Amores Perros is Alejandro González Iñárritu's 2000 debut film that follows the intersecting stories of three individuals in Mexico City whose lives are changed after a car accident. The film uses these stories to explore themes of culture, social class, love, violence, and masculinity in modern Mexican society. It was a critical and commercial success that helped reestablish Mexican cinema and address social issues rarely depicted in films at the time, such as the oppression of women and lack of paternal role models.

1. AMORES PERROS - STUDENT ANALYSIS
A frantic and dramatic car chase through the streets of Mexico City,
resulting in a traumatic crash at a crossroads throws viewers into
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s debut masterpiece, AmoresPerros (Love’s a
Bitch).
Set in the heart of Mexico City, the anthology-pieced film portrays the
tales of three individuals of separate social classes who are linked by the
car crash that goes on to depict how the characters lives can change
dramatically in that instant.
The film does not present a clichéd Mexico for tourists and challenges
common stereotypes of Mexico and its citizens as well as generating
issues of culture, regret, passion, love, violence, social class and
masculinity in crisis. A closer look into the film’s interpretation shows an
interweaving of social classes and attitude towards life that does not
simply offer a sociological view of Mexico City, but an insight into
emotional despair between these social classes in the modern
‘megapolis’. To fully understand the films success both domestically and
internationally, it is important to note the images of modern Mexicans
being portrayed in a sense to which U.S and European audiences can in
some way relate towards- gone are the days of horses and
moustachesand enter the new era of Mexican cinema illustrating the
harsh realities of one of the world’s largest cities. The almost pop-ish, yet
realistic filming of AmoresPerros are elements that have enabled it to
circulate in global markets, but also features which help audiences focus
on the central theme of AmoresPerros : The contradictions of cultural
modernity in contemporary Latin American society.
The first story unravels Octavio; a lower class youth who uses his violent
criminal brother’s dog, Cofi, to win money in illegal dog fights in a pursuit
to persuade his brother’s pregnant wife, Susanna, to run away with him.
Octavio’s passion for Susanna is fuelled by the thrill of betraying his
violent brother and sexual desire becomes the language of a complex

2. power game. If Octavio succeeds in taking Ramiro’s wife away from him,
he defeats him.
It is when Octavio takes a violent revenge on a rival dog fighter, after his
dog Cofi is shot, that the car chase pursues. The resulting crash collision
also involves the character from the middle section of the film, Valeria.
Valeria, a well-respected and famous model had just moved in to a new
apartment her boyfriend, Daniel, had just brought for them both before
the crash. Daniel, a magazine editor had just left his wife and two kids for
the more youthful Valeria and romantic lifestyle. Valeria’s love, besides
Daniel, is her small dog Ricci who after her crash, leaving her permanently
immobilised to a wheelchair, is her last sanction of happiness while Daniel
is at work. Her sadness is emphasised by viewing the giant advertisement
banner mounted on a building opposite their apartment presenting
Valeria before the crash. Despite being a triumphant viewing before the
crash, the banner soon starts to mock the couple due to Valeria’s newly
found disability and when viewing it from their bedroom window it
subtlety dawns on the audience that they are both reflecting on what
they have both lost .
Tensions and arguments mount between the new couple when her dog
Ricci runs down a hole in the floorboards where rats can be heard and
does not return. The couple can hear Ricci being bitten by the rats, which
is used to suggest that, despite the couples wealth and status, they can’t
escape the harsh realities of life in Mexico City.
It seems it is not just Valeria’s disability that bothers her, but the sense
that without her beauty she is nothing. Daniel begins calling his ex-wife,
thinking he has made a mistake now that Valeria is in a wheelchair.
Valeria watches the blank space where her advertisement used to stand-
depicting a final confirmation of the end of her career and dream of an
idyllic life with Daniel.
The third chapter of the film studies El Chivo, an ex-family man turned
communism fighting guerrilla turned assassin, whose love for stray dogs
leads him to save Cofi from the car crash scene before being thrown in a
rubbish dumpster left for dead. He nurses Cofi back to health and carries

3. on with his assassinations. When he returns home, he discovers that the
ex-champion fighting dog Cofi has murdered all of his stray dogs. He
draws his gun and aims at Cofi’s head before realising that both the
fighting dog and himself- the assassin, are doubles of each other, the once
domesticated Cofi, like Martin, has now turned professional killer.
Despite being the dog who kills dogs, finding his natural owner in the man
who kills men, Cofi’s actions are what lead El Chivo’s towards
redemption. This is shown by the shaving of his beard and cutting of his
hair as well as a visit to his much loved daughter’s house to explain (on
her answer-phone) why he left many years ago to fight for her to grow up
in a better country and that he is, although she was previously told
otherwise, not dead and loves her very much. He places new photos of
himself on her pictures and then sells a client’s expensive car (who he
actually betrayed and left to kill the target himself) before walking into an
arid landscape with Cofi beside him.
The films success has proved important for the advancement of Mexican
cinema. Along with Y tumamátambién( 2001), AmoresPerros paved the
way and re-established Mexico as an important factor of national cinema
and cultural idendity. This boosted Mexico’s domestic viewing figures in
the box office, whereby a mere 3% of domestic films were shown in
Mexican cinemas in 1998, compared to 14% in 2000-2001.
Both films have been celebrated for marking the resurgence of the
independent Mexican films industry in response to the failure of state-run
IMCINE to adequately manage and fund film making. Despite its
international success, its domestic appeal can be viewed by the films
representation of the films reinforcement of identities that were in place
in the post revolutionary project. These images of a reborn Mexican
identity are matched with the roles of the character’s dogs in the film,
who are associated with the fate of their owners, the dog’s loyal
faithfulness contrasted by their owners immoral attitudes and their
identities of betrayal from their family, lovers and country, yet also
representing the symbolism of who their owners represent: Octavio and
Ramiro’s dog Coffi demonstrates the violence of the streets that condition

4. the brothers behaviour; Richie, Valeria’s pretty pet symbolises the spoiled
life she has lived before her accident while El Chivo’s love for his strays
reflects his initial rejection of people.
With the film’s introduction to the female characters (with the exception
of Valeria, who uses her beauty to support herself) being in stereotypical
roles ( in the kitchen, with a baby etc) and the male characters
demonstrating violent and betraying attitudes the film represents the
marginalization of women, and dominant forms of masculinity are
examined. This suggests that the women are victims of a ‘patriarchal’
society, a model often unfortunately even today associated with Mexico’s
culture. By showing images of women in marginal positions, Iñárritu has
not only challenged the modern day stereotype of Mexicans, but hinted
the oppression towards women seen in their cultural society.
Perhaps the most intriguing of concepts when analysing AmoresPerros
with the cultural issues surrounding Mexico City is the lack of father
figures captured within the film. Such references to absent fatherhood
could be seen as being similar to a society without an effective
government whereby the reference to failed paternal models can be used
as a metaphor for a failed state. Ramiro and Octavio’s lack of a father
figure leads them to be bad fathers, dog fighting gamblers and bank
robbers; El Chivo abandoned his daughter after two years of knowing her
and Daniel left his own children to satisfy his fantasy of living with a
model. Despite being a film about love and betrayal, the film’s
importance in touching on the reflection of a society without an effective
government, driven by corruption and dishonesty is demonstrated with
every social class within the film (although some critics have argued there
are no images of the extreme poor who in reality make up the majority of
Mexico City’s population) is extremely valid to Mexican and non-Mexican
audiences.