MovieChat Forums > Los bastardos (2009) Discussion > Shocking

Shocking

posted 15 years ago by cokoholicar
5 replies | jump to latest

In shortness for other words, this movie was shocking. It seemed to drag on forever, was a little interesting but some scenes were too long. The motives and the reasons behind some of the acts remain uncovered. The movie has an abrupt end which many will not like. The shocking scene comes about in the middle of the movie, quite literally caught me off guard and was really graphic. But then again, not to bash the director for using excessive violence in his movie, these kinds of things do happen and to blame him for depicting it in his movie would be very blatant indeed. Scene come and go very slowly, I guess to show the meaningless of life and never ending passage of time although I doubt the directors intention was actually this deep, but rather is his way of making a film. Undoubtedly, not many people will see this movie, for you who are about to and see this post beforehand, you have been warned; you'll learn nothing new but to lock your windows and doors at all times and have a security alarm built in, that's pretty much it. It carries no other significant message than that. Oh and also, the problem of illegal immigrants and workers which has always existed and is persistent still today and is not likely to go away because it's the way things go on in America so I don't see what's the problem of pointing that out in this movie. All in all (this is the 5th conclusion so far, I'm aware of it) it's a so so movie with great acting and good music but subversive and ignominious plot which doesn't really take you anywhere.

[–] zurichpoet 15 years ago

I agree about the impact of it. I saw this a wee bit back and I still think about it.

What is scalding about the movie to me: The ending. The murderer.
He runs and supposedly gets away with killing another human.
But really: he ends up working the fields which is the same kind of labor someone who is sent to prison gets to do.
Thus: What did he escape from? What can he really be punished with?
Ok: That's some brutal irony! But THEN I thought about it a tad more: and the work he is doing is what someone who is sent to prison would be LUCKY to get for being good and moral in prison! What do you call that "point"?
I don't know; but I do know this is a great film.

[–] slipcat555 14 years ago

Good observation; I hadn't thought about it that way. He has put himself in another kind of prison.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] zurichpoet 14 years ago

It was good; but because of Amat Escalante. Kudos.

[–] SeisCinemaSeis 14 years ago

Frankly I didn't find that shocking those scenes. Gruesome? certainly. Perhaps the reason why you find them shocking, is because both of them are depicted in a painfully realistic way, as opposed to the stylized violence that you get to see in practically every Hollywood flick where violence is always "cool" and doesn't seem to have any consequence. That's the kind of violence patented by Tarantino, Mel Gibson and the likes. 'Los bastardos' is an entirely different creature. It has a very slow pace that reminds the work from both Haneke and Escalante's mentor (Reygadas). In this film the violence is handled as in Cronenberg's recent films 'A History of Violence' or 'Eastern Promises'. For Cronenberg the only way violence should be shown is in a realistic way, not glorified (Gibson), stylized (tarantino) nor "embellished" (Besson).
And that's what you see in 'Los bastardos'. Nothing more, nothing less. Finally, the social commentary of the movie is subtle and simple but also clear and truthful. Poverty and need in one side; indolence, hate and apathy in the other side, will be always a dangerous mix.