Man's Best Friend.

Rated R
(violence/gore, language, and sexuality)

Directed by: Alejandro Gonázalez Iñárritu

my rating: A

Did you ever see a movie that parallels your reality? Did you ever see a movie that becomes reality? No, you are not stuck in another X-File episode. The night when I came back from this movie one of my classmates at school tragically died in a car accident. His life was taken away quicker than the blink of the eye. This is the first sudden death that I’ve experienced in my life. Through my anger, sadness and frustration, I asked myself thousands of questions. Was this meant to be? Did his choices result in his early death? Could of this been prevented? As we live our lives, we make choices everyday. We make important choices such as College and little choices such as buying groceries. But, these very decisions we make can cause a tragic end in our lives. These little decisions which seems completely irrelevant can kill us. If my classmate decided not to be in the passenger seat, he could have been still breathing right now. While watching Amores Perros, I was asking myself these same questions.

Amores Perros opens with a furious car chase through the streets of Mexico City. The drivers are trying to escape from the rage of the pickup truck. Screaming, guns, horns, blood. In the back of the car, a dog lies bleeding, while someone frantically trying to save its life. Eventually, a crash brings the end of the chase. The movie has just begun and my heart was already pounding. For the next two and a half-hour, the movie kept me in that feeling of fear, excitement and intrigue. Amores Perros never loses momentum.

This car accident connects three separate stories together. The first story is called “Octavio and Susana”. Octavio wants to raise money so that Susana can leave her abusive husband and live a new life. She happens to be his sister-in-law. To raise the necessary money, Octavio enters his dog (Cofi) in horrendous and violent dogfights. The next story is called “Daniel and Valeria”. Daniel is a successful businessman who is cheating on his wife. His love affair is with a beautiful, famous model. The car accident causes her career to be left with a shadow of doubt. Finally, the last story is called “El Chivo and Maru”. El Chivo is a homeless and part time assassin. He witnesses the accidents and decides to take in the injured dog (Cofi) and take care of him.

Amores Perros is translated into “Love’s a B*tch”. In other words, b*tch has a double meaning – a spiteful, ill-tempered person or a female dog. As the first meaning implies, love is a b*tch – love is simply unfair, painful, and unforgiving. These three stories explore a different type of love: exploitation, friendship, infatuation, and unconditional love. Every type of love resulted in a tragic ending. In “Octavio and Susana”, Octavio wants his brother’s wife. Being infatuated with her, Octavio wants Susana at all cost. He is greedy for her love. During “Daniel and Valeria”, Daniel is experiencing lustful, adulterous love. He leaves his wife and kids for a very attractive model. Finally, in “El Chivo and Maru”, El Chivo is regretful for his guilt-ridden love towards his family. He cares for his daughter so much, but he can’t talk to her because of his past mistakes.

In exploring the second meaning of the title, all three stories are also connected by dogs. The director explored the relationship with the dogs in reflection of the relationship with each other. The fate of the dog foreshadows the fate of the characters. When Octavio realizes that he can exploit his dog for money, Octavio’s greed and violent nature ultimately destroys the dog. Octavio’s greed towards Susana left him all alone. When Valeria’s dog was trapped under the floor, Valeria slow deterioration paralleled the dog’s slow suffering. While the dog felt trapped with the rats, Valeria felt trapped in her wheel chair. This kills her love for herself and Daniel. When El Chivo takes in Cofi, his care and redemption caused the death of all his dogs. It was El Chivo’s love for his family and country that brought his downfall and the death of his love.

Due to its storytelling, Amore Perros will be compared to Tarantino’s classic, Pulp Fiction. Even though both movies show gritty, realistic violence, Amore Perros is a very different story. Amore Perros is very serious. Many moviegoers will be repelled by the movie’s graphic violence especially the dog fights, but Amore Perros doesn’t have violence just for the sake of having violence. Here, violence is used as a tool and allegory for love. Amore Perros is a powerful, almost mythical movie. It is unforgettable and marvelous.