While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I found this Mexican - Spanish language film listed in the book 1001 Movies You See Before You Die, it was rated very highly by critics, so I was hoping it would be another deserved entry like many others I've seen, directed by Luis Buñuel (Land Without Bread, Viridiana, Belle de Jour, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie). Basically, set in a Mexico City slum, this film shows the lives and misfortunes of a group of juvenile delinquents. Specifically it focuses on young Pedro (Alfonso Mejía), living in a world of poverty and the streets filled with crime and violence his morals are gradually corrupted an destroyed by the various characters' intimidation and cruelty. Also starring Estela Inda as Mother, Roberto Cobo as Jaibo, Jesús García Navarro as The Lost Boy, Miguel Inclán as The Blind Man, Alma Delia Fuentes as The Young Girl and Francisco Jambrina as The Principal. I will be honest and say that I could not keep up with everything going on whilst also reading subtitles, but I think to be there's not a lot I can say anyway, but it is a well observed film with some surreal moments, but a feeling of humanity throughout and many moments that get your attention, a worthwhile drama. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film from any Source and the UN Award. Very good!

Whilst listing items on Ebay recently with my dad,I discovered that he had picked up a title by co-writer/(along with Luis Alcoriza/Max Aub/Juan Larrea & Pedro De Urdimalas) directing auteur Luis Buñuel,which led to me getting ready to join the kids on the streets.The plot:Escaping from a juvenile jail, El Jaibo runs back to a Mexican city overrun by his former gang members.Reuniting with the gang,Jaibo tells them all that he will get his revenge on the person who acted as a secret mole for the police.Pushing young gang member Pedro around,Jaibo soon locates ex-gang member Julián,who he suspects worked with the cops.Pretending that his arm is broke,Jaibo walks up to Julián,and reveals that his sling actually contains a large rock,that Jalibo starts attacking him with.Killing Julián,Jaibo tells Pedro that he cannot go to the cops over the killing,since he will tell the cops that Pedro was an accomplice to Julián's death.After witnessing the horrific killing,Pedro tries to leave the life of gangs behind,but soon discovers that Jaibo will not allow him to leave his turf behind.View on the film:Aiming for a rougher texture than the Italian Neo-Realist movement at the time, Luis Buñuel & cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa boil the title in a bleak Film Noir pool,with Buñuel giving the movie the bare minimum of light which allows for the raw world that Jaibo and Pedro inhabit to be pulled open,as Jalibo is completely wrapped in shadows,whilst the moments of light/freedom that Pedro tries to reach are blocked. Locking Pedro and Jaibo on a path of doom, Buñuel and Figueroa show every grain of dirt in their rotten world with excellent,long tracking shots which reveal the burnt-out hopes of all the street kids.Rubbing salt into the Film Noir wounds, Buñuel gives the title a deliciously surreal touch,which allows for an unsettling nightmarish streak to be cut across the film.Keeping miles away from the "aww shucks" kids running around in Hollywood at the time,the writers show a tremendous bravery in showing the nastiest sides of the kids,with Jaibo being given no excuses for the brutality of his actions,whilst Pedro struggles to stop Jaibo from destroying the brief light of hope on his horizon.Treating everyone in an even-handed manner,the writers attack the adults in the title with a vicious fury,as Pedro's mum is filled with a deep hatred for her son,whilst a "kind" blind man is shown to keep disturbing features hidden from the residences of the city,as Pedro & Jaibo discover that they are the young and the damned.

One of the earliest works of famed surrealist director Luis Bunuel's career, Los olvidados was an international hit primarily due to its portrayal of inner city Mexican children living on the brink of death due to immense poverty and crime. The plot focuses on the conflict between two young boys, Jaibo, a recently escaped juvenile delinquent, and Pedro, whose mother struggles to raise three other children and seemingly has no affection or attention left for her eldest. In following these characters, Bunuel cannot help but include some of his trademark surrealist imagery. One of the most famous involves Pedro throwing an egg at the camera as the liquid rolls down the lens. There is also an extended dream sequence in slow-motion chronicling one of the character's deep-seeded guilt and fear of his surroundings. For those who are not familiar with Bunuel, this is a good place to start. The film is accessible, moves along quickly, and encounters serious themes of how to deal with impoverished children and inner city crime in general. While not employing the kind of memorable techniques from later in his career that defines him today, this is still very much a Bunuel film, albeit a neorealist story with a twist of surrealism.

After his exile from his native Spain, director Luis Bunuel moved to Mexico in 1946, gaining citizenship in 1949. It was here where he would make his more generic films (by his standards), as he honed his own directorial skill while never straying too far from his surrealistic background. After the success of his comedy The Great Madcap (1949), he was commissioned by producer Oscar Dancigers to make a serious film about child poverty in Mexico City, and out of it came Los Olvidados, or The Young and the Innocent, to give it it's American title. Bunuel apparently spent months disguised as a homeless amongst the poverty- stricken children of the slums in order to research, and if that tale is true, it certainly came off, as Los Olvidados is one of the best and most realistic depictions of the innocent turning to crime in a fit of desperation.The film follows three children in the same slum. Pedro (Alfonso Mejia) is a young tearaway who wants to change his ways and work, in order to help out his mother who neglects him due to her constant work. 'Little Eyes' (Mario Ramirez) has been abandoned by his father, and is adopted by the blind beggar Don Carmelo (Miguel Inclan), a bitter man who frequently voices his opinions on the young criminals of the city. El Jaibo (Robert Cobo) has just been released from prison and immediately sets about gaining revenge of the boy he thinks ratted him out. Jaibo and Pedro corner the boy, only for Jaibo to bludgeon him to death, and the two boys flee. Pedro struggles to keep himself out of trouble and leaves home after being accused of stealing a knife, only to find his and Jaibo's paths repeatedly crossing.At its heart, this is pure neo-realism, sharing its tone most obviously with Vittorio de Sica's masterpiece The Bicycle Thieves (1948) in exposing poverty and class divide as the main cause of criminality, due to the ill education and the hopelessness of the young. Although, out of nowhere, comes a surrealistic dream sequence so beautiful, and so haunting, that you know you're watching Bunuel, and his artistic creativity seems to bulge from the screen. Best known for his mocking of the upper-classes (the bourgeois were clearly as fascinating to Bunuel as they were repugnant), here he stays in the slums, promoting as much sympathy for its filthy lead characters as hatred.Jaibo is a true monster, raised without parents, he bullies his way through life, grasping any opportunity that presents itself (he even manages to seduce Pedro's lonely and overworked mother, and rob a legless man). It is Pedro who is the beating heart of the film, especially when he leaves home and we witness the state of the lower- classes from his eyes and how they are viewed (in one powerful sequence, an upper class man obviously propositions him for sex, but we only see their exchange, as we watch them through a window). Bunuel then manages to deliver not one, but two sensational endings, that manage to move and shock as much as the famous and upsetting climax to Bicycle Thieves. Bunuel would go to France to create his greatest works, but Los Olvidados displays many of the attributes that made Bunuel one of the most important directors in the history of film, as well as being a great film in its own right.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com