Los Olvidados- Mexico 1950 This is the 17th movie on the list.Los Olvidados. The young and the damned. At first I couldn't tell, is this "The Young. The Damned" or the young are also damned.I feel the story tells both. In this movie, it's not the production or big director that can be commented on, its the story. The young are damned in this movie of depression era Mexico. Even the Spanish in the movie is pretty bad. The story is of young people who are run-aways and have no place to live or food to eat. It centers on one boy's struggle. That's all I'll say.The young. The Damned. The story centers around a young boy who is trying is hardest to be a young boy. He doesn't know where he fits. He is the young. Everyone else in the story is the damned. Even the boy's mother sins in the most obvious of ways. Everyone here commits a sin, other than small eyes. It's terrible, but the story does live up to the young and the damned.Also the story just ends. It's very abrupt so don't expect much.SilverRating

First off, I think Luis Bunuel is amazing. He really took a risk in making this film. Perhaps being from another country (Spain) gave him the objectivity of a scientist. He had quite a backlash when this film was released. This film doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to the dehumanization that occurs on the streets. There are complex characters on display. It makes it hard to simply point the finger and say that a character 'should do this or that'. Products of their brutal environment, it makes it hard to pass judgement on them. Parts of this film try to address the idea of reclaiming your identity, but the storyline doesn't ever see this to fruition as in the Maori based movie "Once were warriors". Difficult subject, but Bunuel's work is always a worthwhile see.

Luis Bunuel's masterpiece Los Olvidados is probably one of the most realistic and thought-provoking portrayals of poverty and crime that I have ever seen. The fact that it was not well received in Mexico is indicative of the higher class's refusal to acknowledge those below them. The Surrealist aspects of the film were very captivating, especially the dream sequence. There is a feeling of relentless despair throughout the film; the viewer knows that the children will ultimately live a crime-ridden life of poverty. Bunuel successfully causes his viewers to become attached to his characters, and one can feel nothing but hope for the characters. If you enjoy this film, I would suggest watching Bicycle Thieves.

"Los Olvidados" shows that it is often the social ills already in existence in our societies, an example being the complete lack of care and love Pedro's mother has for Pedro in most of this film, that can contribute to creating children who have social deficits – often creating anti-social and sociopathic personalities and tendencies – such as that portrayed by the characters of "El Jaibo", Pedro, and Julian. "Los Olvidados" makes it abundantly clear that even those people in society that bring forth the façade of being normal law-abiding citizens, such as Don Carmelo, the blind man, are corrupted in one form or another – Don Carmelo is a pedophile - and again, one can infer that this is due to the social imperfections of the people that were around Don Carmelo when he was a youth. To me, "Los Olvidados" showed a dystopian society – very much like the film "A Clockwork Orange", in which gangs of morally twisted youths know of nothing better else to do with their time than to take out their frustrations on everyone and anything they can. I also saw that "Los Olvidados" does not just show a hopelessly corrupt world where everyone in society has personal demons and where all hope is lost. "Los Olvidados" also shows the positive side of human nature, such as when Pedro's mother started to show signs of caring for Pedro after he was sent to the rural school, a quality that she did not show earlier in the film. Another example of the presence of moral goodness in people is when the school's principal did not punish Pedro for killing the chickens and even understanding what might have led Pedro to behave in such a violent manner and even making sure that Pedro is fed so as to enable him to think and act more logically.