Los Olvidados (1950)

Set in Mexico City, a teenage delinquent (Roberto Cobo) escapes from jail and reunites with his street gang which consists of poverty stricken adolescents. He wants revenge on the guy (Javier Amezcua) he thinks ratted him out to the police. Directed by Luis Bunuel, this is a graphic and unflinching look at poverty and how it shapes its young people. For the most part, Bunuel doesn't lecture us on what poverty has done to these young lives. He saves that for the very end when a work farm principal (Francisco Jambrina) goes a bit Stanley Kramer on us stating the obvious. We can see what poverty has created, Bunuel has shown us. Do we really need to told it as if we were too thick headed to grasp what we're seeing? Other than that, it's a powerful and raw film crafted without sentiment about misunderstood youth. This isn't REBEL WITHOUT  A CAUSE, it's closer to THE 400 BLOWS. There's a surrealistic sequence (well, it is Bunuel after all) that's jarring in a film so steeped in realism. As disturbing today as it was 70 years ago! A happy ending was filmed which fortunately was never used although some transfers of the film offer the happy ending as a bonus. With Stella Inda, Alfonso Mejia and Mario Ramirez.