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**CONTAINS SPOILERS** This Mexican film set in civil war El Salvador is easily one of the best films of 2004/2005. It shakes you to the core with its stunning realism, cinematography, and no-holds-barred portrayals of war atrocities perpetrated by the Salvadorean government militia. It's no surprise that this was a true story, according to the wrap-up at the end.
The movie that many scenes most brought to my mind was "Bloody Sunday," because both films really make you feel like you're right there in the middle of the action, as horrifying as that would be. But "Voces Inocentes" is perhaps even more shocking since the story is told through the eyes of the children who were caught in the line of fire. The scene in which four kids are lined up execution style near a dead body is one of the most harrowing ever committed to film. Luckily, there are more playful scenes to break up the cloud of fear that surrounds the characters; we really get a view of what their lives must have been like in all facets.
One reviewer here states that this film is imbalanced in its portrayal of the two fighting forces. I think this is appropriate, since this is told from one family's point of view, in a town where the government army (and US army forces as well) was much more present than the guerrillas. A depiction of atrocities on both sides would be welcome, but it wouldn't have suited this film.
"Voces Inocentes" was Mexico's submission for the foreign language film Oscar this year. It's an outrage in my mind that it wasn't nominated in favor of smarm (France's oozy "Les Choristes") and Hollywoodesque-style-over-substance (Spain's overblown "Mar Adentro"). Let's hope the Academy can get something right and hand the award to Germany's "Der Untergang," the only other submitted film I've seen that can rival this one.
score 10/10
brunolly-1 20 February 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1025364/ |
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18-9-2020 03:57:08