#95: Los Olvidados
Part of the Top 150 Films series
To an English-speaking audience, Los Olvidados has a much better ring to it than its literal translation from Spanish (“The Forgotten Ones”) or its American title (“The Young and the Damned”). Such an emphasis highlights the complexities of Buñuel’s neosurrealistic masterpiece, about a group of destitute children (and the occasional adult in their lives), and their misfortunes in a Mexico City slum. Profoundly political without devolving into lectures or hectoring, Buñuel creates a living, breathing world where blind musicians are robbed, children are murdered over petty squabbles, and “reform” is a concept that no one truly understands. What elevates the film into the pantheon is its humanistic treatment of its characters: no one is “evil”. Not the blind Don Carmelo, not Pedro’s mother, not even murderous gang-leader El Jaibo. Buñuel invites us to watch the truth of what crippling poverty and the destruction of hope does to the human spirit.
