| Monday, June 11, 2001 |
Amores Perros
“Trust us, you need to see this,” said Empire magazine. Boy, were they right.
The film starts with a car crash that links all the protagonists together.
Using the same plot devices as Tarrantino in ‘Pulp Fiction’, Amores Perros starts in the middle and works backwards then forwards, outlining three different tales.
This is a magnificently acted film but, unlike Tarrantino, less flashy, dirtier and more base – life in all it’s ugly, downtrodden, routine and desperate glory.
In the first story, Octavio use his brother’s dog as a champion fighter to gather the money to elope with his brother’s wife. In the second, a super model, Valeria loses her dog under her apartment floor and in the final story, El Chivo, an ex-guerrilla, reappraises his life, trying to reconnect with the daughter he gave up for his struggle. Be warned. Animal-lovers need to brace themselves for a number of realistic dogfight scenes (where we’re assured no animals got hurt).
Throughout, dogs are use as a metaphor for man’s absolute humanity and cruelty, the animals being merely play things upon which we act out our own compassion and cruelties, corrupting innocence along the way. This is a brilliantly realised vision, playing on the universal themes of love, death and redemption. Amores Perros is a hard film to watch but yet, strangely liberating. Believe me. You have to see this.
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