At the time of it's release Amoros Perros was compared favorably to Pulp Fiction. Both films have brutal and unexpected violence. Both films also deal with interweaving story lines. This is the extent of the comparisons. Amores Perros is simply a deeper movie than Pulp Fiction. Through the three story-lines, director Alejandro González Iñárritu has created a beautiful film about loyalty that feels as fresh now as it did in 1999.
Amores Perros involves three chaptered story lines which occasionally come into contact with each other. The first part is "Octavio y Susana", which concerns a love triangle between Octavio (Gael García Bernal) and his brother Ramiro's (Marco Pérez) wife Susana (Vanessa Bauche). Ramiro is cold and abusive toward Susana and this angers Octavio who believes she should be treated better. He starts to devise a plan to make money in hopes that it will prove to Susana that he can take care of her. Octavio starts taking his pit bull to the local dogfighting ring and his dog proves to be a true warrior and the money starts coming in. The second story is "Daniel y Valeria". Daniel (Álvaro Guerrero) has just left his wife for his supermodel mistress Valeria (Goya Toledo). They move into a nice new apartment with a gorgeous view of a building-sized advertisement featuring Valeria. Things are great until Valeria gets in an accident which puts her in a wheelchair and stops her from working. As she waits at home, her dog named Richie, falls into a hole in the floor and won't come out. Her immobility and frustration over losing her "baby" Richie brings unexpected tensions between Daniel and Valeria. The third story is "El Chivo y Maru". El Chivo (Emilio Echevarría) appears to be a homeless man with a cart a pack of dogs following him everywhere he goes. What people don't see is the machete hiding in his cart. It isn't there just for self-defense or the defense of his dogs. El Chivo is a hitmen who has a history as a guerrilla. Years ago he had left his wife and his daughter Maru (Lourdes Echevarría) to follow the cause he believed in. The cause fell apart and now he lives a life as a "garbage man" taking the occasional hit men job to feed his dogs and also himself occasionally. He is given a job that he can't pass up. El Chivo makes a promise that this will be his final job so that he can reconnect with his daughter and re-start the life he left.
While the story-lines interweave occasionally (characters come into contact with each other briefly from time-to-time), they are three separate stories that deal with similar themes in different ways. All three stories could have produced impressive full-length films. The film begins in a brutal and violent way with "Octavio y Susana". The violence that involves dogs and humans is difficult to watch at times. Bernal is wonderful as Octavio, a man who is fiercely devoted to Susana. We never see him as being a bad person who is cheating with his brother's wife and submitting his dog to brutal violence. The strength of Bernal is that we feel sorry for him the whole time. He perfectly prepares us for the moral dilemma the audience will continue to have with feeling sympathy for characters who are doing unsympathetic things.
"Daniel y Valeria" is surprisingly the most mentally intense portion of the film. Coming off of the violence of "Octavio y Susana", "Daniel y Valeria" starts in a light-hearted fashion. While Daniel is cheating on his wife and leaving his child behind, the love between Daniel and Valeria is presented in an adorable fashion. It is only after Valeria's injury and her dog's disappearance takes a surprisingly depressing twist. "Daniel y Valeria" is the most calm of the three parts but is probably the most psychologically impacting. The storyline and the tension generated by Richie being heard in the walls and the floor but never coming out keeps the audience on edge in a way that you don't see often. "Daniel y Valeria" is the most fleshed out and honest part of the three stories. In some ways, it is the most powerful.
"El Chivo y Maru" is arguably weakest of the three sections. It may be simply that you are almost two hours into a 150-minute film that has already been emotionally taxing. While the interaction between El Chivo and his dogs is really touching, it would seem that a story involving a homeless hit man would have a little more flare to it. The power in this section, much like the first two sections, is how we can draw sympathy for someone is essentially doing a terrible thing. El Chivo's dogs are his life. He seemingly takes jobs just to feed them. While it has probably the saddest moment in the film, the last minutes are not as strong as you would imagine they would be. It somewhat appears that they simply didn't know how to end El Chivo's story. Maybe it is that it can have no true ending. Saying that "El Chivo y Maru" is the weakest of the sections does not mean it isn't good. It is simply very good compared to the other two sections brilliance.
The violence toward dogs in "Octavio y Susana" was as controversial during my 2014 screening as it was almost 15 years ago. The audience reacted to the violence toward dogs much more so than they did the violence toward humans. Anyone who is averse to seeing violence toward animals would do well to prepare themselves. While the dogfighting involved no real fighting (simply "playing") and the dead or dying dogs were really just sedated, it is still hard to watch from time to time. It is a great example how quick cutting and sound effects can create a powerful and difficult experience. While it is still rough to see even a sedated animal lying there with their tongue out covered in realistic stage blood, it is an emotionally priming sight that helps us feel for the human characters even more. I don't know if we would have had the same feelings toward Octavio, Daniel and Susana, or El Chivo if it weren't for our heightened emotions that came from the dog violence.
Even 15 years later, Amores Perros is a brilliant and powerful film. As comparisons to Pulp Fiction either in 2000 or now is short-sighted and do not convey the true feeling of the film. While it isn't always an easy watch, Amores Perros creates the same loyality from audiences as the dogs in the film have for their owners. They don't see criminals, adulterers, or hit men. They see damaged people who they feel for. So do we.
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