Amores Perros

Amores Perros was the debut film from director Alexando Gonzales Inarritu. The film tells the tales of three people who have their lives altered because of a car crash and their love for dogs. In the first story, the characters involved are Octavio and Susanna. Octavio falls in love with his sister-in-law Susanna. The two of them want to run away together, but do not have the money to do so. Octavio becomes involved with dog fighting and uses his dog, Cofi. Octavio puts his dog in one last dog fight before he was suppose to take off with Susanna. During the fight the rival owner shoots Cofi, Octavio retaliates by stabbing him. A car chase ensues which results into the car crash that introduces the other two stories in the film. In the second story, a model named Valeria is dating a married man named Daniel. Daniel leaves his family to live with her. Soon after, Valeria loses her leg due to the car accident caused by Octavio. The last story is about the character El Chivo. He is a vagrant, who is trying to contact his daughter. Chivo is hired by a man to assassinate his business partner. While following the target he witnesses the car crash. He takes Octavio’s dog from the scene that was left for dead and nursed Cofi back to health.

The message I took away from Amores Perros, is an example of what happens when one blindly follows their heart. All the characters appear to follow their hearts, and don’t think about the consequences. Each character ended up facing consequences for blindly following their hearts. In the end Octavio doesn’t get the girl or the money. Valeria nearly loses her dog in the floor boards of her new apartment with the married man. She appears to regret moving in with him. Daniel appears to regret leaving his family. Chivo loses the only the family (the dogs) he has by taking in Cofi, who later kills all his dogs. Chivo also regrets abandoning his daughter and tries to face her.

I thought this film was spectacular. It’s crazy how the main characters have an impact on each others lives, but never met. My favorite story of the film was Octovio’s. His story had a lot of action scenes. The dog fighting scenes looked extremely real. I would recommend this movie to anyone.