On the back seat, a rottweiler bleeds profusely. The film starts off at an immediately hyper-kinetic pace as two young men race away in a car pursued by a gun wielding pair in a pickup truck. The film's animal trainer should also be noted for staging organized dog fights via the use of invisible muzzles which kept the dogs unharmed.ĭog fights, sibling rivalry for the same woman, a homeless hit man, a badly injured super model and a pooch lost beneath an apartment floor are just some of the stories that, quite literally, collide in the Mexican entry for Academy Award for best foreign film, "Amores Perros."įirst-time feature filmmakers, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, have crafted an extraordinary flick that will remain one of the best come year's end. Musical Supervisor Lynn Fainchtein delivers up a varied soundtrack that runs the gamut from the Hollies to something that sounds like techno mariachi. Coated in grime, Echevarria projects a protective layer as tough as his overlong, yellowed nails, yet melts into paternal softness gazing at daughter Maru from afar or caring for an injured dog.ĭirector of Photography Prieto and Production Designer/Set Decorator Bridgitte Broch keep the film gritty looking in its first and third episodes, while delivering a slicker sheen for the more fashionable inhabitants of the second. Bernal's mixture of trusting naivety and ruthless opportunism is given fire by the light shone into his otherworldly green eyes by cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. The cast is uniformly good with Bernal's Octavio and Mexican icon Echevarria's El Chivo being the standouts. El Chivo plays "Long Cool Woman in a Red Dress" before toying with his kidnap victim recalling Michael Madsen's far more violent scene in Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs." In keeping with the canine title references, the final shot brings to mind the post-apocalyptic world of 1975's sci-fi cult film "A Boy and His Dog."
In particular, "Red" is noted in the panicky transport of an injured dog and a huge fashion ad with a red background fluttering to the ground as a car speeds by. Kieslowski's "Trois Couleurs" are evoked by characters interweaving among three stories. "Amores Perros" is a paradox in that it recalls many films while maintainly its own uniqueness. While the dogs gain our sympathy more easily, the humanity of novelist Arriaga's script shines through. El Chivo protects his brood of street strays while earning his living killing, until he meets up with a dog with the same past. Valeria and lhasa apso Richie are pretty and pampered pets dealt a terrible hand by fate. Octavio's as likeable as Cifo, yet when Cifo is trained as a killer, Octavio goes too far to win his sister-in-law. In each story of this mesmerizing film, a person will suffer the same fate as his pet. Cifo will teach the dehumanized El Chivo a shattering lesson that El Chivo will pass along to his latest client - and his mark. He's a witness to the fateful car crash and rescues the ignored Cifo, whom paramedics have placed on the street. The relationship strains the longer the pitiful dog's whines are heard without his rescue.įinally, the ever present El Chivo is given center stage. Finally at home in a wheelchair, one leg encased in a steel frame, Valeria loses her beloved Richie under the floorboards of her and Daniel's new apartment (I could quibble about holes left uncovered in the floor, but I won't). But Valeria is the occupant of the car Octavio runs into and suffers disfiguring wounds. This is Daniel, who will soon abandon that family for the woman splashed across the city on Enchant perfume billboards.
We're also given seemingly random glimpses of a middle class man with his wife and two daughters. Cifo wins the street fight, giving Octavio a moneymaker for his dreams of running away with Susana. Instead Jarocho sics his dog on Cifo, loose because Susana inadvertently let him out. Meanwhile, Jarocho (Gustavo Sanchez Parra) swaggers out of the local dog fighting establishment with his ten-time winner and decides to let the dog work out his bloodlust on some strays - here we first meet El Chivo, who brandishes a machete to protect his brood of dogs. Ramiro is crude and cruel, denying Susana money for basics like diapers, although he'll present her with gifts that are stolen goods. Just as it seems they've lost the tailing vehicle - smash! The filmmakers have grabbed our attention.ĭecent guy Octavio is tender and flirtatious with Susana and her baby by his older brother Ramiro. In the back seat lies a dog bleeding profusely. The film begins with Octavio at the wheel and buddy Jorge (Humberto Busto) riding shotgun as they're chased through city streets by a truck wielding a gun toting crazy. I'll be doggoned - this Mexican masterpiece is the feature film debut of both its director/producer Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga.