Who's
In It: Emilio Echeverria, Goya Toledo, Alvaro Guerrero, Vanessa Bauche, Jorge
Salinas Who Directed It: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Year
of release: 2001
Amores Perros (2001)
Movie Review Reviewed by: Nick Goodwin
If
you thought watching a film about the highly complex and emotionally challenged
lives of a homeless ex-freedom fighter turned assassin, a one legged perfume model
and a man who is having an illicit affair with his brothers wife while he is out
robbing grocery stores, all set against the ugly backdrop of illegal dog fighting
in inner city Mexico wasn't your idea of a quiet Friday night in with a movie
then think again.
Scripted
by renowned Mexican novelist Guillermo Arriaga and helmed by first time feature
director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Amores Perros (Love's A Bitch) is a startling,
often brutal concoction of interconnecting stories aimed at examining the human
condition and all its failings.
Divided
into a triptych of tales, culminated by a horrendously bone crunching car crash,
Amores Perros interweaves and overlaps its characters and their stories, following
them into the residual relationships they contrive with the people in their life,
their situation and focusing on how they exist amongst the struggle and strife
of daily life all in the name of a thing called love.
Filmed
primarily in a sun-bleached documentary style, with extensive use of hand held
cameras and tightly held shots gives the audience a distinct feeling of participation.
Certainly, in some of the more graphic dog fighting scenes you can almost smell
the sweat and blood on the animals and with your adrenaline racing you feel a
certain amount of guilt for attending such savagery. Throw in some fast paced
editing and a soundtrack that keeps the rhythm of the piece perfectly and you
are truly involved with a film that considers the audience an accessory to the
crime and not just an innocent witness.
Amores
Perros is an exceedingly ambitious film with a very definitive ideal. This film
doesn't want to preach to you the downfall you face in life by following these
destructive paths of lies and betrayal it merely seeks to show you the effects
it has on these people at this specific time. The violence used as a backdrop
to the film only heightens what it tries to show. The literal translation to Amores
Perros is actually "Love's a Dog" and that only extenuates the point
to this film. Featuring heavily in all segments of the film, is that dog-life
is more sacred than human life. Injured animals are saved, good fighting dogs
are revered and treated as a best friend and a lost dog is rescued at no consideration
of cost, all the while mans inhumanity to man marches on. Brothers fight, husbands
and wives cheat and men kill and are killed.
This
film is beautifully crafted. The sentiment of the piece is laid bare with an almost
delicate touch and acted out superbly on all sides by an eclectic mix of old school
actors such as Emilio Echevarria (One of Mexico's best known stage and screen
actors) and some fresh new faces with a high degree of talent. The content of
this film is distinctly contrasting and all of the main characters, specifically
lead Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) bring a depth and an intricacy to the conflicts
they face and emotion to the circumstances they find themselves caught up in.
If
this film has any failings it is that it is possibly a little over ambitious.
At 147 minutes it does run a little long with the center section, focusing on
the model and her partner dealing with her disfigurement following the car accidentis
drawn out and also a little clichéd and contrived. You find yourself waiting
to find out the conclusion to the first section (Octavio and Susana) and wondering
the relevance of the hermit with his pack of dogs who has appeared sporadically
and to what extent these three stories tie together.
To
its credit the film runs at least six separate storylines in parallel and seemingly
manages to tie up a majority of the loose ends, blending the seemingly separate
vignettes into one coherent and endearing film.
This
film is the epitome of oxymoron. It is without doubt a bloody and brutal vision
set in a distasteful environment that most find offensive in the extreme. It is
vicious and unfeeling in its portrayal of man as an aggressor towards man and
pulls no punches in thrusting its gore in your face and forcing you to watch.
This film doesn't aim to shock or cause offense. It aims to present a real view
of the world. It aims to show the viewer that there are things in this world that
are distasteful and hard to accept as given - but that until it is acknowledged
we as a race cannot hope to occupy the same space without first accepting our
vast differences then we are no different than animals. On its flip side this
film focuses on the positive things that a person can bring into another’s
life. The compassion, love, understanding and consideration that we all hope to
achieve in our personal relationships.
