How does the prologue frame our reception of this story? Does the ending seem consistent with the prologue?
How does this movie compare to Italian neorealist films like Rome Open City and The Bicycle Thief?
Is there evidence that this film was created by the same director as Un chien andalou and Las hurdes?
The representation of Pedro's mother as uncaring caused a furor among Mexican intellectuals, who protested that it was inconceivable that any Mexican mother would treat her child that way. The Mexican movie star Jorge Negrete even proposed that Buñuel's Mexican citizenship be revoked. How are we to interpret Buñuel's less than sympathetic portrait of motherhood?
How do you interpret the famous dream sequence involving Pedro, his mother, and the plate of raw meat? What Freudian elements are present in this sequence? What surrealist elements?
What is the comparative weight of family bonds, friendship, eroticism and power in the lives of the characters? Is there a difference in this regard between the male and female characters?
The portrayal of physically handicapped people-the blind beggar and the legless man-is also harsh. What do you think Buñuel means to suggest with these portrayals?
Some critics have viewed the blind man as an ideological holdover of the prerevolutionary Porfirian dictatorship, and Ojitos, the lost boy, as representative of peasant Mexico that has been betrayed by the Revolution. How persuasive do you find this interpretation?
What is the metaphorical function of animals-chickens, donkeys, dogs-in this film? What sort of relationship do they have to the humans with whom they cohabit the slums?
How do you interpret Pedro's defiance of the camera by throwing an egg?
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