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The Brute

Play trailer Poster for The Brute 1953 1h 23m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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88% Tomatometer 8 Reviews 74% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
A Mexican landlord (Andrés Soler) and his mistress (Katy Jurado) take advantage of a simple brute (Pedro Armendáriz).

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The Brute

Critics Reviews

View All (8) Critics Reviews
Vincent Canby New York Times Bunuel, for the first time in his life, was busy earning a decent living by turning out popular comedies and melodramas for Latin American audiences and, occasionally, making films of real distinction. El Bruto is not one of these. Rated: 2.5/5 May 20, 2003 Full Review Ed Gonzalez Slant Magazine Sure, El Bruto is relatively apolitical but that's because Buuel is drunk on animal magnetism. Rated: 3.5/4 May 18, 2002 Full Review John A. Nesbit Old School Reviews a Frankenstein variant as the title character is physically as strong as the cattle he slaughters, yet the gentle soul remains vulnerable to the charms of women Rated: B- Feb 25, 2008 Full Review Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid [A] rambunctious, entertaining film. Nov 29, 2007 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 4/5 Jul 6, 2005 Full Review Lance Goldenberg Weekly Planet (Tampa, FL) Rated: 5/5 Mar 5, 2004 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (27) audience reviews
Audience Member The characters are all dumb and extremely overreactive. The lead feels like a supporting character, and it's silly that there are attractive women fighting over him. This is one of those films where the plot points are too heavy; they sound alright on paper, but played out, they're a stretch of the imagination. We have a problem with tenants -- kill them. We're standing next to each other -- are we going to get married now? The police are going to arrest me -- I must gunfight them and die for all of you people I didn't care about and threatened to kill most of the movie. Melodramatic not-so-neorealist absurdity is how I'd best define this piece. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member F 8.1 [Luis Buñuel] [Mx] Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member After his collaboration with Dalí at the height of surrealism, Luis Buñuel laid low and then re-emerged in Mexico where he slowly rebuilt his career with a series of commercial films for local producers. Some of these films are now recognised as important parts of his oeuvre (Los Olvidados, The Exterminating Angel) but many remain virtually unknown. El Bruto falls into the latter category. Clocking in at a trim 80 minutes, it is basically straight melodrama. Although Buñuel's usual interests (surrealism, feet, insects) are absent, there is a strong Marxist undercurrent which aligns with his political orientation. A rich landlord hires El Bruto, more brawn than brains working at a slaughterhouse, to help him evict some poor tenants who are organized to fight. Poor Bruto punches a sick old man who later dies; even worse, he falls in love with the man's daughter who freaks out when she discovers Bruto is responsible for her father's death. All the while, the landlord's wife is virtually throwing herself at Bruto. Well, it doesn't end well for any of them. Worth a look but not up there with Buñuel's masterworks by any stretch of the imagination. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member Melodramatic Bunuel film has a great cast but is not one of his best. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member A film from Buñuel's more commercial filmmaking period, that certainly can't be considered among his most vintage works. Still, The Brute does manage to be a good story about man's vulnerability to the opposite sex, with a protagonist who is as endearing as he is tragic. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Bunuel's Frankenstein--Melodramatic and Gloomy Fight of Classes!! Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Brute

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Movie Info

Synopsis A Mexican landlord (Andrés Soler) and his mistress (Katy Jurado) take advantage of a simple brute (Pedro Armendáriz).
Director
Luis Buñuel
Producer
Gabriel Castro, Sergio Kogan
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Spanish
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 29, 2021
Runtime
1h 23m
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