MovieChat Forums > Los muertos (2004) Discussion > Am I the only one?

Am I the only one?

posted 16 years ago by mrsaladfinger
9 replies | jump to latest

Maybe I'm just too ignorant to get the film, but doesn't this look like a pretentious, amaturish student film?

The non-actors were distracting with their non-acting, which totally took me out of the reality of this film. Everyone looks like they are reading their lines.

Nobody seems to care about anything. While dramatic acting would be unnecessary, but no one seemed to have any realitic human like reaction. And because no one cared about anything in the film, I could not bring myself to care or relate to any character in the film.

Some say the film is like a poem, and the film is about the rhythem, and the texture, not so much the plot line. Well, this film has got as much texture as a piece of wrapping paper that may have some visual appeal, but no more than that.

I can't believe they actually killed a goat and tore it a part for this movie. To sacrifice an innocent life for a vision that doesn't seemed poorly realized?

One note about the so called surprise ending: the story simply ended at some random point. I say random, because if I did not care about what has been going on, do I really care that I don't get to know what would've happened?

Any movie can create this kind of surprising ending by cutting the audience off prematurely.

What an insult to my brain cells.

Again, they killed an innocent baby goat for this?

If I did not watch this movie outdoor under the stars with nice summer breezing brushing over my skin, I would've left.

I wish I smoke weed, but I don't even know if being high would help me enjoy the film more.

[–] knue 16 years ago

No, you're not the only one. With the availability of inexpensive and portable 'media' making equipment, anyone with time and inclination can make a movie. A person with business contacts can get it distributed. A person with chutzpah can convince some folks that nothing is something.

As a person in the movie-making 'business,' I applaud the democratization of media that technology has afforded us. Between good quality video-cams and the internet, aspiring artists can get their art viewed internationally without a 7 figure marketing budget. But that doesn't stop 13-year-olds from dancing to their favorite tunes and posting it for all the world to see. Much of what this democratization has wrought is no better than voyeurism and, usually, no more interesting.

'Los Muertos' falls into this category. Is chronicling the return of a convict to his daughter's home dramatic? Shouldn't art give us some perspective or inform us in some way? 'The Seventh Continent,' although more shocking, fails in the same way: it tells a horrible story, but refuses any perspective. No matter what, the filmmaker cannot avoid commenting. Simply the choice of subject is a comment. Not to pursue that comment is to fail to communicate and, therefore, to fail as an artist.

[–] tardesdete 15 years ago

A hahahahahaha. Maybe you're too kin on Hollywood overacted and overexplained bull s h i t, maybe you like Iñarritu's crap. About the goat: unless you're a vegetarian i must tell you that many animals are sacrificed like that to feed you.

[–] jtaboada 15 years ago

I think the sex scene with the prostitute and the goat killing are deliberately playing (and breaking) the taboos of what cannot be shown on screen. You'll never get such scenes in Hollywood films, even in R ones. Wasn't worth it? Well, if they ate the goat after the scene, would it make it more acceptable to you?

This is not a film that wants to communicate a message, but one who seeks a contemplative spectator. And we do get something of interest: we know how a provincial prison in the jungle is, to name one example. I have never seen a prison like this on screen, but it is so more realistic and vivid that so many 'prison films'

[–] timmy_501 12 years ago

I think the sex scene with the prostitute and the goat killing are deliberately playing (and breaking) the taboos of what cannot be shown on screen.

I'm afraid you're right, which raises the question: so what? What does this challenge of filmmaking convention add to the film? I guess it makes it more realistic but I don't think that's a particularly admirable goal. I'm not impressed by the banal.

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[–] director-249 13 years ago

Fully agreed on. They dont know how to appreciate a film. Most of these comments have no merit. They don't have a critical intent. Theyre just bashing the film because they couldnt find the meaning. Some even call it a movement of no-meaning! That "movement" its being active for the 50 years and theyre finding it right now? Go back to your transformers and Michael bay philosophical tource de force! hahahaha.

[–] dragmio 14 years ago

All the OP says can be applied to Japon by Reygadas, but not to this movie. Japon was pretentious as hell, this one isn't at all.

What's amazing is how the story tells itself. Los Muertos may appear random and meaningless, but you can't escape the story. La Libertad, a previous film by Lisandro is even better example of that. In it seemingly nothing happens. Yet in the end you know everything you would know after watching a "normal" dramatized film. It really discloses dramatization as totally superflous.

As for Los Muertos, there is even a stylized detail in it. Maybe it's a bit hard to notice, but it's nevertheless brilliant. And of course, it's the key to what happens in the end.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] timmy_501 12 years ago

I think the problem here is that the film is merely adequately shot and generally visually uninteresting but it's apparently meant to be appreciated because of cinematic qualities that never really materialize. The scenes in the boat actually are interesting and I can see what someone might praise about them but they take up less than half of the film's (mercifully) short run time. The rest is a lot of set up that doesn't really add much. From what I can remember about Liverpool, which I saw a couple years back, this is virtually the same movie. I guess Alonso realized he didn't get it right the first time, not that he did any better with that one.

I have to admit I didn't like seeing the goat killed either. And yes, to answer those people who always bring it up: I do eat meat and I realize that this involves killing animals. However, I don't think that this is really something that lends itself to casual insertion into films, anymore than other everyday aspects of life such as toilet functions.

However, OP, I didn't have a problem with the acting here. Certainly it wasn't stylized dramatic acting that is seen in conventional movies but I don't put much stock in that. The characters felt authentic even though they were mostly banal and flat.

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[–] AssetsonFire 9 years ago

I have to wonder how you think the crew ate while making the film, how people living in that part of the world eat. I'm going to take a punt and guess that the goat was only one of several cute, fluffy animals 'torn apart' (or 'butchered' as the cognoscenti term it) and consumed during the course of filming.

It's heartening to learn that you didn't let a scene of vicious murder totally spoil your evening, though. Is there no trauma that those balmy summer breezes can't dispel?

~.~
There were three of us in this marriage
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