Herod's Law

This film follows Juan Vargas, a dimwitted man, who wishes to rise up his parties rank. Herod's Law opens with a man being beheaded after shooting a man, and taking money from hidden spots. Then López, the boss of Vargas, is giving his secretary and earful seeing as their party looks weak and needs to be better than this. The two argue until they decided they need someone dumb enough to be mayor of the Mexican small town San Pedro de los Saguaros. Vargas is told to meet with López, where he is asked to be mayor and he accepts.

Vargas and his wife travel through a rough rural area that looks run down. Vargas is confused and asks a man sitting by a building where San Pedro de los Saguaros is. The man introduces himself as Carlos Pek, his secretary, and that this is San Pedro de los Saguaros. Much to the horror of his wife, Vargas decides to stay and see what can come of his rule here.

The next part of the film Vargas is seen learning how this town works. He learns of the corruption of the previous mayor, and that Doña Lupe along with the priest are both very corrupt and he will be offered bribes. He also learns that he has seven pesos to work with. His wife urges him to go to López to ask for more money to run the town.

On the way his car breaks down, and he meets Robert Smith, an American man looking to make a quick buck. He fixes the car for Vargas for a price of course. Vargas lies and telling him a different name and town to go to in order to collect his money. Vargas arrives at his bosses office and is told he cannot have more money. However, he is given a revolver and a copy of the Mexican Constitution to use in order to make money.

Vargas begins studying the constitution, and how to use the gun. He finds many ways to collect fines and to punish those that are corrupt. He attempts this with Doña Lupe and shoots her in the leg instead. This leads to her showing up at his office offering him a very large sum of money if he ignores her business. At first he resists, but then he caves. This is the first time we see Vargas become corrupt himself. Over time Vargas is seen being more and more corrupt than before. He is "rewording" laws in order to make more money, and he even making his own laws in order to collect more fines from people. Vargas even begins cheating on his wife with Doña Lupe's girls as he is so drunk on his own power. Doña Lupe gets fed up and brings in a very strong man to beat up. Vargas is scared off until it is much later at night. Vargas strikes from the shadows and kills the large man. After some begging Vargas kills Doña Lupe too. Here Vargas can be seen going insane. He throws their bodies off an edge and leaves, but his pin that shows his party is on their bodies. In the morning the bodies are gone and Vargas is scared. When he gets back home the bodies are in his house, and he orders a hunt for the killer. He plants evidence and makes it seem like a drunkard was the killer and Doctor Morales was the mastermind. He exiles Doctor Morales, and kills the drunkard on a ride to the capital to be "sent" to jail.

Vargas gets back and the townsfolk are mad at how much money he has been taking from them. So begins to take even more from them as he is so power drunk. He also finds his wife cheating on him with Robert and chains her up calling her a whore. López goes to see Vargas after attempting to kill a political rival. He demands his money and sends him and an escort to grab it from his house. The money and his wife are gone. He kills the escort and goes back to his boss. They argue and Vargas threatens him with the revolver he was given by his boss. After a moment he kills his boss and shoots all his bullets into him. He reloads and steps outside firing while screaming about whores and money. He is nearly killed by the citizens, and captured by government officials.

The film ends with Vargas becoming President and talking about how pure he is, and how amazing their party is.

On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, Herod's Law has an approval rating of 68% based on 25 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads, "La Ley de Herodes is a biting - if heavy-handed - political satire about greed and corruption in Mexico, featuring a brilliant performance from Damián Alcázar."[4]

• Damián Alcázar as Juan Vargas, A dimwitted and sincere man who gradually transformed into a ruthless dictator
• Pedro Armendáriz Jr. as López, Secretary of the Governor and former boss of Vargas
• Juan Carlos Colombo as The assistant to López
• Alex Cox as Robert Smith, the American who helped Vargas with his car troubles
• Leticia Huijara as Gloria, The former wife of Vargas
• Isela Vega as Doña Lupe, The owner of the brothel
• Salvador Sánchez as Carlos Pek, Vargas' secretary
• Manuel Ojeda as Bartender
• Ernesto Gómez Cruz as The Governor
• Eduardo López Rojas as Doctor Morales
• Delia Casanova as Morales' wife
• Jorge Zárate as Tiburón
• Luis de Icaza as Alcalde Alfredo

This movie was released in Region 1 by 20th Century Fox and Venevision Intl. under the banner Cinema Latino in 2004.[5] This edition has since gone out of print.

A second edition was released in 2006 by Warner Home Video with Fernando Sariñana's Todo el poder.[6]

A third edition was released as a dual region issue for Region 1 and Region 4 by Videomax in 2007.[7]

The film was added to Netflix on July 16, 2021.[8]

• Herod's Law at IMDb
• Herod's Law at AllMovie
• Herod's Law at Netflix
• DVD review (in Spanish)