Amores Perros (2000)

Don't watch if you need a good night's sleep!

This is an incredibly dark and disturbing film, but also excellent. What I loved about it is that it doesn't present human emotions in neat little packages, and yet it also is not one of those annoying films where characters do inexplicable things and you have no clue as to their inner lives. This film dishes out human emotions and behavior in big, steamy, platters of complexity and with skill and subtlety. The theme of the dog fighting will of course be extremely disturbing, especially for sensitive animal lovers. The film credits contain assurances that all the animals in the film were treated humanely, but the violence is sometimes near-impossible to take, even though highly edited. But I watched anyway, feeling that the depiction of this cruelty is a useful manifesto against dog fighting that may serve a positive purpose. The theme of the dogs was impressively well-integrated into all the story lines of the film and not just a gimmick. It is a hellish picture in which heaven appears, but only at a distance, yet despite all the darkness and violence, the film does have a strong redemptive quality. December 13, 2008

Amores Perros: The Not So Pretty Side of Love

When it comes to movies (or sometimes even real life for that matter) many of us prefer to think of love in comic terms that make us laugh at the feel-good goofiness of a new romance. Or we may enjoy thinking of it as something heroic that enters our lives and rescues us from social obscurity or emotional banality. In AMORES PERROS, which translates into the English title "Love Is a Bitch," director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga Jordan explore with bold confidence and gruesome style the darker not-so-pretty sides of "this thing called love."

Amores Perros is three interwoven stories that add up to one extraordinary film. The first time I watched it, I was totally amazed by the sheer dramatic intensity of the relationships between the characters. They were at once extreme and yet highly believable. In the first segment, Gael Garcia Bernal is "Octavio," a young man who develops an obsession with his brother's battered wife. So relentless is his desire to claim her for his own that he plots to run away with her, tells lies to intrude upon intimate moments in attempts to seduce her himself, and hires thugs to beat his brother senseless.

In the second story of the film, "Daniel and Valeria," a successful magazine editor (Alvaro Guerrero) abandons his wife and family to begin his fantasy life with a beautiful model (Goya Toledo) only to watch the fantasy turn into a nightmare after an accident leaves the model maimed and bitter. The third tale, "El Chivo y Maru," shows us an estranged hit man (Emilio Echevvarria) who has a great passion for dogs but seemingly little for humans. Nevertheless, when hired by one step-brother to kill the other, he makes an unexpected choice that indicates he is not so damned that he is beyond redemption.

After watching Amores Perros for the second time, the three stories literally all came together with a huge bang. From the title of this engrossing masterwork, it's clear that director Gonzalez Inarritu recognizes love can sometimes be a torturous and soul-killing ordeal. Singer Julieta Venegas, in one of the bonus music videos on the DVD, put it this way: "Because your love's a bitch/ it's gonna kill me/ without having given me/ the least bit of happiness."

If this movie consisted of only the basic three interwoven storylines, it would still illustrate the director's point clearly enough. However, his cinematic artistry goes a lot further with canines providing a definitive metaphorical presence in each film segment. In one, a Rotweiler emerges as the hero who wins one dogfight after another to supply his master with the wealth needed to begin a new life. In another, an adored lap dog gets stuck under the boards of a floor and nearly drives its owners insane with its crying. And in the third, a lost soul of a man rescues a gun-shot dog from a horrible wreck and successfully nurses him back to life, but with some very disastrous consequences.

The relationships humans share with dogs in this film are often more loving and humane than those shared with other human beings. Although there are scenes of gruesome dog fights that make viewers cringe, we can forgive the animals because we understand their basic natures have been compromised by forced breeding and training to make them do what they do. What makes Amores Perros such a brilliantly unforgettable film--all 153 minutes of it-- is its unflinching condemnation of the abuses that people too often inflict upon each other and then blame on love without any sane reasons whatsoever.


by Author-Poet Aberjhani
author of Christmas When Music Almost Killed the World
and The American Poet Who Went Home Again
December 6, 2008

Preceded "Crash"

This film preceded "Crash". If you enjoyed Crash, you will enjoy Amores Perros. And my money says you will probably like it more than Crash. You must take note of all the warnings of very realistic dog fighting and brutality, but trying to keep it in the context of the movie helps.

Also enjoy Gael Garcia Bernal before he became a star (before "Mama.." and "Motorcycle Diaries") October 28, 2008

Disturbing, painful, depressing. . .

The dogs make out best in this movie; they just kill each other. The humans, meantime, maim, then destroy, each other.

Apart from the upset (revulsion?) I can not but feel; I don't quite know how to react to this film. Clearly there is artistic talent here; there are story lines here (well, more accurately, riffs on the hopeless despair of human relationships); there is highly professional filmmaking here. But for what end? There is just one location in this movie: Hell; there is just one color in production: black.

The director perhaps says it best: "This movie is a two-hour scream."

Prepare for the pain; prepare for the bloody, cruel, human dogfights. June 1, 2008

Griping...

Movie is set on mean, crowded and polluted streets of modern Mexico City. The film explores the lives of 3 sets of characters and weaves the plot among them.

"Octavio and Susana" - Octavio who lives with his Mother, his violent brother, his brother's sister and their infant in a small crowded 2nd story apartment building. Octavio falls in love with Susana, his brother's wife and plots to escape with her - raising money dog-fighting with Cofi, his brother's dog. Susana lives in fear of her husband who is violent and unpredictable.

"Daniel and Valeria" - Daniel is middle aged, married and has 2 beautiful daughters. He falls in love with a superstar model. He walks away from his family and the moment the couple plan to spent their first full night together - the couple experiences a tragic accident (involving Octavio and Cofi - the fighter dog).

"El Chivo and Maru," - A revolutionary leaves his wife and daughter and finds that he is unable to "change the world" - he eventually ends up in prison. His wife remarries and his daughter grows up without him. He agrees with his wife that his daughter would be told that he was dead. He enters the world out of prison and becomes a hired assassin. He also lives to regret leaving his family and being excluded from his daughter's life. This cold-blooded killer also finds morality and humanity when he finds and cares for Cofi (the fighter dog who is abandoned) - and then Cofi unexpectedly turns on him.

The story highlights the two faces of humans and beasts (dogs) - the passionate, caring, emotional, human side - as well as the violent, desperate and survival instincts of the dark side. This movie is tough, hard edged, violent and tense - making this film fully engaging. Scene set-ups and actual flashes of dog fighting, beatings and stabbings - make certain scenes brutally difficult to watch - yet keep you on the edge of your seat throughout.

May 30, 2008

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