Revisiting: ‘Tony Manero,’ the Introduction to Pablo Larraín’s Pinochet Trilogy
Courtesy of Kino Lorber
Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín’s recent work alternates between English-language titles like Jackie and Spencer and movies shot in his home country, including Ema from 2019 and last year’s El Conde. However, the director’s early career was concretized by his unintended Pinochet Trilogy: three films released between 2008 and 2012 that work to navigate Augusto Pinochet’s oppressive authoritarian regime that lasted from 1973 to 1990. Just Larraín’s sophomore feature effort, Tony Manero introduces this triptych, following a middle-aged psychopathic killer in Santiago obsessed with the 1977 American blockbuster Saturday Night Fever. Through this amoral character, whose past, present, and future have been obliterated by Pinochet’s militaristic administration, Tony Manero reevaluates one of the darkest eras in Chile’s national history.
The central subject in Tony Manero is Raúl Peralta (Alfredo Castro, one of Chile’s best-known actors and frequent Larraín-collaborator), a man in his early fifties that leads a ragtag group of amateur dancers who perform at the rundown boarding house where he lives. Raúl is infatuated with Saturday Night Fever, specifically John Travolta’s leading character, Tony Manero. Raúl ritualistically rewatches the film as it makes its theatrical run, aspiring to win a Tony Manero lookalike contest hosted by a national television network. Raúl obsessively strives to embody every detail of the Saturday Night Fever heartthrob, blind or numbed to the society around him as it crumbles into violence. Through brutal and desperate measures, Raúl does whatever he can to reach his goal of winning the contest despite its ultimate purposelessness concerning his everyday reality.
Courtesy of Kino Lorber
In Tony Manero, Castro's characterization of Raúl denotes Chile's lifeblood being drained away during Pinochet's height of power, a vision more pointedly explored through El Conde's vampiric analogies over a decade later. Raúl's personal history is enigmatic; his violent outbursts and masculine insecurity are only understood through his cruel exchanges with the surrounding world. Raúl's ignoble position outside of Pinochet's military orbit left him a subject of the trauma it inflicted upon the people of Chile, which became increasingly constricting throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s. The film powerfully paints the insensate society that emerged during the Pinochet Era, the feelings of distrust in a culture of surveillance and repression.
Tony Manero's narrative strongly recalls the intense neoliberalism and free-market economy brought to Chile by Pinochet's leadership. The dictator's close ties with the Western governments that unjustly brought him to power, fueled by fears of Communism in South America, greatly influenced his economic policies, most unquestionably through his appointment of the Chicago Boys—Chilean economists educated at the University of Chicago—as advisors. The film's characters within the confines of their authoritarian society continually convey their glorification of Western culture, most vigorously through Raúl's idolization of the pop culture character he wishes to personify. Raúl's transformation he has envisioned in his mind is deluded by his physical surroundings: a significant storyline throughout Tony Manero involves Raúl's lengthy search for the glass he needs to recreate Saturday Night Fever's iconic disco dance floor, culminating with a shoddy DIY version due to Chile's sluggish economy and limited material resources. The gloomy, bleak reality portrayed in Tony Manero's recreation of Santiago is only escapable by Raúl through his compulsive fixation with John Travolta's star-making character, which, in turn, depicts a larger image of Chile's complicated relationship with the West during this era.
Not only does Tony Manero portray Larraín's immense filmmaking talents early in his career, but it also demonstrates the writer/director's challenging relationship with his nation's tumultuous past and its lasting implications in Chile today. The South American country still operates under a constitution drafted by Pinochet's government, highly suggestive of the conservative power the authoritarian ruler still wields long past his death. Larraín's unofficial Pinochet Trilogy continued with 2010's Post Mortem and No in 2012, creating three films that capture distinctive stretches of Pinochet's rule. Tony Manero made its world premiere in the Director's Fortnight sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 before becoming Chile's submission for Best International Film at the 81st Academy Awards.