GeneSiskel The Village Voice usually has good film sense, but Michael Atkinson's external review of Machuca is unduly snide. True, Machuca adopts some standard plot devices. The boy's-eye view of big events seen in this film is not much different from that of The Boy in Striped Pajamas, Dead Poets Society, or for that matter Huckleberry Finn. True, many of the characters -- the kids are uniformly adorable, the adults less so -- are painted in broad brush-strokes. Call them stereotypes if you must. What distinguishes Machuca, however, is that it is played out against the backdrop of Pinochet's 9/11/73 toppling, with the CIA's assistance and Henry Kissinger's fervent support, of Chile's Allende government. That was a real blow to democracy, real hypocrisy, and real terror, 3,000 Chileans were killed, and a quarter million Chileans were displaced.Director Andres Wood captures the sweep of the coup, some of it documentary-style and some of it dramatized, with real emotional power. He does so, not in spite of the production values, as Atkinson suggests, but because of them. Gonzalo Infante's upper-middle class bicycle gives him the mobility he needs to visit Pedro Machuca's shantytown, but it is also a symbol of private property in the military's battle with socialism, and it contrasts with the fighter jets which fly over Santiago at the end. Gonzalo's mother dresses in a Jackie Kennedy-like pink suit, parks her widely admired (and shared) culo on the door of a convertible, and bangs a pan in support of right-wing values. No wonder her son has trouble making sense of the scene. No wonder he forms his own pre-pubescent connection with a shantytown girl whose mother has also "left." The production values are what distinguish Machuca from mere agit prop such as The Battle of Algiers and give Wood's film depth.Enjoy it.

arnie_93 The (perfect) world of opposites.It is said that children are the mirrors of the future and the reaction one can get out a child is pure.This movie depicts the life in the country of Chile where the Democratic and the communists have nothing in common except the hatred for each other.The words Communism and democracy are bookish words and the challenge for the director and the script writers must have been was the screen depiction of these two words.and even staying in a country like India, one is able to relate to the movie, I give full points to the movie makers for that.The thought that went through in my head watching this movie was that the characterizations.It was awesome, the actors have done a great job. The movie lacks a bit of the finch in the screenplay part.But overall the script is brilliant.I would really love to see some movies like this.

gradyharp Andrés Wood is a highly regarded Chilean filmmaker, a man unafraid to take on controversial issues and present them in a manner that is revelatory to his audience, whether that audience is in Chile or other South American countries - or in Europe or North America. In MACHUCA he transports us to the year 1973 in Chile when Pinochet's military coup overthrew Allende's socialist 'democracy'. Knowing that there remains a divided opinion of this period of time, a time when Allende supporters who could not escape the country were murdered or placed in detention camps as political prisoners, Woods sensitively recreates this period through the eyes of children from the populace divided by the middle class and the poor, a technique which works on every level.Saint Patrick's School for boys in Santiago is headed by a kind priest/principal Father McEnroe (Ernesto Malbran) and the rich to middle class uniformed boys include one 'strawberry faced', quiet, chubby Gonzalo Infante (Matías Quer) whose family is of means but has issues of covert infidelity with the mother (Aline Küppenheim) and father (Francisco Reyes). The Allende government is shaky, and in an attempt to appease the poor class, Saint Patrick's School takes on students from the shantytowns to 'democratize' education. Among these new students is Pedro Machuca (Ariel Mateluna) who seems to be a loner but soon becomes the brunt of the rich kids' prejudice. Gonzalo befriends Pedro and gradually the two form a strong bond which leads to each of the boys learning about their separate families and life styles: Gonzalo's life of luxury dazzles Pedro while Pedro's humble shack houses warm family that Gonzalo envies. The friendship leads to a close examination of the schism of racism and political clashes brought into sharp focus as the military coup changes everything. Only friendship remains intact in a dramatically tested fashion.Andrés Woods marries the political and the human aspects of this chaotic time in Chile and offers us insights into the ongoing changing governments of South America. His script (which he wrote with Eliseo Altunaga, Roberto Brodsky and Mamoun Hassan) is spare leaving space for much of the story to be told by observing the interaction of his two main characters with their associates. The result is a deeply moving film, an opportunity to observe the tenuous times of a period most of us barely understand. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp

Claudio Carvalho In 1973, in Santiago of Chile of the first socialist president democratically elected in a Latin-American country, President Salvador Allende, the principal of the Saint Patrick School, Father McEnroe (Ernesto Malbran) makes a trial of integration between students of the upper and lower classes. The bourgeois boy Gonzalo Infante (Matías Quer) and the boy from the slum Pedro Machuca (Ariel Mateluna) become great friends, while the conflicts on the streets leads Chile to the bloody and repressive military coup of General Augusto Pinochet on 11 September 1973, changing definitely their lives, their relationship and their country."Machuca" is a touching and realistic tale of friendship and coming to age in times of military coup in Chile. The Chilean director Andrés Wood made this fantastic movie following the political genre of Costa Gravas, but with a subtle drama with two children getting conscience of the fight of classes and the changes in their country by force and violence. The story in some moments seems to be a documentary so perfect the direction and acting are. The debut of the two lead actors, Matías Quer and Ariel Mateluna, is awesome: the eyes of the silent Matías Quer disclosing reality and the facial expression of Ariel Mateluna are amazing. "Machuca" is a highly recommended movie, and for the younger generations slightly see what happened in the 70's in South America and particularly in Chile. A few figures about Pinochet's dictatorship: 30,000 Chileans were killed; 100,000 Chileans were arrested without a trial; 22,000 students were expelled from the universities; 150,000 Chileans were exiled. My vote is ten.Title (Brazil): "Machuca"