The Old Timer - Who was he?


Even though I love this film so much there are bits I don't understand. One in particular is the scene immediately following the title "The old timer". An old man walks along a country track at night with a small siutcase and a strange kind of lamp giving light low down so he can see where he is treading. Who is this man and what is the relevence of the scene? I wondered if it was Amos but he didn't have his radio and wore different clothes in scenes before and after. Does anyone know who "The old timer" was?

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Hope you get an answer because I was puzzled as well. I could only think that it was to show that what the honest cop found to be so unlikely in Cecilio's case, and part of the reason he chose to delve deeper (i.e the chances of an old man walking along a road late at night carrying a suitcase), was in fact perfectly plausible and we see a different character actually doing this very thing.

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That's how I interpreted it to mean as well.

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The title "El Caiman" (literally "The Alligator", but here translated as "The Old Timer", or meaning "The Old Dog") is referring to the old veteran cop Amadeo. The old man with the suitcase and lamp and wearing a black beret on the road at night is Cecilio leaving the town at night. Amadeo is dreaming it, as he can't get the implausibility of this thought out of his head. Directly after it we see Amadeo wake up in his bed, being dogged by this thought, which causes him to delve deeper into the case during the day instead of letting it go.

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