Amores perros (2000) "Love's a b***h"

famous Mexican film

Director: Alejandro Iñárritu

 

Principal stars include: Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal and Goya Toledo.

 

The first section is titled “Octavio y Susana.” The crucial event is a car accident which occurs at the beginning of the film.  A young man, Octavio (Bernal), is driving recklessly through the streets of Mexico City. A friend is in the back seat tending to the driver’s rather large dog, which is bleeding. Others in a pickup truck are chasing him. He drives through an intersection and crashes into another car.  Then we go back a few days to see what brought him to being chased, and why the dog is dying. Susana is his sister-in-law.

 

Story two “Daniel y Valeria” concerns a beautiful young model Valeria (Toledo), who is seen on a Mexican TV show. She is the focus of a major ad campaign by a company called Enchant.  Her boyfriend, Daniel, has left his family and the pair are now together in a new apartment he has set her up in, whose windows look out on a full-sized billboard of her Enchant ad.  She owns a small white dog named Richie. Then, the car she is driving is struck by the car mentioned above.

 

Story three “El Chivo y Maru” concerns a bearded man with scraggly hair. El Chivo (Echevarría), who is homeless and owns many dogs. He is a hitman for hire, and generally a corrupt police official arranges for his services.  He is estranged from his wife as well as his daughter whom he still loves. Then. he witnesses the above car accident, from which he surreptitiously rescues the dying dog, which has been placed on the street. Maru is the man’s daughter.

 

The dénouement�"

 

Ramiro, who is the brother of Octavio, is married to Susana.  Since the three lived in the same apartment with the mother of the brothers, Octavio, knowing that his brother was no good, offered to take the winnings from dog-fighting and leave with Susana.  He had shown her where he was stashing his money. However, she stole the money and disappeared with Ramiro. Ramiro attempts to rob a bank and is killed. At his funeral, after Octavio’s accident, he sees Susana once again, and he offers once again to leave with her, since he thought she loved him. Now she is single. It seems that she will now be with Octavio, but she doesn’t keep the appointment of where they are going to meet.

 

Valeria is crippled after the accident, and she ultimately gets gangrene in one of her legs and has to have the limb amputated, ending her modeling career.

 

Chivo is hired through the police official to talk to a man who wants a job done. The man gives him info and money to perform a hit on another man. Chivo knows when and where he will be. He finds the man and kidnaps him taking him back to his dwelling and tying him up.  After a few days he brings the man who hired him back to his dwelling. He has learned that his client is the victim’s half-brother.  After shaving his beard, completely changing his appearance, he leaves the two men tied up with a gun on the floor between them. He leaves them to solve their problems.  After visiting his daughter’s residence, he leaves a large bundle of money for her. He sells his client’s SUV, and walks off with the dog he rescued, disappearing.

 

Music is by Gustavo Santaolalla.