Amores Perros



Amores Perros is a 2000 Mexican drama film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. It is both his directorial debut and the first in his "trilogy of death", followed by Twenty One Grams and Babel. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The title translates in English as roughly "Love's a Bitch", though Word of God states that this is not what the title is supposed to mean. It is sometimes referred to as "the Mexican Pulp Fiction", although if your're expecting the film to be in any way similiar to that film except in terms of structure, your're out of luck.

The film tells three stories each revolving around a different person or set of persons in Mexico City; interconnected via a common event consisting of a car crash. In the process, it shows how the lower, middle and upper classes in Mexico interact. Each of the stories also involves dogs in some way.

The first story, "Octavio and Susana", stars Gael García Bernal and Vanessa Bauche as the title characters. Susana is Octavio's sister in law, but Octavio is in love with her and resents the way her husband/his brother, Ramiro, treats her. Enticing her to flee with him to start a new life, Octavio enters his dog in the dogfighting circuit where it quickly becomes a champion, scoring him big bucks with which to do it. Alas,

The second story, "Daniel y Valeria", stars Álvaro Guerrero and Goya Toledo. Daniel is a successful magazine publisher who leaves his family to live with supermodel Valeria. Valeria hurts her leg when Octavio's car colides with hers; confining her to a wheelchair for a few weeks. In Daniel and Valeria's new apartment, Valeria's dog disappears down a hole in the floorboards. At night, they can hear it whimpering, and Valeria implores Daniel to try and rescue it. The two get into a fight, and Valeria resorts to trying to rescue the dog herself. Big mistake...

The third and final story, "El Chivo y Maru", stars Emilio Echevarría and Lourdes Echevarría. El Chivo (The Goat) appears on the surface to be a homeless man who cares for stray dogs. In reality, he is a hitman who got involved with a guerrilla movement and thus abandoned his daughter, Maru, many years ago. He and his wife agreed to tell said daughter that he was dead. El Chivo is hired by a man to kill his business partner, but as he is about to do it, he is interrupted by the car crash. He then learns that the target is the client's half-brother, and decides to throw a spanner into the gears...

The film was somewhat controversial for its numerous realistic scenes of violence against dogs. Supposedly, this violence is a metaphor for the violence humans inflict on each other.

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This film provides examples of:

 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Susana, she is verbally and physically abused by her husband (who also happens to be a robber), yet in the end she chooses him  over Octavio, mind that Octavio is just a little better than his brother.
 * Badass Beard/ Badass Long Hair: El Chivo.
 * Badass Grandpa: El Chivo. Early in the movie he backs down El Jarocho, a thug at least half his age without saying a word.
 * While holding a Machete...
 * Black and Gray Morality: None of the main characters could be considered "white" in morality, for example: Daniel cheated on his wife and abandoned her and his little daughters to be with Valeria, Valeria dated Daniel while knowing that he was a married man, El Chivo's target was also having an affair with a young (and married) co-worker, Octavio, Susana and El Chivo belong to a shadier tone of gray while Ramiro, Jarocho and El Chivo's client are definitely black in morality.
 * Cain and Abel: El Chivo lampshades it when he learns the relationship between his target and his client.
 * Octavio and Ramiro to a lesser degree.


 * Dead Guy, Junior:
 * The Farmer and the Viper: After El Chivo saves Octavio's fighting dog from the car crash and nurses it back to health,.
 * Jerkass: Pretty much everyone but Ramiro stands out as the one without a real reason for his actions.
 * Karmic Death:.
 * Kick the Dog: Many, many times.
 * Love Hurts: Exactly as the English translation of the title would suggest...
 * It also means "love is man's best friend".
 * Morality Pet: Literally in El Chivo's dogs and figuratively in his daughter Maru.
 * Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Inverted, somehow Octavio manages to stab an armed Jarocho in front of his mooks.
 * Professional Killer: El Chivo.
 * Stalker with a Crush: El Chivo towards his daughter, he even breaks into her house twice, the second time near the end of the film in order to leave her all his money, a picture of him and recording a farewell message on her answering machine.
 * Utopia Justifies the Means: El Chivo was a guerrillero who just wanted a better world for his family.