An Exercise In Nonsense

Am I Missing Something?

A Brilliant Conflict

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Children learn behavior by copying that of adults. In turbulent times they copy turbulent behavior. In this case when bandits have the power they become the role models. That's exactly what happened here. This Mexican movie is set in 1913 in that country.There are 3 points worthy to mention. Most of the film is set in sepia colors. Very much like the color of the photograph from that area of the Wild West. The whole movie is like an animated "most wanted" picture. The only scene where I remember colors is the one we see right after the children kill their archenemies. That brings some color in their lives and in our eyes. The second ting is the children are fantastic. Both the little Jesuit student whose school was destroyed by bandits and the little band of young bandits he joins. Finally I would like to comment on the poor quality of the subtitles. I don't speak Spanish but it was clear that the DVD's subtitles were omitting a lot of the original. I was making a living from writing subtitles for half a year, so I know how difficult it is to capture the whole movie in those short lines. But here there were long minutes where the characters were speaking and there was nothing written. At 3 different occasions the text became non-sensical.The movie is about children and violence so I feel obligated to mention Lord of the Flies. The similarity is that the social norms and rules in both societies is lax and have to be re-created by inexperienced children. Left to their own devices they go for the filling their role in the "survival of the fittest" game. For me the similarities were stronger to a Hungarian movie: Somewhere In Euorope (Valahol Europaban). That one is set after the World War II and a group of children create their own little community in an abandoned building. Compared to both of these movies Bandidos moves one because here the children end up killing their enemies for real.A few words about the story just to give a general outline. Bandits destroy a Jesuit school. One boy survives because he has sneaked out before the attack. After the adult bandits leave, a group of 3 children bandits arrive to the school in hope for some loot. Our hero joins them and eventually revenges the bandits who killed his friends and teachers. Meanwhile we get to know his life and feelings and that of his new friends.