Amores Perros

The dogs make out best in this movie; they just kill each other. The humans, meantime, maim, then destroy, each other.

Apart from the upset (revulsion?) I can not but feel; I don't quite know how to react to this film. Clearly there is artistic talent here; there are story lines here (well, more accurately, riffs on the hopeless despair of human relationships); there is highly professional filmmaking here. But for what end? There is just one location in this movie: Hell; there is just one color in production: black.

The director perhaps says it best: "This movie is a two-hour scream."

Prepare for the pain; prepare for the bloody, cruel, human dogfights.

Movie is set on mean, crowded and polluted streets of modern Mexico City. The film explores the lives of 3 sets of characters and weaves the plot among them.

"Octavio and Susana" - Octavio who lives with his Mother, his violent brother, his brother's sister and their infant in a small crowded 2nd story apartment building. Octavio falls in love with Susana, his brother's wife and plots to escape with her - raising money dog-fighting with Cofi, his brother's dog. Susana lives in fear of her husband who is violent and unpredictable.

"Daniel and Valeria" - Daniel is middle aged, married and has 2 beautiful daughters. He falls in love with a superstar model. He walks away from his family and the moment the couple plan to spent their first full night together - the couple experiences a tragic accident (involving Octavio and Cofi - the fighter dog).

"El Chivo and Maru," - A revolutionary leaves his wife and daughter and finds that he is unable to "change the world" - he eventually ends up in prison. His wife remarries and his daughter grows up without him. He agrees with his wife that his daughter would be told that he was dead. He enters the world out of prison and becomes a hired assassin. He also lives to regret leaving his family and being excluded from his daughter's life. This cold-blooded killer also finds morality and humanity when he finds and cares for Cofi (the fighter dog who is abandoned) - and then Cofi unexpectedly turns on him.

The story highlights the two faces of humans and beasts (dogs) - the passionate, caring, emotional, human side - as well as the violent, desperate and survival instincts of the dark side. This movie is tough, hard edged, violent and tense - making this film fully engaging. Scene set-ups and actual flashes of dog fighting, beatings and stabbings - make certain scenes brutally difficult to watch - yet keep you on the edge of your seat throughout.

I liked the acting but this was very violent and tough. I can't recommend it to people.

I see only one review below that addresses the animal concerns here...
by Book Maven, and it got a ridiculously low 0 of 4 favorables at this point, until I voted favorably for that review. Although the film has great performances, this kind of animal depiction CANNOT be tolerated with this kind of neutrality. I didn't see any note in the end credits about animals being treated humanely, I seriously don't believe they were.
When I was in Mexico last month I saw cats that were just skin and bones, very very hard to take. I just don't believe animals are treated with any kind of sympathy south of the border ~ you would be heartbroken if you saw it with your own eyes. I could never give this film a recommendation because of this fact. Attitudes need to change...it's an absolute nightmare-scenario for animals in Mexico, and I'm not kidding, I've seen it with my own eyes. We all know about the cockfighting in Mexico, now we see the dog-fighting. This activity needs to be outlawed there immediately, or strongly penalized, if it hasn't been already now in 2008 (I could only hope). See the film, but please change your attitudes towards ALL ANIMALS RIGHT NOW, PLEASE! Maybe this was an objective of the filmmaker, I can only hope.

I hate dog fighting. So I had to watch the special on how the dog-fighting in the movie is all fake and none of the dogs got hurt. Then I played the movie and... well... it's one of my top 3 movies ever. Film students watch this as a benchmark of what good film-making is. I did it for the acting. Bernal is amazing.