Machuca (2004)

97 out of 133 people found the following review helpful:

Compelling

Rip from Manchester, 27th October, 2007

An evocative story which gives a good sense of how ideological and political change affects ordinary people in their everyday lives. To illustrate the impact, the film uses a group young people who are not in control of the changes but have their lives changed by them. The difficult situations and choices the young people have to face are used to good effect in illustrating a sense of impotence and frustration. The film is not all doom and gloom though, it does give some hope and shows moments where the young people both enjoy themselves and make a stand for what is right. A compelling watch.

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14 out of 17 people found the following review helpful:

Night of the junta

Richard Holland from North Wales, 18th January, 2006

Not dissimilar to Au resvoir les Enfants, this time the friends on opposite sides of a hostile situation are upper and lower class boys in Chile on the verge of civil war in 1973. For the most part this is a charming story of a posh boy becoming best mates with a lad from a shanty town. There's some fun, some sexual awakening with a precocious girl from the shanty town and interesting insight into a country I, at least, don't know much about. This is enough to lull you so that the final few minutes have even more impact and horror. It just shows that vicious inhumanity can happen anywhere and at anytime wherever there is social exclusion and political extremism. Well made, well acted and well paced, I'm almost ashamed to admit that what I enjoyed most was the surprisingly groovy soundtrack - intriguing Spanish-influenced psychedelia and funk. A fine film but nothing, other than the final sequences to strongly engage the viewer.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Hot stuff from Chile

A Customer from Manky Manc, 4th April, 2006

Provides a good background to the coup in Chile when thousands were murdered and totured by the dictator, Pinochet. Story is well told and steers well clear of becoming too sentimental.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Very moving

crispin40 from , 28th December, 2005

Basically this is the story of the fall of the Allende Government and the coup which followed it in Chile in 1973. We see the events through the eyes of a young teenage reasonably well off boy, Gonzalo Infante and his friend Pedro Machuca from the shanty town settlement. Well directed, acted and moves at a pace though some of the classroom scenes could maybe have been cut in order to make a shorter film but otherwise a very moving experience. If you liked Avoir et Etre or The Chorus then this could be your kind of film.

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Thought provoking

A Customer from London, 7th August, 2010

Very thought provoking and totally absorbing. This film will stay with me for a long time. Very, very bittersweet and well drawn character studies.

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Passionate account of Chilean coup

MrAndyC from , 27th July, 2010

A very moving and disturbing account of Chile in the run up and during Pinochet's coup. The whole film is well acted, particular by the child actors.

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Political boy movie from Chile

MikeLaughton from , 31st May, 2010

This Spanish-Chilean co-production is a solid drama about the relationship between two 12-year-old boys from different sides of the track in early-1970s Santiago. It is 1973 and Chile has elected a communist government. As a result a posh private school is forced to take in a number of bright local boys from poor families much to the disgust of the fee-paying parents.But two of the boys from different backgrounds begin to form a strong bond. The movie is at its best while concentrating on the relationship between the two boys - rich-lad Gonzalo and poor-boy Pedro - and the school scenes are somewhat reminiscent of Kes. Indeed much of the film is similar in style to the political dramas of Ken Loach. But the film's bite comes from the scenes late on in the story which shows the effects or a right-wing military coup. Machuca gives a good idea of what life was like in Chile in those troubled times but the story only seems to scratch the surface and the drama could have been even more powerful. But hey! Are you sure this wasn't directed by some feller called Loach?

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Chile through the eyes of children

Amircuk from , 19th May, 2009

Great movie, eye opener about relatively unknown period and part of the world Its a description of the Junta uprising through the eys of the 2 boys form a very different social status Its a captivating look on society, social classes, revolution and friendship Amazing performance, heartwarming and touching

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