One of the defining films of Brazil's cinema novo, Pereira dos Santos' "Vidas Secas" revolves around an impoverished couple, their two small sons and the family dog, as they navigate a hellish landscape, struggling to survive without food, money or water.
Skeletal trees, humans and animals are associated with one another, lifeless and on the verge of death, whilst Baleia, the family dog, remains the only figure of life and energy. As long as he is alive, the audience knows the family has hope. He protects them from extinction.
Time and time again the family are saved from starvation, but things get worse when the family hire themselves out to a nasty land owner who refuses to pay and whips and jails their father for no offence. When he's released we expect the film to turn into a revolutionary tract, the peasants rising up against the land owners, but Santos doesn't believe in fairy tales.
As the family edges closer to death, Baleia becomes sick. Father shoots the dog to ease its suffering. It dies, dooming the family and sealing their fate. They walk off into the desert, on the road again, without hope or destination. "Will we ever be human?" the son asks, as they fade away.
8/10 - The influences of the Italian neo-realists and Satyajit Ray are all over this, and like most of these films, "Vidas Secas" is a bit too poetic, a bit to romantic in its portrayal of poverty (there is always an uneasy tension between cinemas renderings of poverty and the sophistication or expensiveness of the medium). Nevertheless, the film work well as a slice of political activism and in its own quiet way, is far more powerful than all of Oliver Stone's heavy handed preaching.
Skeletal trees, humans and animals are associated with one another, lifeless and on the verge of death, whilst Baleia, the family dog, remains the only figure of life and energy. As long as he is alive, the audience knows the family has hope. He protects them from extinction.
Time and time again the family are saved from starvation, but things get worse when the family hire themselves out to a nasty land owner who refuses to pay and whips and jails their father for no offence. When he's released we expect the film to turn into a revolutionary tract, the peasants rising up against the land owners, but Santos doesn't believe in fairy tales.
As the family edges closer to death, Baleia becomes sick. Father shoots the dog to ease its suffering. It dies, dooming the family and sealing their fate. They walk off into the desert, on the road again, without hope or destination. "Will we ever be human?" the son asks, as they fade away.
8/10 - The influences of the Italian neo-realists and Satyajit Ray are all over this, and like most of these films, "Vidas Secas" is a bit too poetic, a bit to romantic in its portrayal of poverty (there is always an uneasy tension between cinemas renderings of poverty and the sophistication or expensiveness of the medium). Nevertheless, the film work well as a slice of political activism and in its own quiet way, is far more powerful than all of Oliver Stone's heavy handed preaching.