I read a 1950s horror comic last month in which a mad scientist kidnaps two starry-eyed youths who are madly in love and locks them in a cage without food or water as part of a sadistic experiment which he proposes will prove that the bonds of love will easily crumble once the two begin to starve and their primitive animal instincts take over. Luis Buñuel wasn't so sadistic, but he certainly shared this scientist's (and Freud's) view that men are driven by repressed and irrational animal forces that, given the right set of circumstances, will overpower the (sometimes arbitrary) norms, barriers and boundaries of polite society.

Los Olvidados has the superficial appearance of a social problem melodrama--fatherless, impoverished youths…

Buñuel slays it!

This movie is a pretty uncomfortable watch as it’s a brutal look at poverty in 50s Mexico. It follows a gang of kids navigating a life of crime both to survive and often just generally being assholes to hopeless people. This along with the animal cruelty and the implied rape make it visceral but difficult to deny the power of. It’s spectacular in its scope and weight, reminding me most closely of City of God.

It feels more like the Italian neo-realists than Buñuel’s other work. Buñuel tends to lean most into the surreal and aside from the dream sequence, this is firmly grounded in reality.

It was despised by those in power at the time of…

I've never been more conflicted than ever on what to label such an effort but whichever category you would place it in, whether it be Mexican realism or surrealism, Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados is still one of the finest films about poverty to have ever been made. The films of Luis Buñuel were always weird in some way or another but nevertheless, they always made for extremely fascinating results and offer a scathing critique of some sort which exposes a sort of cleverness that ranks him among the greatest filmmakers of his own kind. But Luis Buñuel was truly a one of a kind filmmaker if one were to speak in that regard, whether we go from surreal comedies like…

***One of the best 150 films I have ever seen.***

SPANISH REVIEW:

Luis Buñuel es otro de mis directores gigantes del cine, y estoy orgulloso de presentarles la primera mejor película de su entera filmografía, la cual está considerada también como una de las mejores películas mexicanas de todos los tiempos por una versión de la revista "SOMOS" publicada en 1994, ocupando el segundo puesto justo después de ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! (1936), de Fernando de Fuentes. A pesar de que Luis Buñuel haya nacido en España, me enorgullece decir que Los Olvidados es un verdadero tesoro nacional cuyas generaciones posteriores preservarán afectuosamente con admiración y respeto. Los Olvidados se ha convertido en un ícono del cine nacional y es…

I expected this to be another Bunuel satire or something with at least a touch of humor to it, but instead, it was a brutal, sometimes bizarre story of poverty, juvenile delinquency, and general tragedy. It follows a group of kids as they cause trouble, but quickly focuses on two of them--Jaibo and Pedro. Jaibo is a burgeoning sociopath, and Pedro is just a kid who wants to be good but doesn't always succeed. Jaibo preys on Pedro, using him as an accomplice and victim.

Pedro is unloved, lost, and impotent, and the world treats him poorly for it. His mother scorns him, Jaibo uses him, and the authorities do not listen to him. In the end, he is treated…

Luis Buñuel's disquieting and difficult masterpiece Los Olvidados is a landmark in 50's neo-realism and an unflinching lament for the human condition lacking sentiment or sugarcoating — also one of the first and finest features about juvenile delinquents.

"I hope they'll kill every one of them before they are born."

This line — being uttered by an old, blind man near the end of the film — perfectly encapsulates the pure awfulness of the world these young boys live in. They live in a world of petty crime, intense poverty, judicial injustice, parental disdain, obtuse violence, loss of innocence and inner distrust. In Los Olvidados Buñuel paints a portrait of Mexico City that seems to smother the inhabitants and the…

Luis Bunuel portrays the endless cycle of poverty and violence with a brutal lack of optimism. Shot mostly in the streets of a Mexico City slum following various destitute children just trying to survive. With similarities to Italian neorealism - extensive use of exterior locations and non-professional actors - but with Bunuel's distinctive penchant for surrealist visual techniques. The plot mainly revolves around Pedro (Alfonso Mejia) and his aimless attempts to better his life and gain the approval of his mother and El Jaibo (Robert Cobo), the detached and murderous leader of "the Damned." The most powerful visually provoking moment is Pedro's slow-motion dream sequence after Jaibo murders Julian which highlights his guilt and longing for the affection of his…

Week 22 of The 6th Annual Letterboxd Season Challenge 2020-2021.

Golden Age of Mexican Cinema Week
This week's challenge is to watch a previously unseen from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema.

Unlike a lot of Buñuel's films, The Young And The Damned is more concerned with social realism than surrealism. The film is an objective portrait of juvenile crime in a Mexico City slum; full of compassion, poetic empathy and heartbreaking bleakness. Buñuel is known (at least to me) for his hilarious surrealist films that poke fun at and critique the lives of bourgeoisie society - this film doesn't exist to poke fun, only to shed light on tragedy. Although it hones in on these children and their criminal…