MundoAndino Home : Andes Argentina Guide at MundoAndino
Caballos Salvajes
Caballos Salvajes is a 1995 Argentine road movie directed by Marcelo Pineyro and written by Pineyro and Aida Bortnik. It stars Hector Alterio, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Cecilia Dopazo and Federico Luppi in a cameo appearance. The film chronicles the five days of two fugitives on the run after robbing a corporation and being targeted by the media.
Plot
Jose is an ageing anarchist who decides to get even with the corporation that stole 15,344$ from his family 18 years ago. When confronted by the yuppie manager, Pedro Mendoza, Jose threatens to kill himself and orders him to hand in the requested amount of money. In the ensuing chaos, Pedro stumbles upon a drawer holding half a million dollars, and puts it all in the bag. He then asks Jose to take him hostage so that the police won't shoot them, and both drive away successfully.
After the heist, Pedro is confronted with a dilemma: he can't turn himself in, because the stolen money is laundered money and he will thus have trouble with the mafia, so he decides to join Jose on a road trip to the Patagonia as they run away from police and mafia alike.
On their way to the border they bond and decide to correct those claims made erroneous by the media so as to clean their names and justify their actions. They tape a message and send it to the TV, and along the way to safety they are aided by gas station attendants who view the couple as modern-day Robin Hoods. They are nicknamed by the press coverage "Los Indomables" - The Untameable. Their car, however, ends wrecked in a river due to a mishap.
They decide to take a bus that will get them closer to the border. Aboard they meet a punk girl, Ana, who steels the bag containing the half million, but promptly returns it when they catch up with her. They decide to let her into their society, and she steels a jeep for them. The three decide to "return" the money to the people, and rain the half-million on a cheering crowd, keeping only what's necessary for the trip. After that they are on the run again.
"Los Indomables" manage to get to the border after dodging a pursuing helicopter; with the aid of the gas station attendants they avoid road blocks and the two hitmen sent by the mafia, whom they finally encounter and get rid of. Once at the border they meet with Eustaquio, husband to the sister of Jose's long dead wife. After reconciling with him, he reveals his profession - kept secret throughout the film - to Pedro: horse breeder.
In the final moments of the movie, Jose bids farewell to Pedro and Ana, who have fallen in love, as they ride away on two horses to the Chilean border. Jose then frees all of his horses, and as he sets the last one going is shot by a person offscreen at the back. He dies, and the end is a montage of Jose's horses running free, and Jose himself dancing (from a previous scene in the movie) and shouting to the skies how good it feels to feel alive.
Need more information for your travel research or homework?
Ask your questions at the forum about Argentine films or help others to find answers.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Caballos Salvajes
