MovieChat Forums > Crónica de una fuga (2006) Discussion > La inscripción 'Gracias Luis'

La inscripción 'Gracias Luis'


Luego de haber visto la película, mucho después, empecé a dudar sobre el significado de la inscripción que deja Guillermo en la pared.
Mi duda es, ?Fue la frase un agradecimiento real?, ?o fue una forma de perjudicar a Luis, haciéndolo quedar como cómplice o culpable?

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No es "Gracias, Luis" sino "Gracias, Lucas", pero sí creo que fue una manera de complicarlo a Lucas en la fuga y que tuviera quilombo con los demás captores. Una suerte de pequeña venganza y a la vez cierta satisfacción de ganarle la partida.

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Habrás visto que Lucas tuvo buenas actitudes con ellos. Si leyeron algunos libros sobre los campos de detención habrán notado que en comparación a otros centros estos pibes estaban en un 5 estrellas prácticamente (podían hablar entre ellos, verse las caras, tenían actividades dentro de la casa). Muchas veces los que escaparon (que no fueron muchos) dejaron inscripciones de verdadero agradecimiento para los que tuvieron actitudes "humanas" dentro de los centros.

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Pues yo no interpreté la inscripción como verdadero agradecimiento, sino más bien como una acción de chinchar, de decir 'nosotros ganamos'. De forma irónica. Porque Lucas era más o menos el líder de la banda, no?
Y en cuanto a lo de poder verse las caras, sólo lo hacían cuando estuviera decidido que iban a asesinar a los presos. Entonces al momento en que los ojos no deben ser vendados más, es como una sentencia de muerte.

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Me gustaría aclarar que en una escena eliminada Lucas vuelve a la mansión y los demás represores lo miran con mala cara cuando llega. Así que supongo que lo hicieron para joderlo. Además si eliminaron la escena es porque Caetano quería presentar a la represión como "invulnerable", y la escena con Lucas volviendo y encontrándose con una situación medio incómoda hubiera dado a la peli un toque de "final feliz".

He's a chicken, I tell you! A giant chicken!

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Apologies for not understanding Spanish well. I was just wondering the significance of the inscription. I watched the movie with English subtitles. Why would they thank him? I took it that it was a deliberate attempt to get their keeper in trouble. Either implying that he allowed them to escape or mocking his incompetence which also allowed them to escape. Is this how others saw this?

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That is exactly it.

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They're saying that it was maybe an ironical 's*ck my d*ck' and maybe it was genuine thanks. This was apparently because it was not unusual for escaped detainees (maybe those released, too) to show appreciation for not being treated as bad as people in other detention centres. If I remember correctly, Guillermo had links to the underground, so this is just about possible in his case. But there are a few things that make it unlikely: a) the director didn't make it clear to the ordinary cinemagoer (via dialogue etc), b) second-hand detention stories must have been pretty rare and c) why write the words so big if you're not full of mockery?


Si fueron gracias verdaderas, ¿porqué tan grande las letras? Ademas, el director no nos dí evidencia a través de diálogos que sus condiciones de encarcelación eran mildes.

I suspect it was just a fictional touch to embellish the story.

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Didn't any of you guys pay close enough attention to this terrific film?

There are 3 reasons for the inscription:

1) Remember how Guillermo came into possession of the screw? Lucas stood on the prison cot when he "disinfected" Guillermo with a cotton mop. It was trough his movements and sheer weight that the screw finally fell to the floor.

2) Guillermo later says that he could open the window which he had cleaned for Lucas before. So Lucas assigning this chore to Guillermo allowed him to take a close look at the casement window, realizing he could open it with something like the screw.

3) Obviously the inscription was also a way to mock Lucas and the other captors. Guillermo not only said thanks for putting the screw under my nose and letting me inspect the window but it is also his way of expressing that they never managed to break him, that he found strength in the face of this huge adversity, that he's still standing!

It was a majestic moment when Guillermo opened that window, the four ghosts staring in awe into the rainy night outside, just a breathtaking scene. Some might argue it wasn't a particularly dramatic or daring escape but I happen to disagree. It's certainly not a high security prison escape like Eastwood in Escape from Alcatratz but boy is it a realistic depiction of an escape. I've been in prison myself and there was a time when I was held in a smaller pre-trial prison for months and there it was that I saw an opportunity to try to escape when being escorted to the investigating judge in a room just across my cell block. We had to cross a courtyard with an open side gate and mostly I was being escorted by just one guard because I was a non-violent offender. They changed frequently and usually handcuffed me but there was this old friendly guy, the oldest guard there, after 2 or 3 times escorting me he suddenly didn't handcuff me anymore and this had me thinking about trying to escape. I faced no threat of torture let alone death in case I would not succeed and it would have been just a matter of running away, maybe pushing him at most but still I wrestled with that decision for weeks. It was somehow more than fear of getting caught, it was like I was chained by an invisible chain to that cell so I made up one excuse after the other why day X or opportunity Y wasn't good enough to risk it and finally - like I was cursed somehow - the old guy was never around anymore when they brought me to the judge. Another 2 months went by and they brought me back to the big house where escape was literally impossible.

So I can relate very well why El Gallego was unwilling to take any risks. The torture had traumatized him so much he was unable to envision him escaping and finally being free again. At times he's portrayed almost showing signs of traumatic bonding (like some sort of Stockholm Syndrome), when Claudio tells him to watch the door shortly before the escape I thought there was a real possibility that he might have screamed and alerted their captors out of sheer fear. El Vasco was almost losing his mind for fear of it, both were unable to escape and if not for Guillermo and Claudio they both would have awaited their fate in Sere Mansion.
It didn't surprise me when El Gallego was totally passive when his dad abandoned his two comrades in the middle of a street and drove away. I would love to read Claudio Tamburrinis book but unfortunately I don't understand more than a couple Spanish words. El Gallego never went back to testify and poor El Vasco had seemingly the worst fate of them all as he was abducted again and held captive for years! But Guillermo and Claudio somehow found the strength to return to testify in Argentina, imagine that! I want to learn more about the trial, did they face any of their former captors?

And talking about paying attention to detail: Did you notice the pregnant woman? When Claudio is on his way home after the soccer match he stands up in the bus and leaves his seat to a pregnant woman. At the end there's this mindblowing scene when he encounters this woman with the baby at the busstop, he looks at the baby and then it's like he realizes that they both made it at the same time. While he underwent his terrible ordeal the baby was born and life prevailed. I loved this symbolic scene accompanied by the subtle piano score and Solzhenitsyn's eternal quote from The Gulag Archipelago came to my mind: "Bless you prison! I have served enough time there. I nourished my soul there and I say without hesitation: Bless you prison, for having been in my life! (And frome beyond the grave come replies: It is very well for you to say that - when you came out of it alive.)"!

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Nothing much to say except: wonderful words, LobotomyKid! Really well put! Thank you!

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