The Perfect Game Movie Analysis

I think the movie: The Perfect Game is very accurate to Spanish cultures in the setting that the movie portrays. The movie succeeded in showing the discrimination that not only the 1957 Monterrey Industrials faced, but also Mexicans in general in the late 1950’s.

The movie started by instantly showing how the US discriminated against Caesar Faz. The US discriminated against Caesar Faz by firing him from the St.Louis Cardinals, because having a Mexican worker wasn’t something that was seen as positive at the time. Even throughout the movie, he’s still made fun of, and discriminated against. The most obvious evidence is when the boys meet the Cardinals players, and they make fun of Caesar for being a towel boy. Not only did the US discriminate against him, but so did Mexico. They didn’t like the fact that it seemed he only returned back because he was “kicked out” of the US. Both countries felt he wasn’t loyal.

In the movie, the Americans would try everything to get in the Industrials way in the tournament. They tried getting them deported because their passports expired, when in reality only one person needed to leave. Later in the movie, when the game was delayed due to rain, the league made the announcement to the fans. However, the announcement mainly included  making fun of the Industrials because of their small size. Not only this, but they also delayed the game to 2:30 which as Caesar says; “everyone knows 2:30 is a mexicans siesta time.” In the US, the industrials experienced stereotypes like being dirty and improper. However, this was because of the fact that they were not used to a place so much wealthier than their own.

No matter where they went, both the Industrials, and Caesar were heavily discriminated against. Yes, it was more the Americans that would discriminate against them, however it went both ways. The Americans didn’t want to associate with them because they viewed the Mexicans as lower class. However, the Mexicans at Monterrey felt that the Industrials and Caesar wanted to be Americans. They faced a stereotype in the US of being too poor, but in Mexico they stereotyped them by saying that they were “want to be’s”.

Yes, it's a happy ending in the movie, but it’s only realistic in terms of the discrimination in baseball. Even though the Industrials won the championship, they would still be discriminated against for being Mexican, so in the end, the discrimination isn’t fully over. However, they proved the Americans who doubted them wrong. So some of the discrimination was overcome, but not all of it.