Relatos Salvajes - Review by Thomas Rosie

Overview

Relatos Salvajes is a 2014 Argentinian film, which tells a series of short stories based on violence and revenge covering a range of topics, this film is gripping right from the first few minutes before the opening credits have even started. Some of this issues covered are corruption, the flaws in modern society and extra marital affairs. Amongst other situations we can easily find ourselves tangled up in in life and how we'd possibly choose to deal with them.

Favourite Scene

Each short story was excellent, but for me the favourite has to be the road rage scene, it was violent and terrifying, but also hilarious at the same time. We have all seen plenty of movies where a maniac is chasing some poor unsuspecting victim for no apparent reason with nothing but murder in mind. But where this differs, is we see the assailant pushed into wanting to commit acts of violence towards the victim after suffering verbal abuse from him after overtaking him on a desert highway. We then get to see a deadly game of cat and mouse, all right on the corner of a bridge, that's right, no high speed chases here! This scene most certainly shows people's tendencies for getting themselves into deep trouble by simply not knowing when to quit whilst they're ahead. Some verbal abuse and a burst tyre later, you are well and truly up shit creek without a paddle or even a boat. Talking of shit, the assailant takes a shit on the victims windscreen of his shiny new Audi. As far as road rage goes, this was the beginning of one of the most bizarre battle of wits I've ever seen. Two things i learnt from this scene, 1) don't get involved in road rage or an argument on the road, you never know who's behind the wheel. 2) Puto means motherfucker in Spanish, and Cabron means pussy.

Favourite Quote

"I'll gut you like a chicken" - the angry crazy owner of a restaurant, protecting her waitress from being attacked by an aggressive loan shark mafioso by stabbing him to death. Despite the criminal tendencies of their customer, it is quite scary to think the owner keeps rat poison in the cupboard in case she doesn't like the look of a customer, then when that doesn't work, just simply slice them up right in the middle of the restaurant. Did the loan shark deserve his grisly end in front of his son? Or can this be deemed reasonable that the cockroaches of society should be exterminated by anyone who has the balls to do it? This is up to you, as an individual viewer to make up you're own mind about if vigilantes and anti-heroes are worthy members of society to maintain order in ways that the legal authorities cannot.

Final Words

Relatos Salvajes is so action packed and keeps you guessing for the next story that you will not find yourself bored once, i wanted to see more stories! We have plane crashes, money focused corrupt lawyers and police. Argentinian weddings look amazingly fun until the bride is a woman scorned and shags a chef before raising hell on the groom and guests. Finally, nothing says "Fuck Society" like a good old car bomb, if the man keeps taking it, then fuck their shit up like a true Che Guevara motherfucker!

I score this film 4.5 shits on your windscreen out of 5