Gripping story with well-crafted characters

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Three men go hunting rabbits during a hot day. The heat and talking about events that happened in the past make them angry, until they go totally crazy.The film was shot in a valley that once witnessed a Civil War battle similar to the one described in the dialogue. The movie has since become a classic, and a landmark in Spanish cinema. While I think it is far fro ma perfect film, it makes a lot of sense that this would be an influential picture. As a society, Spain was probably still overcoming its past in the 1960s. This was one way to confront that.I am not familiar with any other film from the director, so far as I know... it might make sense to see this in a wider context.

This film is an accurate representation of the volatile Spanish character when a simple discussion on personal differences turns into a heated-up argument and finally into a bloody vendetta. Family feuds, envy, jealousy, political differences, often spiral out of control. Then someone blows a fuse, grabs a shotgun or a knife or a scythe and goes out on a rampage. He makes the 9 o'clock news, and the next day front pages all over the country. It has happened too many times in the past, and it still happens today. With the use of the barren, bleached landscape, and the economic and very effective b/w cinematography Saura masterly builds up the sweltering hot and oppressive atmosphere in which the characters soon begin to lose their hair and get grouchy by the slightest thing. Friendly discussions gradually turn into serious arguments, voices increasingly get sharper and louder, the guys get bitchy, tearing one another to ribs the moment the other is not around, the buried ghosts of the Civil War begin to wake up, long forgotten scores suddenly surface, the scorching heat, the boredom, the annoying constant sound of the cicadas, the amounts of alcohol they drink throughout the day, the loaded guns, the ecstasy of the kill obtained from the early butchery of rabbits by the dozen, the scars of the Civil War, you are fed up with this loser who has been whining for the last thirty years, you are jealous of that rich bastard who brought financial ruin upon your father and now is your employer, those two fought the war on different sides... It was all a time bomb ready to go off. And when it does, it's Armageddon. An unforgettable film, and to me, Saura's best.

This reminds me of that bleak Australian forgotten gem Wake in Fright where dusty sunbaked desolation brings out the worst animal instincts in a group of men, in this case five guys, old friends or acquaintances who haven't seen each other in years, who go out in the Spanish sierra to hunt rabbit. Whereas Wake in Fright at least on some level acquiesces to the idea that we're not perfect beings and revels in anarchy and amorality, Carlos Saura's film feels reactionary. Dialogue and characterization feels calculated to bring out the worst in the characters, they're fully unpleasant from the get go and staying out in the scorching midday heat under a makeshift tent makes them more irritable and frustrated. Their own deadend lives and petty concerns reflect their hunt - from a safe distance, picking off defenceless animals. This is something to pass the time, or worse, an excuse for not passing the time.I like how Saura films the arid landscape in unflattering shots. This is not the picturesque desert of Lawrence of Arabia. This is an inhospitable patch of dirt where nothing grows and Saura gives us flat shots of dusty hillsides. I also like the frantic hand-held shots, of rabbits running amok through the sparse undergrowth, of the hunters inspecting their rifles and jerking them to aim at the distance, and now someone is nervously wiping sweat off his forehead and musing unpleasant thoughts in voice-over, suspicion or aggression. But everything feels calculated here, and Saura's political commentary does not go amiss. The owner of the hacienda where they go to hunt has discovered the skeletal remains of someone from the "war" (it could be the Spanish civil war, although one of the companions snaps irritably "does it matter which war?") and keeps them hidden in a cave. This is a category, a finger raised in outraged accusation against the worst in us.

4 buddies have a hunting day in a reserve of rabbits….They are veterans of the Spanish Civil War, and the reserve was the scene of a bloody battle many years ago…(POSSIBLE SPOILERS)After the war, the buddies started business together but the thing didn't work well…They met again a decade after they broke their relationship…The isolation and the hot in the Spanish semi-dessert of Toledo, the money, the alcohol, the old rancor…and the guns.A masterpiece, 10/10