Film: Amores Perros
Release date: 24th September 2001
Certificate: 18
Running time: 154 mins
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Starring: Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo, Álvaro Guerrero, Vanessa Bauche
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD
Country: Mexico
The tagline for Amores Perros (Innaritu, 2000) reads: “Love is betrayal. Love is anguish. Love is sin. Love is selfish. Love is hope. Love is pain. Love is death. What is love? Love’s a bitch”; Not exactly the most appealing piece of advertising to anyone reading it, deciding whether to actually watch the film or not, but what the tagline lacks in sensitivity, in gains in honesty. Amores Perros certainly packs punches in that regard.
The first tale is Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Susana (Vanessa Bauche). It is Octavio that causes a crash, although being chased by a speeding pick-up truck doesn’t help a person’s nerves. His life revolves around helping to care for his family. Octavio does this by entering himself and the family dog, Cofi, into the underground world of dog fighting. The incentive for this financial gain is Susana and the child, who he plans to run away with; away from the unpredictable and often violent nature of Ramiro. The world of crime rears its ugly head when gang leader Jarocho seeks retribution from Octavio, and the car crash is the climactic point to the story of two people whose lives are torn apart by their forbidden love.
The second story in the film involves the other driver of the car involved in the crash, a woman called Valeria (Goya Toledo) and her lover, Daniel (Alvaro Guerrero). The car crash leaves Valeria seriously injured in her right leg, and although their optimism attempts to prevail, the cracks begin to surface. Behind Valeria’s beauty, an ugly temperament is born from frustration, a failing career, and being held captive by her disability. The fault lines start to appear in Daniel, too; the beautiful woman he desired has shown a side of herself that he wasn’t prepared for, and a rising level of regret shows – calling his ex-wife, falling into the same patterns, and bursts of anger. From the moment of the car crash, Daniel and Valeria’s lives and their love for each other changes, and both have to come to the realisation that what they fell in love with is the rushed love itself.
The final story is of a figure that has been present since the start of the film. The omnipresent figure of El Chivo (Emilio Echevarría) lives in squalid conditions, living on the streets and assassinating people for high prices. El Chivo appears to be a man incapable of love or has forgotten what it feels like, but as one of the on-lookers at the car-crash, his compassion results in Cofi the dog’s survival. El Chivo takes Cofi and nurses him back to health, unaware of Cofi’s brutal disposition. El Chivo, unlike the main characters in the two previous stories, knows the heartache of a lost love; his daughter doesn’t recognise him and after reading that the wife he abandoned is dead, a man who lives on the rock bottom of society has found a new emotional low. It is Cofi the dog that teaches El Chivo an important lesson in salvation. El Chivo returns to his neglected hovel to find Cofi has killed all the other dogs. Cofi has, by acting in the way he was taught to, shown El Chivo the other side to his own dark profession; the heartache that the families of his targets must feel when he kills them. To further himself along the path of redemption, El Chivo teaches the contractor and the contracted to kill the errors within their feud; it takes a character whose lack of love teaches those that love is not a constant certainty in this world. Love is something that needs to be worked at and nurtured...
In the often harsh reality of life, love can be all those things because it is such a mixture of emotions; it’s never a typical rom-com affair, that isn’t how lives are lived, no matter how much cliché pop-rock a person listens to. However, in an almost antithesised situation to the idea of blossoming love, the five lead characters stories are joined together by a brutal car crash on the streets of Mexico City. But first, we have to back up...even though the car crash it is the first thing that we are shown. Yes, it is very confusing but Amores Perros belongs in a trilogy of films (Amores Perros, 21Grams, Babel) by director Innaritu and their writer Guillermo Arriaga that adopt a non-linear storytelling method. Although initially harder to follow, the interweaving stories of the five lead characters benefit from the episodic interaction time with the audience. It reflects the reality of human interaction. One doesn’t just constantly follow another person’s trials when they are dealing with love.
Amores Perros can, at times, be a distressing film to watch. Unlike 21Grams and Babel, it doesn’t have a problem with detailing the darker sides of its subject matter, exemplified by the car crash. If, however, you can get past the gruesome factors in Amores Perros, your rewards are numerable and inspiring.
A great proportion of the strength of Amores Perros comes from the acting. The lead actors are committing to a real soul-searching project; dealing with heartbreaking situations and being in emotional states that are incomprehensible to those looking from the outside in. Emilio Echevarría’s performance is inspirational, and stands out against the other four because it is he who is the easiest to connect to. After all, El Chivo, like the audience, is a person looking in on other people’s lives, and granted a window of observation because of his status. The pinnacle of Echevarría’s performance is his final solo scene. It is hauntingly beautiful, and his dialogue pulls at the heartstrings. It is all the more effective for being shot in one continuous take - the emotion being poured out feels so genuine, and produces a greater level of interaction. This is not to say the performances of the other four leads are diminished. Goya Toledo digs deep for this film, and delivers a heartbreaking performance for anyone watching; her life being torn apart by another’s actions is like watching an angel slowly lose her wings. The surprise role in this film is Gustavo Sánchez Parra, who plays Jarocho the gang leader. It is unusual to instil an antagonist into a realist film, as typically the characters are dealing with their own internal demons. Gustavo Sánchez Parra expertly crafts himself as a sadistic gang-leader; he is not supposed to be likable but the way he delivers the lines with the right inflictions culminates in a somewhat ‘Jack-the-lad’ character.
Of course, all of the performances are aided by the material they are provided with. Guillermo Arriaga is a very gifted writer in this genre, shown by the number of nominations and wins garnered from his partnership with Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu. The dialogue for each character has such intelligence and earthly experience behind it. Even Octavio, a character steeped in impudence, has lines and turn of phrases that hang in the air (“Being tough won’t make you smart”).
A lot of what drives the film and keeps a person watching lies in the edit and camerawork. Non-linear editing can either make or break a film; it can add such intrigue and mystery to a plot that it leaves the viewer craving to watch it again, or it can destroy the narrative past comprehension. In the case of Amores Perros, the edit adds another subliminal level of realism. As stated before, the intermittent interaction time the audience has with the lead cast reflects how we interact with each other. Returning to stories in different stages adds a gripping level of wonder to the plot - seeing El Chivo wandering the streets with his cart and dogs results in a craving to know why this character is featuring in the first place (what is his importance?). Seeing the never-made interactions, like Octavio being in his bedroom while Valeria is on television, and knowing that they are destined to be involved in each other’s lives, is tantalising. The raw camerawork supporting the edit is gripping. It brings the performances of the cast to such a surface level. It adds intensity to the car chase and it complements the different surroundings of Mexico City; from the underbelly where chaos is king, to the middle class suburbia where long takes capture the repression of anger and rage.
One criticism is the film’s soundtrack and use of music-video editing within a film. When the edit has been sacrificed to fit a piece of music into the soundtrack, the overall relationship between sound and image is temporarily lost. It works in some genres; action, comedy, etc. In a realist genre, it’s preferable to have a diegetic soundtrack -it is more engrossing and believable.
Amores Perros is not for the faint of heart, but it is a genre defining film. It adds to the culture and production of Mexican cinema. It is a marvel to watch on a technical level - the shot composition and edit throws your emotions about; from utter confusion, to quiet tears and contemplation. The reason that it is so easy to watch repeatedly is because it doesn’t age - it is a modern classic. TJB
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