Like the young heroes of of Louis Malle's "Lacombe, Lucien" (1974) and "Au revoir les enfants"(1987), Gonzalo Infante (Mateas Quer), the protagonist of Chilean director Andrés Wood's coming of age story "Machuca," has to grow up in a time of political upheavals and physical dangers -- though he's not as vulnerable to them as some of his campañeros. For Gonzalo and his friend Pedro it's not the Nazi occupation of France but the CIA-sponsored coup against Salvador Allende that ultimately separates him from his at-risk young friend.
The relevance of the events of September 11, 1973 that "Machuca" leads up to is clear to anyone who looks at what has been happening in Carlos Chavez's Venezuela. The CIA and the rich of the country may not have been able to bring Chavez down, but not for lack of trying. And the formerly government-pampered classes are as vicious in their hostility and as willing to eliminate Chavez as the same classes were in Chile at the time of Allende. The difference may be that Chavez has brought more real socialism to the country and thus has only strengthened his huge popular base among the poor majority.
In Wood's film, Gonzalo becomes friends with Pedro Machuca (Ariel Mateluna) when the pro-leftist headmaster of his "English" private school, Father McEnroe (Ernesto Malbran), arranges to have poor children brought into his class as charity students. "Machuca" describes an uneasy mutual attraction of rich and poor at a crucial moment in Chilean history: Gonzalo helps Pedro with his English, lends him his expensive hardbound Lone Ranger comic books, and brings him to his posh home. And in return Pedro defends Gonzalo on the frequent occasions when he's bullied by other boys and introduces him to the new world of his family and his shantytown life.
Some of the contrasts are a little obvious, with greater warmth on the poor boy's side and more coolness on Gonzalo's (he has a mother who's adulterous and a father who's often absent), but much of the story is simple coming of age stuff. In fact the filmmaker may lose touch with the political story at times, though he constantly shows revolutionary slogans on walls and huge demonstrations of both left and right, which Gonzalo attends selling flags with Pedro and Pedro's cousin Silvana. Silvana is more critical of Ganzalo than his pal Pedro, but she kisses them both in return for rationed cans of condensed milk.
Class politics comes to the school in a vociferous meeting where many call for the ouster of the poor students and the leftist headmaster with them.
All this is interesting enough, but would be nothing without the coup that is coming. When that happens, the headmaster is ousted, the poor boys go, and the school is taken over by a military officer. In a startling scene the Father comes back to the school chapel during service and rapidly consumes all the communion wafers and then declares the chapel no longer holy; and the boys, led by Pedro, bid him a fond farewell. "Goodbye, children," he says, echoing and perhaps ripping off the moving end of Louis Malle's masterpiece ("Au revoir les enfants," which means "Goodbye, children") about a Jesuit priest taken away by the Nazis for hiding Jewish boys at a Catholic boarding school.
Most dramatic of all, Gonzalo is in Pedro's neighborhood during the murderous military purge and sees Silvana killed as soldiers take people away. Terrified at the possibility being linked with them and abducted or murdered himself, Gonzalo denies any connection with the people there, pointing to his Adidas. It's perhaps ironic to us to think that for several decades in America such shoes have been trophies worn by ghetto kids, at times stolen from rich boys to do so. Here they can only mean you're of the privileged classes.
Gonzalo rides his 'bici' away and walks straight into the luxurious home of his mother's lover, seeming to embrace for that moment the worst aspects of his own background out of fear -- scared "right," as it were. The boy who was displaced earlier to put Pedro next to Gonzalo in class is back in what has recently been Pedro's desk. But when he asks for answers to a test Gonzalo writes "ASSHOLE" (in most excellent English) on the paper and gives it back, turning in his own test with no answers -- as the boldest and coolest of the poor boys had once done -- and walking out.
The material in "Machuca" is undeniably important, relevant to crucial events in Latin American politics past and present. Many scenes in the film work, but a certain lack of charisma in the two boys is a flaw and the screenplay and direction aren't quite tight enough to prevent a few longueurs. In short, the filmmakers aren't entirely up to the demands of their compelling material. But the result is still essential viewing.
The relevance of the events of September 11, 1973 that "Machuca" leads up to is clear to anyone who looks at what has been happening in Carlos Chavez's Venezuela. The CIA and the rich of the country may not have been able to bring Chavez down, but not for lack of trying. And the formerly government-pampered classes are as vicious in their hostility and as willing to eliminate Chavez as the same classes were in Chile at the time of Allende. The difference may be that Chavez has brought more real socialism to the country and thus has only strengthened his huge popular base among the poor majority.
In Wood's film, Gonzalo becomes friends with Pedro Machuca (Ariel Mateluna) when the pro-leftist headmaster of his "English" private school, Father McEnroe (Ernesto Malbran), arranges to have poor children brought into his class as charity students. "Machuca" describes an uneasy mutual attraction of rich and poor at a crucial moment in Chilean history: Gonzalo helps Pedro with his English, lends him his expensive hardbound Lone Ranger comic books, and brings him to his posh home. And in return Pedro defends Gonzalo on the frequent occasions when he's bullied by other boys and introduces him to the new world of his family and his shantytown life.
Some of the contrasts are a little obvious, with greater warmth on the poor boy's side and more coolness on Gonzalo's (he has a mother who's adulterous and a father who's often absent), but much of the story is simple coming of age stuff. In fact the filmmaker may lose touch with the political story at times, though he constantly shows revolutionary slogans on walls and huge demonstrations of both left and right, which Gonzalo attends selling flags with Pedro and Pedro's cousin Silvana. Silvana is more critical of Ganzalo than his pal Pedro, but she kisses them both in return for rationed cans of condensed milk.
Class politics comes to the school in a vociferous meeting where many call for the ouster of the poor students and the leftist headmaster with them.
All this is interesting enough, but would be nothing without the coup that is coming. When that happens, the headmaster is ousted, the poor boys go, and the school is taken over by a military officer. In a startling scene the Father comes back to the school chapel during service and rapidly consumes all the communion wafers and then declares the chapel no longer holy; and the boys, led by Pedro, bid him a fond farewell. "Goodbye, children," he says, echoing and perhaps ripping off the moving end of Louis Malle's masterpiece ("Au revoir les enfants," which means "Goodbye, children") about a Jesuit priest taken away by the Nazis for hiding Jewish boys at a Catholic boarding school.
Most dramatic of all, Gonzalo is in Pedro's neighborhood during the murderous military purge and sees Silvana killed as soldiers take people away. Terrified at the possibility being linked with them and abducted or murdered himself, Gonzalo denies any connection with the people there, pointing to his Adidas. It's perhaps ironic to us to think that for several decades in America such shoes have been trophies worn by ghetto kids, at times stolen from rich boys to do so. Here they can only mean you're of the privileged classes.
Gonzalo rides his 'bici' away and walks straight into the luxurious home of his mother's lover, seeming to embrace for that moment the worst aspects of his own background out of fear -- scared "right," as it were. The boy who was displaced earlier to put Pedro next to Gonzalo in class is back in what has recently been Pedro's desk. But when he asks for answers to a test Gonzalo writes "ASSHOLE" (in most excellent English) on the paper and gives it back, turning in his own test with no answers -- as the boldest and coolest of the poor boys had once done -- and walking out.
The material in "Machuca" is undeniably important, relevant to crucial events in Latin American politics past and present. Many scenes in the film work, but a certain lack of charisma in the two boys is a flaw and the screenplay and direction aren't quite tight enough to prevent a few longueurs. In short, the filmmakers aren't entirely up to the demands of their compelling material. But the result is still essential viewing.