Amores perros

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Amores perros
US release poster
Directed bydirector
Written bywriter
Produced byproducer
StarringEmilio Echevarría
Gael García Bernal
Goya Toledo
Álvaro Guerrero
Vanessa Bauche
Jorge Salinas
Adriana Barraza
Narrated bynarrator
CinematographyRodrigo Prieto
Edited byAlejandro González Iñárritu
Luis Carballar
Fernando Pérez Unda
Music byGustavo Santaolalla
Production
companies
Zeta Entertainment
Alta Vista Films
Distributed bydistributor
Release dates
  • 14 May 2000 (2000-05-14) (Cannes)
  • 16 June 2000 (2000-06-16) (Mexico)
Running time
153 minutes[1]
CountryMexico
LanguageSpanish
Budget$2.4 million[2]
Box office$20.9 million[3]

Amores perros is a 2000 Mexican psychological drama film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, in his feature directorial debut, and written by Guillermo Arriaga, based on a story by both. Serving as the first installment in González Iñárritu's "Trilogy of Death," which includes 21 Grams and Babel,[4] the film employs the multi-narrative hyperlink cinema style and features an ensemble cast. Structured as a triptych, it weaves together three distinct stories connected by a car crash in Mexico City.

The stories center on a teenager in the slums who becomes involved in dogfighting, a model who seriously injures her leg, and a mysterious hitman. The stories are linked in various ways, including the presence of dogs in each of them.

Premiering on May 14, 2000, at the

Mexican Academy of Film. Regarded by many as one of the best Mexican films, it has been lauded by filmmaker Denis Villeneuve as among the best of the 21st century.[6]

In December 2020, Amores perros was remastered by The Criterion Collection.[7]

Title

The title is a pun in Spanish; the word "perros," which literally means "dogs," can also be used to refer to misery. Thus, it roughly translates to 'bad loves' with canine connotations. The film was released under its Spanish title in the English-speaking world, although it was sometimes marketed as "Love's a Bitch." This alternate title conveys a similar idea as the original, keeping the canine allusion.

Plot

The film is constructed from three distinct stories linked by a car crash that brings the characters briefly together.

Octavio y Susana

Octavio (

vagrant wielding a machete. Eventually, Jarocho sics his dog on Octavio's rottweiler
, Cofi, but his own dog is killed instead. Octavio and his friend Jorge, realising Cofi's potential, become involved in the dogfighting scene. Octavio makes enough money to flee with Susana, and pays Mauricio, the owner of the dogfighting venue, to get Ramiro beaten up. Afraid, Ramiro steals the money and leaves with Susana. Struggling financially, Octavio accepts a challenge by Jarocho to participate in a private dogfight, with no outside bets. Cofi is about to win, but Jarocho shoots him. The infuriated Octavio stabs Jarocho in the stomach. Pursued by Jarocho's thugs, Octavio finds himself in a car chase with Jorge and the wounded Cofi. A collision follows; Jorge dies and Octavio is badly injured.

Daniel y Valeria

Magazine publisher Daniel (

arterial thrombosis and eventually gangrene. Her leg is amputated
. While she is in the hospital, Daniel finally rescues Richie from the floorboards. When she returns, Valeria drives her wheelchair through the torn-up living room and looks out of the window expecting to see a billboard bearing her likeness, only to find it has been removed.

El Chivo y Maru

The vagrant occasionally seen in Octavio's story is revealed to be a professional

. He is trying to make contact with his daughter, Maru, whom he abandoned when he began his guerrilla involvement and who believes that he is dead. He is about to perform a hit on a businessman when Octavio's car crash interrupts him. During the chaos at the car crash, he steals Octavio's money and takes the wounded Cofi to his warehouse hideout to nurse the dog back to health. One day, while El Chivo is out, Cofi kills the other mongrel dogs El Chivo is caring for. He is about to kill Cofi, but decides against it. Meanwhile, Octavio's brother Ramiro is shot and killed during an attempted bank robbery.

At Ramiro's funeral, Octavio meets Susana, and again attempts to convince her to run away with him, but she angrily rejects the notion. A few days later, Octavio is shown waiting at the bus station for Susana. She never shows up, and Octavio does not board the bus. El Chivo learns that his client and his intended victim are half-brothers. He leaves both men alive and chained to separate walls with a pistol within reach between them, their fate left uncertain. He then breaks into his daughter Maru's house and leaves her a large bundle of money along with a message on her answering machine explaining what happened to him. When he is about to tell Maru that he loves her, the answering machine stops recording. He then goes to an autoshop, where he sells the client's SUV. The mechanic asks him the dog's name, and El Chivo calls him "Negro" ("Black"). After El Chivo receives the money for the car, he and Negro walk away, disappearing into the horizon.

Cast

Themes

Dogs and disloyalty

Each of the three tales is a reflection on the cruelty of humans towards both animals and other humans, showing how humans may live dark or even hideous lives. But the film's theme is loyalty, as symbolized by the dog, "man's best friend". Dogs are important to the main characters in each of the three stories, and in each story various forms of human loyalty or disloyalty are shown: disloyalty to a brother by trying to seduce the brother's wife, disloyalty to a wife by keeping a mistress with subsequent disloyalty to the mistress when she is injured and loses her beauty, loss of loyalty to youthful idealism and rediscovered loyalty to a daughter as a hit-man falls from and then attempts to regain grace.

Dogfighting is banned in all Latin American countries but exists as an element of the underground economy. Although violent, dogfighting provides an opportunity for Octavio to make money. This is true to life in the sense that participating in the underground economy gives people in the lower class the ability to make money and experience mobility. González Iñárritu was heavily criticized for his inclusion of dogfighting in the film but has claimed that although it is horrible, dogfighting is one of the harsh realities of Mexico City.[11]

Inequality

The three overlapping stories all take place in Mexico City, but because of

class division, there is severe segregation of economic classes with El Chivo squatting on the outskirts of town, Octavio living in a working-class neighborhood, and Valeria living in a luxurious high-rise apartment.[12] If not for the car crash, these three characters would never interact. The upper class is victimized in Amores perros even when they are the ones perpetuating crime. For instance, El Chivo is hired to kill a man's business partner and eventually decides to leave both men to fight it out themselves. Although Ramiro works at a grocery store, he also participates in the underground economy by committing robberies. Octavio and El Chivo participate in the underground economy as well, in order to secure untaxed income and bring stability to their lives.[13]

Violence

Amores perros contains

The domestic violence is evident in the relationship between Ramiro and his wife, Susana, when Ramiro beats his younger brother Octavio with a metal rod while Octavio takes a shower, as well as in Valeria and Daniel's relationship as they both begin to become verbally and physically aggressive after Valeria becomes depressed. Gun violence is seen from the beginning of the film in a frantic car chase until the very end when El Chivo hands the gun to the two business partners, leaving them to fight their own battle. Lastly, animal cruelty is quite visible in the dog fights Octavio attends in order to make money off of his dog, Cofi. The dog owners show no empathy toward their dogs.

Production

Produced by Zeta Film and AltaVista Films, production began on 12 April 1999.

The DVD of Amores perros has a

sedated (under supervision of the Mexican SPCA
). The grittiness of the scenes is amplified by quick cuts and sound effects. Another unusual aspect of the production of Amores perros was the danger to the cast and film crew while filming in the poor parts of Mexico City. The director and some of the crew were actually robbed by street gangs. The Director cut includes a cameo from the veteran Japanese singer Kazuyo Togawa singing A cappella, credited as "Fat Lady".

Soundtrack

The soundtrack includes songs by Latin American rock bands including

Bersuit Vergarabat
.

Reception and awards

The film was critically acclaimed and received many nominations and awards. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 92% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 118 reviews, with an average score of 7.75/10. The consensus reads "The brutality of Amores Perros may be difficult to watch at times, but this intense, gritty film packs a hard wallop".[15] On Metacritic, it has a score of 83 out of 100 based on 31 critics.[16]

Impact

Amores perros drew widespread attention to and condemnation of the practice of dog fighting in Mexico.[18] Lead actress Vanessa Bauche has supported animal advocates' anti-dogfighting campaign.[19] Dog fighting was finally outlawed in Mexico on 24 June 2017.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Amores perros (Love's a Bitch) (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 22 February 2001. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  2. .
  3. ^ Amores perros (2001) - Box Office Mojo
  4. ^ "The Significance Of The Queer And The Dog In Alejandro González Iñárritu's Amores Perros (2000): A Masculinity At War". Archived from the original on 12 September 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  5. ^ "Semaine de la Critique du Festival de Cannes". archives.semainedelacritique.com. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  6. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  7. ^ "Amorres Perros tendrá restauración en 4k por Criterion Collection". www.milenio.com (in Mexican Spanish). 15 September 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Amores Perros". TV Guide. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  9. ^ "Amores Perros (2000)". IMDB. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  10. ^ "Amores Perros". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  11. ^ Romney, Jonathan (22 August 2000). "none". The Guardian.
  12. S2CID 154200790
    .
  13. ^ M, Matt (4 October 1989). "Off-the-Books Growth Fuels Mexico --- but Underground Economy is a Two-Edged Sword". Wall Street Journal.
  14. ^ Aquino, Jim (April 2001). "Unleashed Resistance". Metro Silicon Valley. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  15. ^ "Amores Perros (2001)- Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  16. ^ "Amores Perros". Metacritic.
  17. ^ Empire Features—The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time
  18. ^ Romney, Jonathan (22 August 2000). "Going to the dogs". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 May 2019. Amores Perros has been attacked for its savage dogfight scenes.
  19. ^ Pacelle, Wayne (26 April 2017). "Mexico adopts felony-level penalties for dogfighting". Humane Society of the United States. Retrieved 2 May 2019. The practice [of dogfighting], put on display years ago in the movie Amores Perros – whose leading actress, Vanessa Bauche, has supported our anti-dogfighting campaign – has been a persistent and widespread animal welfare problem in Mexico
  20. ^ "Dog fights as sport now illegal in Mexico". Mexico News Daily. 24 June 2017. Archived from the original on 27 June 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2019. The blood sport of dog fighting became illegal today in Mexico.

External links