Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned) (1950)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Elvira B

  
  Los Olvidados. The literal translation of it is "The Forgotten". And yet the English title is The Young and the Damned. More attractive, yes, but definitely not very accurate. Being young and damned supposes challenges indeed, but never the void implied in being Forgotten.… More
  Los Olvidados. The literal translation of it is "The Forgotten". And yet the English title is The Young and the Damned. More attractive, yes, but definitely not very accurate. Being young and damned supposes challenges indeed, but never the void implied in being Forgotten. A gang of homeless children turn to robbery, vandalism and muder to survive in the slums of Mexico City. They act with a courage no one should have, with principles no one should have. They are menaces to each other and to themselves, and they terrorize their entire surroundings. Los Olvidados is incredibly realistic, it plays almost as a documentary, and it is supported by unbelievable performances by the children. The violence in the film is raw and mortifying, and, initially, it's shocking to see these kids beating crippled beggars on the streets, murdering each other, stealing, and especially speaking about society with real disdain and hate. It is not an optimistic movie as is stated in the beginning; no one here is going to find redemption because of some profound spiritual awakening -that precious time devoted to introspection is unknown to children who already have to use most of their time getting the bare necessities. The most terrifying thing about Los Olvidados is that the situation here protrayed is far from being corrected anywhere in South America. Throughout Los Olvidados, Bunuel shows us that their behavior isn't the children's fault. It isn't their parents fault... and so on, until there is no simple answer to the question, who to blame? As always, Bunuel questions the ideas we tend to repeat mecanically over and over again: poor children, their parents never took care of them, never taught them anything. Maybe it's true, but never, ever, that simple. With Bunuel, answers are never shallow. We also encounter the two sides of legal interference in the case of social issues like homeless children; for once, the State isn't evil, and we can see the decent intentions behind their social reinsertion program, even if it fails. Even though it's very long and its topic is unconfortable, Los Olvidados never bores. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, it manages not to exaggerate non-fiction to the borders of fantasy or incoherence, and creates an almost real life experience. Since it's Bunuel we're talking about it comes as no surprise that it would be filled with oniric symbollism and one dream sequence. Notice the hens- Bunuel said that to him hens represented the unknown, the dreamland. Los Olvidados works alone and in the context of Bunuel's catalogue because it shows that he actually knew how to make an excellent "conventional" movie, which so many people like to hold against him.

• Tsubaki S

  
  Brutal, people hated this one in Mexico when it was released. Truth hurts indeed.

• Stella D

  
  a searing indictment of poverty and document of the street life. pedro, ojitos and metche will break your heart. i won't soon forget this

• Pierluigi P

  
  Buñuel's masterpiece is also one of the most crude and heart-breaking stories ever told about children growing up on the slums of a corrupt, violent, blind and messy city. one of the most depressive documents ever produced.

• Megan S

  
  I had to watch this in a Spanish class in college. I don't really remember that much about it.

• Walter M

  
  [color=darkolivegreen]So, what is the fine line between suicidal and self-destructive behavior? The excllent, provocative new film from Germany, "Head-On" wants to have a few words on the subject. Basically, the movie starts out with Cahit(Birol Unel), a Turkish immigrant… More
  [color=darkolivegreen]So, what is the fine line between suicidal and self-destructive behavior? The excllent, provocative new film from Germany, "Head-On" wants to have a few words on the subject. Basically, the movie starts out with Cahit(Birol Unel), a Turkish immigrant who collects empties at a night club, having a wild night out on the town, followed by driving his car straight into a wall. Since there were no skid marks, the doctors surmised that he was trying to kill himself and confine him to a mental hospital. There, a young woman Sibel(Sibel Kikelli) overhears his surname and like her he is of Turkish descent and immediately goes over to him and proposes marriage.(Which breaks the land speed record in this category and also would provide a perfectly good story for any grandchildren as to how their grandparents met.) All he is interested in is alcohol; she is interested in living a new life away from her restrictive parents and having lots of wanton sex and could use a husband to provide a cover. Cahit and Sibel would be nothing more than roommates. Such is the place where lousy sitcoms are born but "Head-On" excels by not going for easy laughs and not seeking to take a sentimental view of these difficult characters. The film is occasionally interrupted by a real live Turkish chorus. The last image in the film is of them taking a bow. It is well deserved.[/color] [color=#556b2f][/color] [color=darkorange]Nearly all of the Luis Bunuel films I have seen until now have been from his later period(60's to 70's) where he is specializing in surreal imagery like Belle du Jour, That Obscure Object of Desire, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Milky Way. I had read about some of the films he had made in Mexico but Los Olividados(1950) is the first of them that I have seen. Basically, it is about a group of street urchins in Mexico City(even though the film makes it clear it could take place anywhere). Jaibo, a charismatic sociopath, has just escaped from a reform school. Some of the impact of this film has dulled over the years but it is still a very good movie about the impact of poverty on a younger generation and that kindness can somtimes only be handed out by those who can afford to. Oh and Bunuel, still manages to get a couple of vivid dream sequences into the film.[/color] [color=#ff8c00][/color] [color=indigo]"Monsieur N." starts out with the exhuming of Napoleon Bonaparte's remains on St. Helena in 1840, 19 years after his death.(Perhaps, they were just checking to see if he was still dead.) The movie flashes back to Napoleon's final imprisonment on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic. "Monsieur N." wants to speculate on possible conspiracies as to the causes of Napoleon's death but it is not interesting or imaginative enough to succeed on that point. It does retain some interest as to the relationship of the imprisonment of the former emperor who perhaps never considered himself to be a prisoner versus the English who most certainly did. There is a distraction concerning what can only be called a schoolboy crush. It is a shame that "Monsieur N" does not really come alive until its conclusion because I think it could have been quite a bit better.[/color]

• Patrick D

  
  Really incredible. This film has a strange naturalistic way of showing children in poverty and being exploited, as well a surrealism that goes along with it. But what would you expect from Bunuel. It really gets you from the very beginning. And wins for strangest scene presented… More
  Really incredible. This film has a strange naturalistic way of showing children in poverty and being exploited, as well a surrealism that goes along with it. But what would you expect from Bunuel. It really gets you from the very beginning. And wins for strangest scene presented nonchalantly, when Pedro picks up a chick from under a chicken, pets it and fawns over, but then hurls it at a rooster who appears and seems to annoy him...

• Dimitris S

  
  Aggressive,iconic,mesmerizing in every frame.Bunuel's depiction of the grim social life of a bunch of street smarts and other lost souls is hallucinating.A staggering finale for a maleficent future prediction.

• Christopher B

  
  Amazing and brutal Bunuel film. Really great and I'm certain it was very influencial. Highly recommended.

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