La Ciudad y los Perros (The City and the Dogs) (review)

The film follows several teenaged cadets at a military academy in Lima, based loosely on the Colegio Militar Leoncio Prado which Mario Vargas Llosa, author of the screen play, also attended as a youth. The City in the film is the military academy, and the Dogs are the first year cadets who are subjected to hazing by upperclass students. One larger teen, Jaguar, refuses to participate in the hazing and fights off those who would initiate him, demonstrating his machismo and attracting some followers who form The Circle which later engages in stealing exams and smuggling prohibited items such as cigarettes, pisco, girlie magazines, dice, lock picks, etc. Two other cadets include Ricardo Arana, known as El Esclavo (the slave) because he appears weak to the others due to obeying rules, studying instead of paying for copies of exams, and not fighting back against cadets who spit in his milk and steal his clothes. The story is told through the eyes of Alberto Fernandez, better known as Poeta for writing poetry and "horny stories."

The story deals with betrayal between friends, corruption, class and racial discrimination, machismo, bullying, snitches, and pecking orders. Racial and class discrimination, which continue in contemporary Peruvian life, are demonstrated by the use of derogatory nicknames such as half-breed, faggot, hillbilly, and an unprintable word for Negroes. A chemistry exam is stolen; the cadets on guard duty at the time of the theft are placed on confinement until the culprit is named; the snitch is killed by a bullet during combat practice; and the cause of death is blamed on the dead cadet. The tough but honest Lt. Gamboa learns the truth and presents it to the commander of the academy. He is berated for attempting to soil the name of the institution and is ultimately transferred to a remote post the sierras.

While the military academy is allegedly teaching "discipline, morality, and labor" to the cadets, what they learn are bribery, corruption, brutality, and the code of silence. As Lt. Gamboa is leaving the academy and what had been a promising career, he is handed a written confession by the killer of the dead cadet. He tears it up, saying that it would be easier for the dead cadet to rise from the grave than for the army to admit it had made a mistake by claiming the cadet shot himself. The film is as much a commentary on Peruvian society, the government, and especially the military as it is on life in a military academy.

The film is based on the first novel by Mario Vargas Llosa, La Ciudad y los Perros, which won the Biblioteca Breve Premio and other international awards. Vargas Llosa's disdain for the military and police in Peru is not confined to La Ciudad y los Perros but is also evident in later works including The Green House, Captain Pantoja, The Real Life of Alejando Mayta, and other works. Good officers like Gamboa exist in Peru, but they are not common.

The film is educational in showing the discrimination between different classes, the machismo that permeates every facet of Peruvian society, some landscapes around Lima, some lower-middle-class houses in Lima, and most of all the power and character of the military in Peru during the 1960s, as well as more recently. The film is timeless and universal in that the power struggle between discipline and corruption takes place within the world powers as well as in developing nations. One only has to listen to the Enron tapes, Nixon's oval office tapes, or read the transcripts of the Congressional 9-11 Hearings to observe similarities.

Understanding that bribery and corruption as depicted in the film have occurred at all levels is relevant to conducting research in Peru, from getting visas, permits, maps and air photos to just walking to a cafe in relative safety. Those who play the game with finesse usually achieve their goals unscathed and without compromising themselves.

The role of the Peruvian military in everyday life cannot be overemphasized. Even at a gala opening of a museum...