Amores Perros

Three interconnected stories about the different strata of life in Mexico City all resolve with a fatal car accident. Octavio is trying to raise enough money to run away with his sister-in-law, and decides to enter his dog Cofi into the world of dogfighting. After a dogfight goes bad, Octavio flees in his car, running a red light and causing the accident. Daniel and Valeria's new-found bliss is prematurely ended when she loses her leg in the accident. El Chivo is a homeless man who cares for stray dogs and is there to witness the collision. IMDB

By: Josh Lanter

Amores Perros (2000) is described as the Mexican Pulp Fiction because it interlocks three parallel narratives into one movie by weaving the stories together then connecting them at one point in the film. In this particular film, the point that brings all three protagonists together is a fatal car crash in the middle of Mexico City, the capital of Mexico. Amores Perros is a contemporary drama that captures some of the harsh realities that citizens of Mexico have to deal with on a daily basis. Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu, who directed and produced the movie and a native of Mexico City, is able to capture social issues that many people can relate with. To conceptualize how impressive this movie is and just how good Irritu captured these social issues, it was nominated for an Academy Award for the best Foreign Film. The title translates into Loves a Bitch which connects with the movie overall because each main character has do deal with love betraying them in the long run and hurting them emotionally. This is the first theme of the movie that we see. Lets start with Octavio and Susana and breakdown their betrayal of love. He is in love with two things, his dog Cofi and his sister-in-law Susana. He puts his dog at risk in order to obtain money for his other love. He begins to dogfight and saves up money with Susana so that way they can flea from the city and his abusive brother (her husband). However, his rival ends up shooting Cofi during a fight (betrayal one) then after that, Susana takes the money and leaves with her husband (betrayal two). Next we have Daniel and Valeria. Valerias betrayal comes after the crash where her leg is crushed. This is emotionally hard for her because she is a model and it could end her career. Then her dog gets lost under the house and she hurts

her leg even more trying to rescue him, leading towards her amputation of the leg, ending her career and changing her life, as she knows it. Daniel, who at the beginning is filing for a divorce as he moves in with Valeria, seems to realize his betrayal towards the end of his story. It wasnt until he left his wife and Valeria lost her leg that he regrets leaving in the first place and calls his ex-wife back without saying a word. It is then we see his emotional state changes and how he betrayed himself and both women. Lastly, we have El Chivo, who, like Octavio, encounters two betrayals in this film. First comes after the crash where he runs to the cars to give aid, at first to the people, but then to Cofi as he takes the dog back to his place. There he nurses him back to health. El Chivo comes back one afternoon and all his stray dogs that he loved more than anything were all dead. Cofi reverted into his dogfighting ways and killed them all. This tears El Chivo up, almost to an unforgivable point, but he is able to calm himself. Then as his story unfolds we see him checking in with his daughter, Maru, who thinks he is dead. He puts money under her pillows and leaves a message on her voicemail apologizing and sobbing telling her all that has happened. It is then, when he is emotionally unstable for a brief minute as he looks back on life and sees the betrayal he has caused in his life. Along with this theme of unstable love, we have symbolism all through the movie that shows the viewer what contemporary Mexico is about as a country, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Each character group is symbolic: El Chivo the downfall of the intellectual progressive class, Octavio the poor, Valeria the rich. The film shows what the poor and the working class have to rely on in order to make ends

meet, which usually involves in illegal activities, like dogfighting, which is illegal around Latin America, and murder. These are very bad crimes, but it is the harsh reality that people in Mexico have to deal with these years in order to provide. We even get a small taste of the corruption as a police officer that arrested El Chivo decades past, took a businessman to him to order a hit or assassination on a fellow partner. It is these realities that many unfortunate people have to live with. Dogs play an important role in the film, with every major character having some connection with a dog. The dogs represent the love of the people of Mexico, actually the love that all humans have in them and how we should strive to live everyday with that love. All the characters love their dogs immensely and whenever they lost their dog (injured, killed, lost, etc.) they would cry and become extremely upset. That is because we love our pets and want nothing to hurt them. If we can love each other like we love our dogs, society could change into a peaceful community and all the violence and crime that happen in Mexico and elsewhere would be non-existent. We can learn a lot from our dogs. Because this is a contemporary film, Irritu was able to add social symbolism because in the past that was not allowed when the government controlled the industry. Until about the 1970s, approval was only granted after a careful screening of each film by a board of supervisors and only after they are satisfied that the topic is not politically or socially unacceptable, (2, Maciel) As other directors knocked down the wall of censorship, Irritu was able to capitalize on it in contemporary Mexico and create an award winning film that hones in on social problems.