At the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, an oil painting by Hippolyte Flandrin is displayed there and it is of a lost, naked young man sitting by the sea, awaiting for salvation. That very same painting is often seen in Salvame! Una Luz En La Obscuridad (aka Save Me! A Light In the Darkness), a movie about a young man lost in a sea of drugs & alcohol and seeking salvation.
Salvame Mi Rey. Salvame.
After the murder of his beloved grandfather, Ricardo Maso (Roberto Palazuelos) has struggled through out his life. He really wants to be a singer, but he doesn’t really try to be one and instead just drinks heavily & takes drugs with all his other little rich friends (former close friends of Palazuelos: Pedro Moctezuma & Leonardo García). Ricardo resides in a giant mansion that his grandfather had left him and it's there where he does the most partying at and with the large fortune he was left with—it is mostly spent on alcohol & drugs. Ricardo’s estranged father (Hugo Stiglitz) tries to convince him that he has to do something meaningful with his life, but Ricardo doesn’t listen and continues with his party hard days. Ricardo still heavily traumatized by the death of his grandfather; decides to avenge his death as a way to cope and to “get even”. Ricardo manages to track down the man (Manuel Ojeda) who killed his grandfather and proceeds to blow his brains out. Ricardo thought this would end his troubling ways, but it only leads to more trauma and excessive drug & alcohol use. Ricardo is spiraling out of control until he begins to date a pretty girl named Natalie (Gabriela Platas). Natalie manages to keep Ricardo off his addictions, but soon he goes back to his troubling ways and his once-promising relationship with Natalie sadly ends. Afterwards, Ricardo yet again recovers and finally takes his music career serious & becomes a famous singer in Mexico! Salvation at last!
Roberto Palazuelos has been an interesting figure in Mexico for many years and his life has been a big interest for the media. Palazuelos has always spoke about his life in interviews and when he gained much more notoriety after his questionable portrayal in the Luis Miguel series, the media continuously spoke of Palazuelos’ intriguing life. Roberto Palazuelos is from an aristocratic family based in Acapulco, Guerrero. He grew up without his parents and solely raised by his big-time lawyer grandfather who was assassinated when Palazuelos was only 4 years old. The trauma from losing his grandfather, no real paternal figures around, struggling with his acting career and all-around just hanging with a “bad” crowd—Palazuelos’ life was seriously going in the wrong directions. Eventually, Palazuelos cleaned himself up, restarted his acting career and later became an important businessman & attorney in his native Acapulco. He is doing quite well for himself these days and his notoriety is bigger than ever. He is admired for this and also because of his giant ego that he proudly flaunts.
Palazuelos seems to talk about everything he has ever done, but he doesn’t exactly go into what kind of acting work he’s done besides television. He doesn’t mention any of the movies he starred in and he especially doesn’t go into detail of the movie he made after becoming fully sober. It’s almost as if he is trying to forget it, which is peculiar since Palazuelos really enjoys talking about himself. The good or the bad. It was about 3 years ago when I first heard that Palazuelos had made a movie about his early life and how he funded most of the production, co-wrote the script, had his close friend (at the time) Pedro Moctezuma provide the music and Palazuelos even directed the movie alongside Adolfo Martinez Solares. Palazuelos put a lot of work into this “epic” movie of his, but since then nothing came about it. Its home video releases are very hard to find and it rarely to never airs on TV. It is a very rare movie and I just had to get my hands on a copy of it one way or another. Patience & faith helped me with acquiring a copy, a Baja Films VHS release to be exact and under the title “El Que A Hierro Mata, A Hierro Muere”. This retitling comes from a line said in the movie.
After finally acquiring a copy of Salvame and watching it twice; I was surely not disappointed by it, but of course couldn’t help but notice how truly bizarre the movie really is. It is bizarre because Palazuelos was really shoving his life story up the ass of this movie and giving it many money shots of cheesy drama, cheesy romance, cheesy as fuck music and it even has an anti-drug message thrown in as well. And I cannot forget to mention the movie’s obvious Coca-Cola product placements since there are many Coke cans & Coke signs visible through out the entire duration, but what’s even more peculiar than the Coke placements all around is the music that Palazuelos’ former friend had recorded for Palazuelos to lip-sync over. They’re all very cheesy-sounding 1990's songs. One song is called “Salvame” and it is an ultra-cheesy ballad that plays during a scene where a “lost“ Palazuelos is at the beach thinking of his many fuck-ups in life. In a nightclub scene, “Ven A Mi” plays loudly and it sounds like your typical 1990’s club music but much, much cheesier.
Salvame! Una Luz En La Obscuridad is a heavily-bloated & bizarre movie, but it is intriguingly entertaining as well. It is a shame that this movie is heavily ignored and very much forgotten since it honestly deserves much attention, especially amongst the crazy fans that Palazuelos has. This is basically his memoir right here. His Scarface. His Gone with the Wind. His Diary of Anne Frank. Maybe one day Palazuelos will speak about Salvame, but until then it remains hidden away & forgotten except here at Trash-Mex where it is now proudly preserved and celebrated.
Recuérdate de tu pelicula, Mi Rey. Recuérdate.
