The girl from our backyard. What does the classic box office action hero look like? A muscular bodybuilder capable of captivating the audience with his pumped muscles? Or an experienced warrior who passed fire, water and copper pipes to once again sweep away the scoundrels who dared to question the ideals of justice? Or maybe a clever master of martial arts, who comprehended the philosophy of a warrior and, before going on a spiritual path to Nirvana, throwing unworthy Srebroluts to the dust? In any case, if we turn to the heyday of the genre, the protagonist of the action blockbuster will necessarily be the embodiment of masculinity in one form or another. Rare cases when the central character of the action movie did not have primary sexual characteristics between the legs only confirm the rule: the lot of these films remained the category "B" and popularity among freaks and adepts of the genre (as an example - the tape with Cynthia Rothrock and Sue Price) or not too successful rolling fate (even with the subsequent transition to the category of "cult", as in "Red Sony"). Of course, in 1990, Luc Besson with his “Nikita” radically changed the gender laws of the genre, but in the early 80s on both sides of the ocean they seemed inviolable.
But not in Mexico, which has always gone its own way in commercial cinema. Starting from cabaret melodramas of the 40s-50s, through the adventurous adventures of mascots-ludores (Santo, Blue Demon, Thousand Masks and dozens of their epigones) to the highest-grossing fighter in the history of national cinema, which in any other country in the world could hardly recoup its more than modest budget. But in the country of tequila and burrito, the tape “Lola-Trafficker” not only became a nationwide cult – it gave rise to a whole trend and forever tied actress Rosa Gloria Chagoyan to the image of a woman who “will stop a horse at a jump”... If before the role of Lola Chagano, the winner of one of the regional beauty contests in cinema did not gain special laurels, although she starred quite actively, after the release of the film by Raul Fernandez, she turned into an icon of the genre and a sample of style, which, not without her help, began to rapidly gain popularity in her country. One by one, the Mexican screens came out pictures with the all-conquering Rosa Gloria, in which she surprisingly gracefully engaged in exclusively male affairs: she drove trailers, drove a locomotive (La Rielera), washed gold (Golden River), drove a huge motorcycle with a shotgun (La guerrera vengadora). But the success of Lola Trucker was not destined to repeat any of these films. Including the two sequels of the franchise, in which an order of magnitude more money was invested than in the pilot tape.
The viewer fell in love with the very first “Lola”, but for that – not being a Mexican to understand will be quite difficult. There is no super dynamic action and mind-blowing tricks. In addition, Chagoyan’s success on the podium by the 83rd year remained in the past, but very high height and dense physique did not go anywhere. No, she retained a perfect figure, but a wide bone and large facial features made her a dubious candidate for such popular melodramas in Mexico. At the same time, the actress had no relation to martial arts or at least sports, preferring performances on the stage and recording music albums to these classes, which allowed her to gain local popularity. It seems - well, which one is the hero of the fighters? But Raul Fernandez, who made the film, managed to convince the entire population of his country of the opposite. He did not force Rosa Gloria to do anything other than run, jump, and crush hundreds of enemies with a wave of his hand. Lolita Chagano remains an ordinary woman in unusual circumstances. The same as millions of ordinary Mexicans (and not necessarily even female), but not losing the presence of spirit in any situation, having a sharpened sense of justice, able to appreciate real friendship (who said - male?) and able to put in the place of any impudent - whether it is not in moderation loving macho or threatening the whole world mafia boss.
Lola does nothing special, but somehow it turns out that she always comes to the aid of the brave police officer Jorge Stander, under the cover of a trailer driver trying to get the drug lord Leoncio Cardenas red-handed. Moreover, Lola has to save the hapless cop even when he tries to stand up for her herself. But what about a tavern fight, what is driving her trailer, that pursuing a fleeing drug lord, Lolita invariably maintains absolute calm, equanimity and a sense of humor. With the latter, everything is in order and the director, who deftly mixes the traditions of the adventure film of the 60s and the action movie of the 80s. So, the scene in the road inn with a cheerful bedlam "all against all" as if taken from some parody western, racing on trailers cause obvious associations with "Convoy" Sam Peckinpah, and the epic assault on the headquarters of Cardenas - almost with military militants.
However, speaking about the similarity with the “Convoy” or the “epic” of the final fight, you need to make a discount on the very low budget of the “Lola Trucker”. In the second part, pure action will take up almost two-thirds of screen time, and in the third, the producers will not regret the dizzying tricks of expensive trailers. That's where the heavy truck races are really impressive. In the first series, everything is much more modest: the trailer blew up only one, and that model. Car tricks are very modest, and fights are comical not only because it was intended. But a successful idea with the main character, invading the traditional male world, and the ideal entry of Rosa Gloria Chagoyan into the image made the film beloved not the first generation of Mexicans.
As for the rest of the world, unfortunately, Lola spoke the wrong language. And so, with the exception of the Mexican diaspora in the United States, which, like the population of the metropolis, willingly voted for the Trucker dollar, the adventures of the trailer driver on the deserted Mexican roads, no one saw. Were it otherwise, it’s possible that the action-packed heroine of the franchise from Michoacan (the script’s home state of Lolita Chagano) would also have received a nefarious voice on the Russian soundtrack. Perhaps then the teenagers of the 80s would have one idol more. And certainly, in humanity and responsiveness, "the girl from our yard" Lola Truckwoman would be a much better example than all sorts of "universal soldiers" or "terminators."