The City and the Dogs

One of the best Peruvian movies that I have ever watch, and pretty close to the book too. In this movie you can watch one of Peru's best actors in the last 30 years, Gustavo Bueno, who was the doctor in Lima in the Motorcycle Diaries. His motto to the cadets, "what are you laughing at? do you want a naked picture of me? is a classic. You can also see a lot of the racial, ethnic and class issues affecting Peru in those years, the large Indian immigration to Lima, and other cultural characteristics of the region and the country. Leoncio Prado is a real school in Peru. To a ceertain extent, things have not change much in Peru since then, so it is a ninteresting interpretation of the country's soul.

It´s the best movie directed by Francisco Lombardi . The relation of an adolescent called "The Poet" with a group of bad and fool teenagers that generally studying in a military school converts him like a hero when finally fights against the "gang " leader called Jaguar , discovering that he murdered his best friend called "The Slave" a passive and timid boy . This movie shows the most close realism of a peruvian and latin-american problem.

The film may have a low budget, a non-existent soundtrack and mediocre acting. Yet the story is so powerful -the movie is loyal to Vargas Llosa's classic novel-, so close to the truth and so well told, it is capable to kick you in the groin.

This movie sure is a cult film, a different film like most of the latin american films at those years, despite of most of the latin american films, this film doesn't talk about misery and specifics local troubles, isn't the kind of film that is corny and raw, and doesn't show poverty as a mass show, like mostly of the mexicans and colombians film, and it's not another exaggeration of literature cliché like argentinian director Eliseo Subiela did on "Man looking Southeast", or another comunist propaganda like some of the cubans film did it at that time, this peruvian film show human nature, the behaviors and misbahaviors of the young boys that are being preparing to the miltary life but in a deeper point of view, portraits specifically the kind of people that fulls the military institutions, maybe world wide, there is no war, but the war inside of them and everybody else, specially the inside and outside world, the movie it's a general portrait of a miltary school and the kind of people inside there, most of them with internal conflicts, and two faces to show, most of the time the movie shows this behavior in a dark comedy way, discipline is the main conflict of this movie, who determinates that, if the same institution that teach it for "love to the land", doesn't show it?, doesn't talk about corruption in a typical underdevelopment country, but it's about ambigual ethical behavior. Most of the perople sure see this movie but without susceptibilities if you feel identify with one of the characters. Maybe some say that a latin american director couldn't make so complex film, Francisco Lombardi sure did it. Must See.

"La Ciudad Y Los Perros" (translated "The City and the Dogs") is one of those cheap Peruvian productions that ends up looking more like a teen exploit film than anything else. A group of teenage boys are at a shady military establishment where some youngsters rule while others are treated as second-rate citizens (that is putting it mildly). When a death occurs, layers and layers of wrong-doing are uncovered and it appears that many of the officers are just as heartless and cold as some of their students. A film that could have sent a real message is damaged by over-acting, poor cinematography, a near invisible musical score and low production values that make the whole thing go into a tail-spin. Honored by many groups in the mid-1980s, but nothing special in the end---not even for the Peruvian cinema. 2.5 out of 5 stars.