Madrid without seeing them. Was I downhearted? No! For in one of the side streets adjacent to the Cathedral I found a bar named (highly surprisingly) El Catedral. Magnificent tapas and raciones were to be had there. So all was well. Next day I went back to discover that they only open three days a week. So in lieu of the bar I hit the Cathedral, which is famous for the carvings in its cloister, and, among the artworks on display, a Bosch Last Judgement.
(Apologies for the poor lighting at the top of the frame.) The Cathedral Museum attributes this painting to the school of Bosch, but why be modest? It looks like the great man’s work. At the Prado in Madrid you can see The Garden of Earthly Delights and The Hay Wain: the Tudela painting reminds this viewer of the hell panel in The Garden… And the burning city on the right horizon anticipates Bruegel, and his Triumph of Death.
Looking at this example of the Christian day of doom – the last judgement where Jesus is scheduled to return, reward the good, and punish the bad – reminds me of the uniqueness of the Bruegel. The Triumph of Death is one big scene of skeleton mayhem and devilish punishment – without Jesus in the sky. Judgement is automated, run by the already-dead. God and Jesus have fled the scene. Here’s a closer look at the lower portion of our potential Bosch.
As far as the last scene of DEAD MEXICANS is concerned, there is always Tucson!
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