‘El Camino’ Is So Good, It Doesn’t Need to Have a Point

After six long years without the antics of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), Vince Gilligan finally decided to cut his restless fan-base some slack and release another chapter of the “Breaking Bad” saga. “El Camino” gives its audience closure, another dose of expert film-making, and the chance to see Cranston and Paul reprise their iconic roles for perhaps the last time, but does this final chapter taint what came before it?

Unsurprisingly, the film expects its viewers to have seen the entirety of “Breaking Bad” — it is “A Breaking Bad Movie” by its own title. But Gilligan acknowledges that it has been six years since the finale by peppering in reminders about who the characters are or what occurred before the film takes place without smothering it in exposition. A viewer who has never seen the series could easily pick up the major plot points to enjoy this film at the surface level.

But it wouldn’t be a TV movie without some fan-service. The re-appearance of characters like Walt, Jane (Krysten Ritter), and Mike (Jonathan Banks) both appease the viewers who want to see more of these characters and actually have a functional purpose in the film. They effectively serve as either catalysts for or are critics of Jesse’s actions. Other references, like Pinkman’s iconic “Yeah, bitch! Magnets!” or the first glimpse of the hair under Skinny Pete’s (Charles Baker) beanie, were thrown in with a little wink and a nod to the long-standing fanbase, without bogging down the overall content. “El Camino” artfully manages to give people the call-backs they want without making it an overly nostalgic game of “Oh, I remember that episode” for the audience.

In keeping with the standard of the original series, the cinematography of this film, executed by Marshall Adams, is exceptional. To give just one example of how expertly the film was shot, the mere opening sequence sets up the entire film for such a high level of cinematography. It begins with a handheld shot of the desert of New Mexico, a landscape so synonymous with “Breaking Bad” that it immediately throws the audience into the world of the series again. The back of a character’s head moves into frame, but the focus remains on the desert hills in front of them. Even while out of focus, the figure with the buzz-cut is instantly recognizable as Jesse Pinkman. Every element of this scene subtly transports the viewer to the world of “Breaking Bad” without even a single line of dialogue.

The camera work throughout the film allows for the audience to learn things before the characters and vice versa. Marshall seems to have taken great care in deciding what to show and what not to show to the camera, letting the audience use their own knowledge of the show and characters to figure things out before having them explained explicitly. Music director Dave Porter effectively utilizes a pounding drum-beat to represent key moments of stress for Pinkman. The sound mimics a pounding heart, causing the audience to immediately empathize with the anxiety of the characters as their hearts began to race.

At this point in the history of “Breaking Bad” and its production, it’s almost redundant to mention the outstanding performances of the actors. As expected, every performance in “El Camino” feels like the actor has lived the character for years, which in many ways they have. Paul’s performance didn’t feel like a performance at all — he simply breathes through the character of Jesse Pinkman. All the performances were a perfect reminder as to how the show worked so well and was so impactful in the first place.

The only drawback is the plot itself. There seems to be a goal in sight, for Pinkman to evade the Police and get his happy ending, but the plot points that lead to that objective are meandering and unfocused. While a plot structure like this can be used effectively, such as in “Good Time” (the 2017 Safdie Brothers film), “El Camino” has five seasons of history behind it already. Television series are built to be medandering, with an overarching narrative carrying them through. A film built from a television series has to be strong in its conviction that it is a story that has to be told, and told in a film format. “El Camino” could have easily been a three episode extension of “Breaking Bad.”

Did this film even need to be made in the light of the near-flawless series that is “Breaking Bad”? The finale of the show already implied the eventual happy ending that “El Camino” provides. Watching Jesse drive into the night screaming and banging on his steering wheel tells the audience all they need to know, that he reclaimed his freedom — and “El Camino” doesn’t add to that.

But Gilligan hints that this meandering plot is central to Pinkman as a character. In the final scene of the film, Jane tells Jesse about the role of fate in her life. “I’ve gone where the universe takes me my whole life. It’s better to make those decisions for yourself,” she says. Throughout the film, Jesse has gone wherever he is taken in order to reach his goal of freedom. The final decision he makes to gain it could be considered wildly out of character, but it’s at this point that he follows Jane’s advice, taking control of his own life and being an active participant in his own story. While he may seem to have a decaying sense of morality, he maintains his integrity and his need to, in his own words, “Put things right,” but as Mike tells him in the opening scene, “That’s the one thing you can never do.”

The potential weaknesses in the plot don’t detract from Gilligan’s fantastic writing. While the overall story is tenuous, the individual scenes are engaging and intelligently written. Gilligan makes a point to teach the audience a lesson about a circumstance or character, and then teach the exact opposite lesson in the next scene. He pulls the rug out from under you and so keeps the audience feeling tense and chaotic, just as the characters do.

“El Camino” isn’t necessary to understand the full scope of the “Breaking Bad” universe, but it wasn’t created with the intention of doing so. “El Camino” is cinematically exceptional and an incredible revisiting of characters and storylines people have loved for years. Any fan of the original series would be hard-pressed to say it isn’t worth watching. And after all, the purpose of creating a piece of entertainment is to entertain people — going beyond pure entertainment is merely a welcome addition.