Review by DrFreudstein2011

"Los olvidados" is probably Buñuel's best film from his Mexican period; it's a depressing study in juvenile delinquency, set in the slums surrounding Mexico City. This film is the Latin American equivalent to Italian neorealism, but it also contains surrealist elements in it (for instance, Pedro's dream, one of the most poignant moments in film history). Jaibo (Roberto Cobo) has just been released from the reformatory and meets with his friends again, encouraging them to steal and abuse people in their neighbourhood. He viciously kills one of his acquaintances -Julián- for denouncing him to the police. Pedro (Alfonso Mejía) is the only witness to the murder, and so Jaibo begins to threaten and harass him in order to keep quiet, until tragedy comes for both of them. Pedro is the only likable or "positive" character in the whole movie. He has a tough life both in the streets and at home, where his mother despises him and doesn't care. Nevertheless, he tries to mend his ways and gets a job, and, although it seems for a moment that his luck and fate will change, things get even worse for him. Buñuel is not Manichean (his moral vision is never black/white) and he seems to tell us that the struggle between good and evil is permanent, with no clear or definitive results. His film is uncompromising, violent and cruel sometimes, always reminding us, as the director said, that "We don't live in the best of the worlds".