MovieChat Forums > Los olvidados (1952) Discussion > I hate to be that guy...

I hate to be that guy...


I just finished watching Los olvidados five minutes ago and I have to say I was not impressed. I heard that Buñuel was a great filmmaker and not having seen anything he has done, I thought this would be the one to check out.

First, the choppy editing. Some images would freeze for a moment before dissolving into the next shot. I've seen this in films from the early 30's, but not a film from the 50'.

Second, the dialogue. There was no real conversations within two characters. It consisted of short sentences some of which had no correlation with the previous. One scene the dialogue was "Here, I'm a less worthy than an animal. Where's Meche? Where are you? I will die alone!" Then a man ignores what she says and looks at another man and says "Find your sister to rub her".

Third, Jaibo kills the boy in broad daylight. The main kid is seemingly the only witness (hard to tell if anyone saw from a distance). Jaibo doesn't get caught until the end. Now, in another scene when the boy is at work, the knife goes missing. The police are called in and the boy is sent away without any proof whatsoever that he was the one responsible for stealing the knife. The boy gets sent away with no evidence for doing something petty like knife thievery whereas Jaibo commits a murder (among many other things) with witnesses in public and he gets away with it until the end.

Fourth. After the boy tries to get his 50 pesos back from Jaibo, a large crowd gathers around. Here, the boy admits to everyone that Jaibo was the murderer. The crowd is in shock where someone then says "Let's get out of here before we all get arrested". For what? Other than Jaibo, no one did anything wrong!

Fifth. At the end of the film the dead body of the little is found in the barn. The innocent old man says to the little girl that they must get rid of the body or they police will think they are an accomplice. If he gets caught with the body, then he will definitely be considered an accomplice. There was no evidence that the old man killed the little boy and he even has the young girl to verify that she saw the body the same time the old man did. Anybody could throw a dead body in somebody's barn.

I really wanted to like this movie but there were just too many problems for it to truly be enjoyable.

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no one trusted the police or government, this is why they disposed of the body. the movie was a bit short at 80 minutes and could have a bit longer.

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