Analysis of Amores Perros Film by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Essay Example

 the Film “Amores Perros” (Love’s A Bitch) Introduction One of the most critically acclaimed movies of the decade is the Mexican Film “Amores Perros.” This film, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga, has been declared as an international commercial success, and was highly acclaimed by critics. The film basically talks about the intertwining lives of three different persons who may come from three different social classes, but is brought together by a car accident (“Amores Perros” n. p.); many say that this film represents the complexities of class in Mexican society, particularly in Mexico City (“Amores Perros” n. p.). This paper would try to look at how Mexican history is actually portrayed in the movie. In order to achieve this, the researcher would try to look into three main themes: the background of the different people behind the production of this movie (especially the director and the screenwriter), the contemporary socio-cultural, economic, and political contexts during the showing of this film, and on how the film itself portrayed or provided a representation of Mexican society from the historical elements in it. In discussing such themes, the researcher would try to answer the following questions: Does the background of the director and the screenwriter, especially in their class origin, heavily influenced their view of Mexican society, and on how it was portrayed in the movie? How did the film tried to represent contemporary issues in the movie (including socio-cultural, political and economic issues)? Did the film attempted to identify the historical roots of the complexities of today’s Mexico City as portrayed in the movie, or did they isolate significant historical developments from their portrayal? Body The director behind the highly acclaimed “Amores Perros” is director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Inarritu, born in Mexico City in 1963, actually came from a middle class family (Deleyto and Azcona x). Not having the resources that the Mexican elite possessed, he started to make a living as a deejay at one radio station, all while he was actually studying filmmaking (Deleyto and Azcona x). In addition, by the 1990s he then started to become one of the youngest producers of the Mexican television station Televisa, which also happened to be one of the premier television stations in the country (Deleyto and Azcona x). For most of the 1990s, Inarritu devoted his time in making commercials, until he finally met Guillermo Arriaga towards the end of the decade (Deleyto and Azcona x). Inerritu and Arriaga planned to collaborate in a series of one minute films that portray the different stories of life in Mexico City; although this was not realized, it still provided them with ideas that finally came upon with the making of the movie Amores Perros. Meanwhile, Guillermo Arriaga, also born in Mexico City in 1958, admitted that he was also heavily influenced by William Faulkner especially since the showing of the film Amores Perros (Sorrento n. p.). In this case, it can actually be seen that Inarritu and Arriaga both came from Mexico City, and had initially planned to make a series of mini clips depicting the different stories of life that composes the bustling Mexico City (Deleyto and Azcona x). However, based on the resources available, it cannot actually be firmly concluded on whether both the middle class origins of Inarritu and Arriaga heavily influenced them to portray a representation of Mexico City outlined on the dominant theme of class, as represented in the movie. Despite this fact, it can safely be said that Inarritu and Arriaga wanted to show Mexico City not only from a single class perspective; on the contrary, they aimed to show Mexico from different perspectives: the perspective of the upper middle class and the elite (as portrayed in the movie by the story of “Daniel y Valeria”), the perspective of the working class (as portrayed by the story of Octavio), and the story of the city’s social outcast, or what Marx calls as “lumpen-proletariat” (as portrayed by the story of “El Chivo y Maru”) (Mazelis, n. p.). In this case, it can also be proved that there was a case of “transcendence” on the part of Inarritu and Arriaga, for they actually transcended their own class origins (middle class) and strived to show in the movie the voices of other classes as well. In such a portrayal, it is clear that Inarritu and Arriaga strongly believe that there is an increasing polarization of Mexican society, especially in terms of class. Meanwhile, as the movie was actually made, some of the most compelling social events that were happening in Mexico were: a. the loss of the dominant political party in Mexico, the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) in the recent national elections and b. the increasing social consequences of Mexico’s signing of the NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement (Deleyto and Azcona 5). In fact, the inclusion of Mexico in the NAFTA can actually be considered as a historical context in the movie, given that Mexico actually signed this free trade agreement a decade before (Deleyto and Azcona 5). One of the most glaring representations of these issues in the movie is the prevalence of poverty and of class differentiation in Mexico City, where the intertwining stories of Octavio, Daniel and Valeria, and El Chivo, as well as the depiction of the contrasts of slums, guerilla, and high rise landscape of Mexico, clearly illustrated how these different scenes existed side by side (Mazelis, n. p.). This may actually explain why Amores Perros actually focused on depicting polarization, for this was actually one of the most controversial issues of Mexican society at the time that the movie was shown (Deleyto and Azcona 5). To recall, the precept of Mexico signing the NAFTA was that free trade would naturally bring welfare and development to less developed countries, based on the theory of comparative advantage. In free trade, it was actually believed that the influx of investments in the country, as well as Mexico focusing on exporting products where the country has competitive advantage, would help alleviate the serious problem of poverty in Mexico, and would significantly help the country develop. However, anticipated outcomes did not materialize; on the contrary, after 10 years of free trade with the United States and Canada, both produced super rich elites and millions of tramps in Mexican society, aggravating the polarization between social classes in the country. While it can be seen that the numbers and figures of Mexican economy where on the rise, and the rich became richer, it cannot also be denied that poverty was still prevalent and has in fact aggravated, and the gap between the rich and the poor only widened and widened. Such polarization can clearly be seen in the three different stories portrayed in the movie. In the first story, the story of Octavio (Mazelis, n. p.), dominant themes actually included slums, dog fighting stadiums, and bleeding dogs to death. In this story, the theme of poverty actually dominated the life of Octavio, the very reason why he had to make money by participating in an illegal trade, the dark world of dog fighting, just for him to meet ends and win the love of Susana, who incidentally is married to his abusive brother (Mazelis, n. p.). Meanwhile, this story is contrasted to the story of Daniel and Valeria, who is seemingly living in a world unimaginable to the earlier character (Mazelis, n. p.). As compared to Octavio, Daniel was actually living the high life, being an upper middle class publisher whose main problem is to win the love of the top fashion model Valeria, given that he has already left his wife and young daughters (Mazelis, n. p.). There is another interesting contrast in this part of the movie, for while Octavio was actually using his dog in illegal dog fighting to make money, even risking the life of the dog, here then comes the dog of Valeria, who belongs to a delicate breed and is living a life maybe even better than millions of Mexican poor folk (Mazelis, n. p.). Dominant themes included in this movie are high-rise apartments and the glam of the elite. Such story is again contrasted to the story of a former leftist guerilla by the name of El Chivo. And while Daniel and Valeria where living in high rise apartments with a pampered dog, El Chivo is actually homeless, longs for the love of his long lost daughter, and lives with stray dogs who he cares for, all while being a hired assassin (Mazelis, n. p.). Clearly such scenes in the movie actually emphasizes the fact that Mexican society has become so polarized, that different characters living in one society actually co exist with each other, each living a life unimaginable to the lives of other people who belong to different classes. Their lives have become so polarized and different, that they even have different uses for love, money and dogs. The story of Octavio showed the complexities of the life of a working class: the struggle to meet ends, the painful pangs of poverty, and the gamble to participate in illegal activities just to attain love and happiness. Meanwhile, the story of Daniel and Valeria represented that of the Mexican elite: living in glam and the high life, having the resources to live comfortably, a life unimaginable to other classes. Finally, the story of El Chivo reflected the destitute in Mexican society: either ending up as criminals or rebels against the government, or being estranged from their loved ones. All of them have radically different stories, but actually coexist in one society. Historical facts have been virtually absent in this movie, for it centered on the contemporary issued of Mexican society. In addition, while the film actually tries to look into the different complexities of a polarized society, it did not try to root out the historicity of why Mexican society actually developed into such state in the first place. Based from this observation, it can be safely concluded that the move may be an ahistorical one; it portrayed the complexities of a polarized class society without even trying to root out the different historical developments that may have lead to such circumstances. Conclusion The main theme of the movie Amores Perros actually centered on depicting Mexican society according to different perspectives, reflecting the increasing polarization between different social classes, the widening gap between the rich and the poor. This movie centered on showing three different stories that each reflected three different ways of life dictated by a particular social class. Both the writer and the director came from middle class backgrounds, but transcended their class biases in the movie and showed different ways of life: that of the working class, the elite, and the destitute. The film was produced at a time where Mexico was increasingly being polarized, where the gap of the rich and poor became wider and social problems continued to persist despite the promise of free trade. However, the movie did not try to root out the historical context of why Mexican society came to such a point; in fact, the movie even failed to establish even a historical background on why Mexican society became so polarized, making it a very ahistorical film. Works Cited Deleyto, Celestino and Maria del Mar Azcona. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Illinois: Univesity of Illinois Press, 2010. Print. Korsner, Jason. “Amores Perros (Love's a Bitch) (2001).” bbc.co.uk. BBC, 2001, Web. 15 February 2011. Mazelis, Fred. “Amores Perros, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.” WSWS.org. WSWS, Web. 15 February 2011. Sorrento, Matthew. “Writing (and Filming) the Memories: An Interview with Guillermo Arriaga.” brightlightfilms.com. Bright Lights Film Journal, Web. 15 February 2011. “Amores Perros.” Imdb.com. IMDB, Web. 15 February 2011. Read More