guisreis In this Mexican movie, Buñuel brings a great depiction of the lost youth, with no projects, committing crimes, practicing violence. Other films did the same afterwards, in my opinion with better outcomes, like Truffaut's "Les quatre cents coups" one decade afterwards, and Argentine "Pizza, birra, faso" half century later. Buñuel's concern about details which are not relevant for the story makes the film richer, and other elements important for Mexican society in those times also appear, such as sexism. Though, the movie gets a little bit tiring and the sudden end was very unsatisfactory. Not all characters behave in a way coherent to the traits shown in their development throughout the movie, particularly in the last moments.

Chris Silver Los Olvidados- Mexico 1950 This is the 17th movie on the list.Los Olvidados. The young and the damned. At first I couldn't tell, is this "The Young. The Damned" or the young are also damned.I feel the story tells both. In this movie, it's not the production or big director that can be commented on, its the story. The young are damned in this movie of depression era Mexico. Even the Spanish in the movie is pretty bad. The story is of young people who are run-aways and have no place to live or food to eat. It centers on one boy's struggle. That's all I'll say.The young. The Damned. The story centers around a young boy who is trying is hardest to be a young boy. He doesn't know where he fits. He is the young. Everyone else in the story is the damned. Even the boy's mother sins in the most obvious of ways. Everyone here commits a sin, other than small eyes. It's terrible, but the story does live up to the young and the damned.Also the story just ends. It's very abrupt so don't expect much.SilverRating

tomgillespie2002 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

StephenBradleyJones First off, I think Luis Bunuel is amazing. He really took a risk in making this film. Perhaps being from another country (Spain) gave him the objectivity of a scientist. He had quite a backlash when this film was released. This film doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to the dehumanization that occurs on the streets. There are complex characters on display. It makes it hard to simply point the finger and say that a character 'should do this or that'. Products of their brutal environment, it makes it hard to pass judgement on them. Parts of this film try to address the idea of reclaiming your identity, but the storyline doesn't ever see this to fruition as in the Maori based movie "Once were warriors". Difficult subject, but Bunuel's work is always a worthwhile see.