Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned) was inspired by De Sica’s Shoeshine and covers somewhat similar territory, the despair of poverty and abandonment, though with Buñuel’s unique perspective and style. It rivets the viewers attention on the struggle of poor slum children trying to survive in a world full of rejection, poverty, and crime, but who are all too often ruined before ever having a chance at life.

Historical Background: Buñuel’s career can be viewed as encompassing three distinct phases. The first was his early emersion in surrealism that resulted in the production of Un Chien Andalou (in collaboration with friends that included Salvador Dali), L’Age D’Or (a classic of surrealism), and a documentary entitled Land Without Bread (1932). All three of these films were strongly anti-Catholic and created one scandal after another. Then, for a period of more than fifteen years, Buñuel’s creative juices were mostly dammed up while he survived dubbing Hollywood films for the foreign branches of American film studios and participated in some American/Spanish co-productions for Warner Brothers.

Buñuel’s opportunities as a gifted artist reemerged when he moved to Mexico after World War II. Even then, he had to initially content himself with artistically forgettable fare that included Gran Casino and El Gran Calavera (The Great Madcap). The latter film was a huge box office success, though Buñuel himself considered it “impossibly banal”. The commercial success, however, ensured Buñuel an opportunity to undertake a film with significant artistic merit. His producer, Oscar Dancigers, suggested the topic of children in the slums of Mexico City and the ultimate product was the brilliant Los Olvidados (1950). This artistic success was followed by El (1952) and Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955). Together, these films once again brought Buñuel to center stage among creative directors of the time.

Buñuel’s third phase began with his return to the European continent in 1955. There he produced works focusing most especially on the foibles of the bourgeoisie, including Viridiana (1961), The Exterminating Angel (1962), Belle de Jour (1967), Tristana (1970), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), and That Obscure Object of Desire (1977).

The Story: Pedro (Alfonso Mejia), the protagonist in Los Olvidados, is a boy of about eleven, wavering on the edge of socialization and delinquency. He is still young enough to crave the love and attention of his mother (Estela Inda), which, however, she denies him. Pedro goes hungry most of the time and his mother refuses him both food and affection. Her life is a struggle and, for her, he represents just one more mouth to feed. She complains that he hangs out on the street with a gang of boys rather than looking for work to help feed her younger children.

At the heart of the story is the relationship between Pedro and an older boy, Jaibo (Roberto Cobo), who is an escapee from reform school. He is older, tougher, and more street saavy than the other boys of their gang. He is already something of a sociopath and certainly a negative influence on the younger boys, calling them, for example, “pansies” if they don’t smoke cigarettes.

Another significant character is Small Eyes (Jesus Navarro), a peasant boy from outside the city. He has been abandoned on a street corner by his father. He is “taken in” by a bitter blind old beggar, Don Carmelo (Miguel Inclan). The blind man also provides some philosophical commentary on events. Small Eyes also befriends and is befriended by a young girl, Meche (Alma Fuentas), who lives with her old grandfather. Small Eyes and Meche represent what remains of innocent, unspoiled young in this squalid setting.

Jaibo explains to the boys of the gang that he will teach them what he has learned in reform school about survival and respect. Under his guidance, the gang attacks the blind beggar, destroying his instruments (which are his only source of livelihood). Later, they attack a legless man because he will not give them his cigarettes, tearing his clothing, leaving him on the street, and pushing his dolly that he uses for transport down the road.

One lad, Julien (Javier Amézcua), who has rejected street life in favor of work to help his family, is killed by Jaibo. Jaibo believes Julien to be the person responsible for his sentence to reform school. Since Pedro is present when the assault takes place, he must keep silent or will be charged as an accessory to murder or be murdered himself by Jaibo. Pedro tries to turn away from involvement with Jaibo, but Jaibo and events in general conspire to draw Pedro ever deeper into Jaibo’s web of destructive influence.

Themes: The central theme of Los Olvidados is the destructive influence of poverty, especially on the most vulnerable members of society. Buñuel turns his camera’s eye on the blatant failure of human society to provide even the most basic subsistence for slum youth. Although the specific target is Mexico, the film’s opening makes clear the applicability of the principal theme to other countries, citing specifically the comparability of the slums of New York, London, and Paris.

Even so, authorities and the wealthy in Mexico felt deeply the sting of Los Olvidados. The film was initially bitterly denounced by the Mexican government, trade unions, and press as unpatriotic and even a “crime against the state.” One of the co-writers, Pedro de Urdemalas, was so disturbed by the images that he refused to have his name listed in the credits. At an initial screening, one upper-class wife even attacked Buñuel for the devastating portrayal of failed motherhood in Los Olvidados. Then, amazingly, all of the animosity turned suddenly to pride and admiration when Buñuel won the director’s award at the Cannes film festival. After that, the Mexican establishment began to see the film differently, taking pride that it had been filmed in Mexico. It opened to full houses and swept the awards at Mexico’s own Ariel Awards in 1951.

Buñuel distributes responsibility for the deprivations that these children suffer across the board, pointing his finger simultaneously nowhere and everywhere. He explores the socioeconomic underpinnings of poverty, but also exposes the failures of the parents and families, as well as the psychological deficiencies of the youth. There is something of a sense of inevitability in the negative developments for these youth, forcing us to come to grips with there being no easy solutions.

This film succeeds as well as any in using surrealism for its most appropriate purpose – for exploring subconscious elements of experience. The touches of surrealism in the famous dream sequence are especially memorable. As a result, this film is deeper psychologically than its Italian counterpart, Shoeshine. Sexuality and violence provide the driving forces for the characters of this film although the sexuality is largely simmering beneath the surface. Jaibo harasses Meche’s several times. Later, Jaibo seduces Pedro’s mother, although one could just as well argue that she subtly seduces him, giving him glimpses of her legs and enticing him with an invitation to stay longer. In Pedro’s dream sequence, his mother appears in a wispy white nightgown that is suggestive of oedipal conflicts in Pedro’s subconscious mind

Jaibo is representative of a boy already beyond redemption while Pedro is a younger child teetering on the brink of becoming similarly lost. The cyclical quality of the destructive influence of this social system is emphasized by Jaibo’s contribution to the dissipation of each and every opportunity presented to Pedro by which he could turn his life in another direction. It is Jaibo who placed Pedro in legal jeopardy by killing Julien in Pedro’s presence. Later, Jaibo causes Pedro to lose his job as a blacksmith’s apprentice by stealing a knife from the blacksmith’s stock. Still later, when Pedro encounters a sympathetic principle (Francisco Jambrino) who offers him trust and respect, Pedro’s briefly hopeful expectations are quickly squashed when Jaibo steals the 50 peso note entrusted to Pedro by the principle. Although Jaibo is thoroughly dislikable (in contrast to Pedro who is a mainly sympathetic character), we are invited to recognize that at some earlier stage, Jaibo must also have been an innocent teetering on the brink of delinquency before plummeting fully into the abyss.

Production Values: Buñuel makes great use of symbolism throughout the film. Goat’s milk, which could be seen as a stand-in for mother’s milk, symbolizes the desperate need of these children for nuturance. One boy drinks directly from the goats teat. Meche, at Small Eyes’ suggestion, uses the milk to improve the complexion of her skin. Another example of interesting symbolism occurs when Pedro is propositioned on the street by a wealthy older man, which event we observe from inside a store front window in which expensive trinkets are for sale. Though Pedro can ill-afford such toys, he is himself little more than a potential trinket to the older man – a potential sexual trinket. In another example of skillful symbolism, Julien is murdered by Jaibo in front of an under-construction high rise building, emphasizing the contrast between a booming economy and those left behind in poverty. The opening scene in which the boys engage in a mock bullfight is another brilliant example of skillful symbolic imagery. The camera serves as the red cape and the boys charge directly at us with grotesque faces, almost daring us to despise them.

The musical score adds immeasurably to the impact of the film. Despite the black-and-white filming method, Los Olvidados feels distinctly modern and its emotion resonates more genuinely than such modern Mexican classics as Amores Perros and Y Tu Mamá También.

Bottom-Line: Los Olvidados is a film that dares to make viewers stare into the abyss of despair while offering neither hopes for redemption or other consolations for the difficult feelings that the film engenders. Buñuel makes his points nihilistically rather than sentimentality. This emotionally devastating portrait of poverty offers no easy solutions and is intentionally lacking in optimism.

Buñuel made a career out of maintaining his camera’s objectivity, preferring distanciation, satire, and surrealism as his weapons of discourse to pathos or sentimentality. In one sense, Los Olvidados is an amazing exception for Buñuel. He is without his characteristic mask. He momentarily vents his feelings, letting us know where he as an individual stands on the issue – the issue of the injustice of poverty and its cruel effect on children.

Los Olvidados is in Spanish. The DVD version is clean and clear and provides a choice of English or French subtitles (or none). There are extras, but they are in Spanish and without the option of subtiles. Los Olvidados has a running time of 88 minutes.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Mexico:

Amores Perros
Like Water For Chocolate
Maria Candelaria
Y Tu Mamá También

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age