|
|
I can just see the dour reception after the premiere the film "Los Olvidados" at its opening in Mexico City in 1950. Many diplomats and political intelligentsia sporadically seated in the crowded theater.
Before their eyes the depiction of juvenile delinquents in their slum-life of Mexico City cannot be what they had expected. This is a stark, shocking and depressing film that offers no social solution to its exposed problems.
Sentimental?... not in the least, accurate?... most probably, a great film and fine work of art?... positively! |
|
|
Los Olvidados by Luis Buñuel Review of the film and DVD by Gary W. Tooze |
||
|
Director Luis Buñuel is a unique cinematic artist and visionary. He was able to project his avant-garde ideals even within the constraints of a studio system. Although "Los Olvidados" (The Young and the Damned) was commercially rejected in the country of its creation, it gained critical acclaim a mere six months later in Cannes, thus identifying his return to the world cinema scene after his breakthrough films 20 years earlier, "L'Âge d'or" of 1930 and "Un chien andalou" in 1929. |
||
 |
A group of children play in a vacant lot, climbing rubble and looking for something... anything to occupy their time. We can already feel the lack of role-models and direction that their lives are taking. Enter Jaibo, a juvenile recently released from detention and hence is looked at as a hero by the other children. He is recruiting members for his proposed gang. This is where impressionable Pedro will accelerate from a poverty-stricken, petty thief, stealing for necessity, to accessory to a senseless, vicious murder. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Buñuel shows Pedro's descent through his acceptance of unnecessarily cruel behavior towards a crusty, old and blind street performer. We witness his unloving Mother and surreal dream of sex, death and sustenance (meat) as well as some of the more hopeless and shocking imagery of the film with one boy abandoned on a street corner by his Father, another suckling a small goat for nourishment. Jaibo eventually beds Pedro's psychologically withdrawn Mother, completing the tragic circle of his hollow, dysfunctional existence. |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
With
such real and suffering imagery, it would have been common place to
create some desired Hollywood conventions of hero's and villains, losses
and victories. But in this film, no one wins and there are no solutions,
just a somber portrait of deprived humanity and the depths of which their
future (children) can sink. Okay, on that happy note, how about
the good news: this film will stay with you for a long while and attack
your social conscience in surprisingly enhanced ways. If Buñuel's
goal is to enlighten, awaken and at the same time captivate then he has
achieved it in spades with this film, much better than any in my
recorded memory. It screams out for recognition and a
|
||
|
FILM and DVD Details |
||
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
This
NTSC Region 0 DVD, available from DVDGO.com contains two Luis Buñuel
films. Los Olvidados and the documentary Las
Hurdes ( Land Without Bread ). Where the quality of Las
Hurdes is lacking, most probably due to its age, Los Olvidados is
very good. The video picture is clear ( note the above screen captures
). The mono sound could have been improved but because of its historic content, this disc is an extremely valued purchase. It contains
removable subtitles in French or English and an alternate ending for Los
Olvidados. The negative factor is that Las
Hurdes is not subtitled. I still STRONGLY recommend this and give it
|
||
|
Purchase from: (click logo) |
||
| Cast overview:
|
Audio Features: Mono Additional Information: |
|
out
of 
