Deprisa, deprisa

Those folks who enjoyed "Gun Crazy" or "Badlands" or those who, like me, wondered if this artsy fartsy director would or could ever tell a direct, hard hitting story without any pretentious BS, should be most satisfied with this bleak tale of juvies in Madrid set in the days when Francoism was yielding, ever so slowly, to Democracy.

It has been criticized for "glorifying" the four young sociopaths but I just don't see it. I mean, unless they are holding up banks or burning cars or killing people the quartet are half dead most of the time and, when they do speak, what they have to say tends toward the extremely banal and, though they are successful in their left handed endeavors for a while, three of the four meet decidedly unromantic, violent ends while the fourth is seen at film's end walking into darkness where I doubt if even youthful Spanish audiences in 1981 wished to follow her.

Perhaps it was Saura's jaundiced view of Spanish society, with its high corruption quotient and trigger happy, authoritarian cops a reminder that ol Francisco F wasn't that far in the rear view mirror, that caused film critics to think that he was making his destructive, chaotic teens heroes. But in this film there are no heroes, anti or otherwise. Consequently, this viewer felt very little pity for them as they met their depressing fates. Plenty of admiration for the four actors who portrayed them, though, especially when you consider that two were not professional thesps but rather actual prisoners on day release. A minus.

Jose Antonio Valdelomar Gonzales asks Berta Socuellamos to be his girlfriend. She agrees. She integrates quickly into his gang of bank robbers. For a while, things go very nicely. They make large scores, leave no important clues, and she is saving money to buy an apartment for them. Then a job goes wrong.

The most notable thing about this movie by Carlos Saura is that the six top roles -- the men in the gang, Srta Socuellamos, and another member's girl friend -- were found in casting calls for non-professional actors. Only one of them appeared on the screen again. Gonzales died 11 years later of a drug overdose in prison, where he was arrested for bank robbery. Rumors abound about the production, most of them scurrilous. I won't take Saura too much to task for this sort of casting; from Academician "theory of types" to Robert Bresson, to Eastwood in THE 15:17 TO PARIS, directors have undertaken to cast non-professional in key roles, sometimes under elaborate theories, sometimes because you admire what they did, and sometimes because, well, why hire some one to play Audie Murphy, when he's on the payroll as an actor?

Saura does get good performances out of them, by directing them to maintain low affects and keeping their lines simple. He crafts believable situations, tense bank robberies, and so forth. So it's a very well made movie. If anything, it demonstrates another Academician theory, the Kuelshov Effect, which is that acting is largely irrelevant to acting; the audience infers the thoughts of the actors by how the shots are edited together.

Robbers Pablo and Meca steal a car. Pablo is taken with waitress Ángela and pulls her into his life of crime. Along with Sebastian who dislikes having a girl in the crew, the quartet go on a crime spree.

The scene where Ángela is waiting for the getaway during the robbery is incredibly tense. I really want more of that. Mostly, they exist in a leisurely lifestyle until they plan another robbery. The action is not the most intense but it does have a good energy. This has a matter-of-fact feeling towards its characters and their lives. It's not that glorified but they are young and beautiful. It's an Euro feel with a softer Tarantino action.

A good directed film, based on juvenile delinquency, with a marvelous photography.Not the best of this genre but its well done and has a great sound track that explains this world so purely, with the masters of rumba (Los Chunguitos).The director, influenced by other films like `Perros Callejeros` used real kids from the streets to give the film a more realistic touch.The main actor (Jose Antonio Valdelmoro) Pablo in the film,died two years later the same way as told in the film.

Pablo and Angela are in love,but also they are poor and together with their friends El Meca and Sebas they are forced to live a life of crime to survive and escape the suburbs of Madrid.The four of them steal cars and plan armed robbery`s to earn money,and also as part of the street life they do drugs.These kids are known as good people among there neighbourhood,but can also be violent and very dangerous.Will they live to see their dreams come true and make it out of this world?Watch this movie and find out!Very entertaining.

A good look at the delinquency in Spain of the 80's, good photography, great soundtrack.

Pablo, Angela, El Meca and Sebas, four marginalized teenagers from Madrid are forced to live a life of crime in order to survive and escape the poverty they live in. The movie is quite entertaining, the crime scenes are very realistic, the soundtrack fits just perfect and the message is clear and powerful.

Crime is created by poverty and poverty is created by luxury, something we are all responsible of.

A great political statement, then and now.