Deprisa, Deprisa

A good directed film, based on juvenile delinquency, with a marvelous photography.Not the best of this genre but its well done and has a great sound track that explains this world so purely, with the masters of rumba (Los Chunguitos).The director, influenced by other films like `Perros Callejeros` used real kids from the streets to give the film a more realistic touch.The main actor (Jose Antonio Valdelmoro) Pablo in the film,died two years later the same way as told in the film.

Pablo and Angela are in love,but also they are poor and together with their friends El Meca and Sebas they are forced to live a life of crime to survive and escape the suburbs of Madrid.The four of them steal cars and plan armed robbery`s to earn money,and also as part of the street life they do drugs.These kids are known as good people among there neighbourhood,but can also be violent and very dangerous.Will they live to see their dreams come true and make it out of this world?Watch this movie and find out!Very entertaining.

Those folks who enjoyed "Gun Crazy" or "Badlands" or those who, like me, wondered if this artsy fartsy director would or could ever tell a direct, hard hitting story without any pretentious BS, should be most satisfied with this bleak tale of juvies in Madrid set in the days when Francoism was yielding, ever so slowly, to Democracy.

It has been criticized for "glorifying" the four young sociopaths but I just don't see it. I mean, unless they are holding up banks or burning cars or killing people the quartet are half dead most of the time and, when they do speak, what they have to say tends toward the extremely banal and, though they are successful in their left handed endeavors for a while, three of the four meet decidedly unromantic, violent ends while the fourth is seen at film's end walking into darkness where I doubt if even youthful Spanish audiences in 1981 wished to follow her.

Perhaps it was Saura's jaundiced view of Spanish society, with its high corruption quotient and trigger happy, authoritarian cops a reminder that ol Francisco F wasn't that far in the rear view mirror, that caused film critics to think that he was making his destructive, chaotic teens heroes. But in this film there are no heroes, anti or otherwise. Consequently, this viewer felt very little pity for them as they met their depressing fates. Plenty of admiration for the four actors who portrayed them, though, especially when you consider that two were not professional thesps but rather actual prisoners on day release. A minus.

Robbers Pablo and Meca steal a car. Pablo is taken with waitress Ángela and pulls her into his life of crime. Along with Sebastian who dislikes having a girl in the crew, the quartet go on a crime spree.

The scene where Ángela is waiting for the getaway during the robbery is incredibly tense. I really want more of that. Mostly, they exist in a leisurely lifestyle until they plan another robbery. The action is not the most intense but it does have a good energy. This has a matter-of-fact feeling towards its characters and their lives. It's not that glorified but they are young and beautiful. It's an Euro feel with a softer Tarantino action.

This movie makes beautiful use of Flamenco music, and does it better than any I've seen. Carlos Saura obviously cares deeply about the medium, as he also made a movie called Flamenco (although it's just a concert piece).

The story is very basic; it deals with the adventures of young street-criminals in Madrid who graduate from car-theft to bank-robbery. What's interesting is the way Saura makes us care about these "hijos de nadie", who are kind and decent people 50% of the time, and feel they have no future in regular society. But the movie never sentimentalizes them - they do exactly what you'd expect such people to do.

Dialogue is kept to a minimum; a lot of the communication is via the graceful gestures the Spanish are so good at. This allows extra time for the soundtrack, and it really gets you into the spirit of the film, which is really more like dance than acting.

Flamenco originated among the dispossessed, among beggars and gypsies condemned to live in waste places and junkyards on the edge of town, and the scenes of the barren housing-projects on the fringes of Madrid really bring this feeling to life.

Deprisa, Deprisa conveys a better understanding of the spirit of Flamenco than more elegant movies dedicated to the subject. (And Carlos Saura is a genius).

A group of friends embark on a short and doomed life of crime in Madrid in the 1970's. Filmed in color in and around Madrid, with some great locations and a nice flamenco/rock soundtrack, the characters choose to live dangerously rather than work in deadend jobs. The film seems to be saying something about society and opportunity, but doesn't get lost in any sermons. It sticks with the characters up to the inevitable end, and goes into some out of the way locations, with one scene having them on horseback and crossing a busy highway. Saura has made a real portrait out of each of the characters while showing a dusty and not too pleasant side of Madrid somewhere out in its suburbs.