Amores perros, by González Iñárritu: summary, analysis and interpretation of the film
Dog loves is the directorial debut Alejandro González Iñárritu, and together with the films 21 grams Y Babel, make up the call Death trilogy, which have made him a famous international director.
Alejandro González Iñárritu surprised audiences and critics in 2000 with the release of this film, the recipient of numerous national and international awards. Thus, Dog loves today it is a reference film of the new Latin American cinema.
Summary of the movie Dog loves
The film begins with a car chase scene against Octavio and his friend Jorge. Octavio and Jorge carry an injured dog and, by fleeing from their pursuers, they cause a terrible accident.
Immediately afterwards, the primary narrative is interrupted and a series of sequences begin whose connection is not evident at first. Each sequence is announced and is named after the main characters: the story of Octavio and Susana, that of Daniel and Valeria, and that of Chivo and Maru.
Octavio and Susana's story
Octavio is in love with the wife of his brother Ramiro, named Susana. She lives with Ramiro's family since she gave birth to her baby. Ramiro owns the dog Coffee that he hardly attends, works in a supermarket during the day and is a thief at night.
Susana lets Coffee escape, which causes an argument with Ramiro. To protect her from her, Octavio blames himself for her escape.
Meanwhile, Coffee passes near a dogfighting book, where a gambler, Jarocho, is leaving with a raging dog. Jarocho, self-confident, decides to let the dog release his tension against Coffee, but Coffee kills him.
Since Octavio is the one who really serves Coffee, gamblers take him for his owner and claim him for what he has done. Octavio realizes the dog's potential and decides to gamble to collect money and escape with Susana, with whom he always shares a part of the winnings.
When Ramiro discovers that Octavio is taking advantage of his dog, he demands a percentage under threat. To get rid of him, Octavio sends him to hit and indirectly threatens him with death. Ramiro flees, but contrary to what Octavio imagined, he takes Susana, her son and the money that Susana had received from Octavio.
Desperate, he decides to accept a big bet against Jarocho's dog in order to get money to search for Susana. Octavio does not realize that it is a trap to eliminate Coffee, and when he is about to win, Jarocho shoots him.
Instead of letting Coffee die, Octavio and Jorge escape with him to save him and are chased by Jarocho's gang. After the chase, they cause an accident in which one of the victims will be a very famous young model, named Valeria.
Story of Valeria and Daniel
The sequence of Valeria and Daniel begins after the accident. Valeria is a highly sought-after model who had a lover's relationship with Daniel, but he decides to go live with her. To surprise her with the good news about her, upon leaving the hospital he takes her to her new apartment where they will finally live together.
Valeria cannot walk until the treatment is over, but an unusual event forces her to exert herself. It's about her dog Richie, who falls into a hole in the parquet floor and is trapped for days.
The situation awakens great tension between the couple, and Valeria begins to act dramatically. Valeria's desperation to rescue the dog and her physical effort cause her irreversible damage, which ends in the amputation of her leg. Consequently, she loses her modeling career as well.
Finally, Daniel manages to rescue the dog and take Valeria home again, where she will have to face her new life. Like Richie, she will now be dependent on her relationship.
History of Chivo and Maru
Martín was a university professor who abandoned his wife Maru and his daughter to dedicate himself to the guerrillas. Since then they called him "El Chivo". Over the years, his old wife forms a new family and the Goat never communicates with them again.
After spending years in prison, the Chivo occupies an abandoned house and lives as a beggar. No one guesses that he does jobs for the cops, eliminating "undesirables".
A man asks Chivo to eliminate his partner Luis, a millionaire man. The Goat does not doubt it for a moment. But just when he reaches his goal, the accident occurs and he cannot complete the mission.
El Chivo goes to Octavio, seriously injured, but ends up stealing his money and taking Coffee to take care of him and save him.
Days later, he discovers that Coffee has killed his entire pack. When faced with this reality, he understands that what Coffee has done is the same as what he has done as a guerrilla, and he regrets it.
Instead of killing Luis, he decides to kidnap him and confront him who made the order, the hostage's half-brother and partner, Gustavo, leaving the decision of what to do to them.
Determined to start his life over again, Martín washes, shaves, dresses, and leaves his lair forever. He calls her daughter to face the pain of her story and promises to seek her out when she manages to overcome the shame.
Analysis and interpretation of the film Dog loves
The movie Dog loves, The script of which was written by Guillermo Arriaga, initially proposes a narrative structure that generates great uncertainty in the viewer. It is not a story told from beginning to end, but an interweaving of stories.
The first scene builds an elliptical game, in which a part of the information is suppressed to generate an intrigue effect in the viewer (causes and development of the accident).
This time jump makes the work look like a kind of mosaic that cannot be understood until all the pieces are seen together and a certain distance is taken.
The main characters never get to know each other, but the three stories have one thing in common: they are modified from the same elements.
The first of them, established from the beginning of the story, is the accident, that makes the stories coincide in the time of the story and that serves the viewer as a kind of intrigue hook.
The other fundamental element are dogs. In the three stories, the dogs fulfill a double task: a symbolic and a functional one.
From a symbolic point of view, dogs, whether Coffee, Richie or the pack, awaken love and loyalty in the characters. They are the enclave of their affections, and from them decisions are made and risks are taken.
This brings us to the functional aspect. It is the dogs and the passions that they arouse that truly mobilize the course of actions. That is to say, from a dramatic point of view, what happens with the dogs is what leads the characters to act or derail their plans.
In Octavio's case, discovering Coffee's potential as a fighter gives wings to his dream of running away with Susana, but when he is shot, instead of letting him die like any gambler would, risk his life to save him, causing the accident. Octavio is caught in a double standard.
The accident has caused Valeria to temporarily defer her plans, but the desperation of knowing her dog trapped in the parquet makes him risk losing his leg and her relationship.
In the case of Chivo, the pain that Coffee causes him by killing his entire herd, makes him understand his mistakes and rebuild his life. She thus changes the direction of her plans.
If in Octavio and Valeria their relationship with their dogs are triggers for impulsive passions, do not let them allow us to measure the consequences of their actions, for the Chivo, Coffee's violence is the occasion of redemption. Through the pain that Coffee has caused him, the Goat, who will now recover his name, purges the guilt from him.
It can be said that each dog is a reflection of the master of him, as it is popularly said. Like Coffee, Octavio is tender and violent at the same time; Like Richie, Valeria is fearful, insecure and helpless, and needs to be recognized and saved by someone.
Ultimately, El Chivo is a gang member like his pack, and capable of terrible atrocities against his peers, like Coffee. But in the end, only he chooses to allow himself to be consciously transformed by taking charge of what the dogs reflect about him.
Fun facts about the movie Dog loves
1) The actors Gael García and Gustavo Sánchez Parra were afraid of dogs.
2) The dogfighting scenes were shot in an unoccupied house, the owners of which died in a traffic accident.
3) The actor Gerardo Campbell, who was controlling the bets, died six months after shooting the film.
4) No dogs were injured during filming. The dogs were fitted with transparent muzzles to prevent injury. Sedatives were used in the dead dog scenes.
5) Richie the dog anecdote was taken from a real episode. Some friends of the director had a dog that got stuck in the parquet, but they decided to cover the hole and let it die because it was very expensive to break the floor.
6) During filming, the production team was assaulted by a gang. A short time later, they decided to hire them as protection to prevent another assault. The criminals acted as extras in the dog fight scenes. They never returned what was stolen.
7) The driver of the bus in which Gael García plans to travel to Ciudad Juárez is represented by his father in real life, José Angel García. Apparently, it was a surprise to Gael.
8) The accident scene was shot with nine simultaneous cameras.
9) González Iñárritu appears in a cameo during the scene in which Daniel diagrams the cover of a magazine with his employees.
10) The book I'll Be Your Mirror of the artist Nan Golding was a reference for the design of the photography of the film.
Who is Alejandro González Iñárritu?
Alejandro González Iñárritu was born in Mexico City in 1963. He has worked as a filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, composer, and broadcaster.
He studied at the Universidad Iberoamericana de San Ignacio de Loyola in Mexico City. His first important work experience was in the radio sector. At this stage he worked on WFM radio and started composing for movies.
Together with Raúl Olvera, he created the production company Z films, where he began as a producer, screenwriter and director in television, and little by little he was gaining notoriety until he became the famous film director that we know today.
He has made the films: Dog loves (2000), 21 grams (2003), Babel (2005), beautiful (2011), Birdman (2013) and The Revenant (2015).
In addition, he has worked as a director of numerous short films and commercials.
He has already received two Oscars for best director for films The Revenant Y Birdman, in addition to other categories. Other recognitions also include four Golden Globes, four BAFTA awards and the Cannes Film Festival award for best director for the film. Babel.
Data sheet
- Director and producer: Alejandro González Iñárritu.
- Screenplay: Guillermo Arriaga.
- Executive Producers: Francisco González Compean and Martha Sosa Elizondo.
- Director of Photography: Rodrigo Prieto.
- Production designer: Brigitte Broch.
- Costume design: Gabriela Diaque.
- Audio design: Martín Hernández.
- Music: Gustavo Santaolaya.
- Main cast: Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo, Álvaro Guerrero, Vanessa Bauche and Lourdes Echevarría.
- Format: 35 mm.
- Duration: 147 minutes.
