Fine film, provocative ending. I don't believe it's a matter of Armando choosing the most violent of the young street thugs to groom him to assassinate his estranged father. It's more complicated than that.
Obviously, Armando was traumatized as a child by unknown events that isolated him sexually and emotionally, hence he lives a solitary life and pays young men to show their buttocks for him to masturbate without any further involvement. When Elder batters and robs him of his wallet, Armando does not display any emotion and doesn't report him to the police. Subsequently, despite the attraction Armando feels and the longing glances he casts upon Elder, he never reveals any emotion.
The first time Armando shows an intense emotion is when he vomits after riding an elevator with his father who has just returned to Caracas. Neither his father nor Armando greet each other, and since the father is off-camera we're left to conjecture he no longer recognizes Armando or their break-up was so severe that they no longer acknowledge each other's presences. All we know is that the father is psychically toxic to Armando. Although the narrative is not explicit about this, audiences can conjecture that Armando's affliction is the result of being physically or sexually abused by his father when he was a child.
Another interesting aspect of the story is Armando owning a dental prosthesis lab and living a middle-class existence as his sister does, while the father appears to be a wealthy high-ranking executive. Thus another conjecture is that the father abandoned the family when they were children and Armando's hatred toward him relates to being emotionally and financially disinherited.
Regardless whether the father either abused or abandoned him, Armando hates him and is deeply afflicted by him.
The second time Armando manifest a strong emotion is when Elder tries to rob his safe. Armando cuts himself with a kitchen knife to prove his toughness after claiming he is not a *beep* This outburst reveals him as someone who doesn't identify himself as a homosexual and is willing to hurt himself to prove his masculinity.
Later, when Elder tries to kiss him Armando refuses his advances. Although up to that point he has been driven by his attraction to Elder, he cannot allow the object of his desire to love him in return. Armando is more at ease giving Elder money, buying him a car, or taking him to a restaurant than becoming physically involved or even acknowledging the attraction he feels.
Since Elder knows that Armando would like to see his father dead, he proposes to kill him as an ultimate courtship gift. The narrative does not indicate that Armando has even suggested this, but it shows it as an act conceived by Elder to ingratiate himself with Armando
After Elder has murdered the father, Armando finally surrenders himself and makes love to Elder, only to revert in the morning to his old self. His father's death has not liberated him and he remains unable to love. He realizes he cannot stay with Elder because he needs to re-establish his physical and emotional boundaries. The only solution he sees is to report Elder to the police.
This will not prove to be a satisfactory solution since Elder will also incriminate Armando by revealing to the police their conversations and the location of the bullet shells which he brought to the apartment. Therefore, Armando's call to the police was a not a calculated betrayal but a desperate act to isolate himself again.
reply
share