The Young and the Damned
1950 · Directed by Luis Buñuel
Original language: Spanish
- drama
- crime
The story
A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent life in the infamous slums of Mexico City; among them Pedro, whose morality is gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.
What it’s like
Hard black-and-white documentary grit: harsh overhead light in cramped rooms, rubble-strewn lots and open sewers under a flat, unforgiving sky, shot on location in the slums of Mexico City with non-polished faces and a restless, roving camera. Buñuel's compositions are blunt and clear, with little sentiment in the framing and a score that comes and goes in sparse, jarring stabs, leaving stretches of raw street noise and shouted argument. The mood is bleak and sour, a steady drift toward desperation, cruelty and the feeling of a closing trap, with a few moments of dark irony that cut against the misery. Violence is real and sudden: brawls, a stabbing, a casual brutality among the boys, and a sexual undertone in an older woman's dealings with a younger man, all presented without lurid detail. It is punishing rather than cozy, and it suits anyone drawn to social realism, Buñuel's sharp anger, or a grim, unsentimental look at youth pushed to the edge.
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