Amores Perros

Amores Perros is an Academy Award nominated Mexican film from 2000. The film has 3 different stories connected by a car accident that briefly intertwine each story’s characters. In the first story, a man named Octavio wants to run away with his brother’s wife and needs the money to start their own life together. Octavio then gets involved in dog fighting to raise the money. When the rival owner of a dog shoots Octavio’s dog all hell breaks loose. This causes Octavio to flee away. Octavio then sets in motion the car accident that brings the film’s different characters together. In the second story, a man named Daniel leaves his family to run away away with a supermodel named Valeria. She then gets injured in the car accident caused by Octavio which helps put an end to her modeling career. In the last story, a hitman named El Chivo is hired to do a kill but is interrupted by the car accident caused by Octavio.

A major theme of Amores Perros is what people do for love. This theme pretty much creates the fate of the major characters of each story. In the first story, love is what causes Octavio do go into dog fighting. Without love, he would have no reason to need the money and run away from his brother’s wife. In the second story, love is what brings Daniel to leave his family and live with the supermodel Valeria. However, the life he had in mind with her is cut short after the car accident. She is now in a wheelchair and her dog has disappeared into the floorboards. Daniel now feels the repercussions of this decision as he regrets it. The love Daniel had felt has now messed around with his head. In the last story, the hitman El Chivo seems like someone who doesn’t feel love since his job requires him to kill people. However, he eventually has a change of heart during one of this supposed kills.

I particularly enjoyed how the film was divided into 3 different stories. This made the film much more interesting. When I saw the 153 minute running time, I was a bit worried. But the way the film was made, kept me interested throughout. I liked how the film started with something already going on and you had no idea what this was. Until the accident you realize this is what is going to bring all the characters together as they flash back to the beginning of the story. Seeing the different stories of the characters and how one of the character’s actions changed all their fates was very thought provoking. The use of dogs in all the scenes at first was very strange but since it wasn’t coincidental it all made sense according to the story. I think the director of the film maintained a good use of drama and tension throughout the stories. I liked the way he brought the difficulty of relationships and how people deal with love. He tied everything together with dogs which on paper sounds bizarre but in the film it makes sense. I enjoyed this film because it was different and I was invested into the different stories. I also enjoyed the connection between the 3 different stories. Amores Perros is definitely worth a watch.