Mexico: Amores Perros (2000)

The film begins with a car accident in Mexico that produces the crossing of the lives of three very different people. Director,  Alejandro González Iñárritu, makes an amazing job telling the audience the story of each of these lives while keeping them in wait of the unexpected.

The first person involved in the accident is Octavio, a man who lives with his mother, his brother Ramiro, and his brother's wife, Susana. Ramiro is a thieve and specializes in assaulting banks and is very abusive with his wife. Susana is pregnant, but she doesn’t want the baby. Octavio is in love with Susana and wants her to run away with him and abandon his brother. Octavio uses his dog “Cofi” in “Dog fighting contests” in order to earn money. Octavio makes enough money to run away with Susana, but Susana takes the money and leaves with her husband. Octavio continues his dog fighting business until a rival owner shoots his dog Cofi. Octavio stabs the rival owner and finds himself in a car chase with his lifelong friend, Jorge, and the wounded dog. A collision follows; Jorge dies and Octavio is badly injured. Ramiro is killed in a bank of their attacks.

The second person in the accident is Valeria, a model. At the beginning of the movie, we see her taking on a large floor where she plans to live with her lover Daniel Estrada, a married man who leaves his family in order to be with her. In the accident, Valeria’s leg is badly wounded. During her convalescence, her dog Richie disappears into a hole that on the ground of the apartment between floors. The dog does not return before the end of the film and the model becomes obsessed with getting him back. At the end Valeria loses her leg because she has gangrene. Her life as a model is unfortunately finished. 

The third and final person involved in the accident is a bum, also known as "The Goat". He is a former guerrilla fighter, and now kills people for money.  He lives alone with a great amount of dogs that he considers his family. In the story, we discover he has a daughter who he doesn’t talk to although he checks on her constantly from the distance. In the accident he rescues Cofi ( Octavio’s dog) and unfortunately Coif kills his dogs. “The Goat” then understands that killing is wrong and decides not to kill the next target he had been hired to kill.  

This becomes a life changing experience that makes him realize that he has to start again.

He goes home to his daughter, and leaves money in her bed. He leaves a message on her answering machine, but fails to tell her he loves her. In the end, he sells his car and goes to the desert.

The themes of this movie are: Love, Passion, betrayal, poverty, vanity, revenge. It is a movie that is filled with so many situations that in keeps the audience connected to the three stories trying to understand where these plots meet and make sense.

It is a masterpiece that provides the audience with so many content that it keeps them stack to their sits. The Director makes an excellent job in the management of the stories and the synchronization of the scenes.

Every story leaves a moral; every story leaves a message; every story is the description of a human aspect in which perhaps most of the viewers can feel identified with. Bravo!