Rodrigo D: No Future

Customer Reviews:

Punk...Money...Problems.......2006-07-15

I'll say that the first time i saw this movie i was 16. I am honest saying that at that time i didn't like it. I was expecting something different and at that time the movie industry in colombia was in its beginning so i expected to see something more like a hollywood movie on those days.
As the years gone by i found this dvd on amazon and decided to purchase it. Well....now it's different. Now i understand the movie a little bit more but it's still confussing. But there's something really clear now...this is a great movie if you watch it as a documentary of the life in Medellin at 90's.
The apathy of this teenager, who become a great colombian actor afterwards Ramiro Meneses, and his dream to start a punk band, with no talent, except the one of waving the drum sticks on the air, makes you feel in a documentary movie the same as ones that you see about guys on the National Geographic Channel but with more non-sense violence and no future.

Senseless, Meaningless, useless.......2005-09-24

Rodrigo D is suppose to represent a "reality" film before "reality" TV emerged as a common and popular viewing choice. We are to follow the daily routine of Rodrigo D, a very poor and angry young man, as he trys to understand where he is going and what he wants to be/do. Curously, Rodirgo is suppose to be a drummer in a Punk band. But we never see him play the drums. In fact, his best musical effort is purchasing a set of drum sticks for 150 pesos...about $0.08.

Rodrigo, like the film, just drifts from place to place, moment to moment...mostly arguing, fighting, yelling and lieing his way about town. Along the way he steals some things, meets some friends, and they get killed, In the end, of course, he lives and the film ends.

Senseless, meaningless, useless...Rodrigo D goes no where...just like his film. Those who may have been killed duringthis filming, or shortly thereafter, arethe lucky one.

A difficult movie, but worth watching.......2004-11-21

If you haven't watched this movie then be warned ... this is an extremely difficult one to watch. And it's certainly not for everyone. But if you can stomach the poverty, the violence, the hopelessness and the senselessness that pours out of every shot then don't miss this. The story follows a group of teenagers (some of them young actors, others kids picked off the streets) trying to survive in the seedier part of the town of Medellin, the citadel of the Colombian drug lords. The town is a maze of unauthorized ugly brick constructions and the potholed roads look undrivable, mirroring the despair and aimlessness in the lives of its residents. School dropouts turn to drug-peddling and car thefts to have enough money for food and beer. Life is cheap and guns are used like toys. The fact that four of the boys appearing in this film died before it was completed only reinforces its impact.

It has taken a long time for this to come out on DVD, but that wait is now thankfully over. Living in the U.S. or indeed in most other parts of the world, it is difficult to imagine that this depicts a breathing town where people still continue to live their lives. Not a single shot in the movie is visually or emotionally pleasing; you feel downright unpleasant when it ends, but this is life in Medellin portrayed almost like a documentary. Most of these people have never seen anything different or better ... this is the reality for them, and I would call it remarkable to have been able to share that for an hour and a half.

If you didn't like the film, then that's understandable. I admit that I would certainly think more than twice before traveling to Medellin. If you did, then also watch Mira Nair's "Salaam Bombay" if you haven't. Its another movie made with street urchins halfway across the world, but the underlying common theme comes across just as vividly ... dreamless lives looking at grey days turning greyer.

realistic, gritty, thruthful, and moving.......2004-09-03

Rodrigo D is finally, and most deservedly, available on DVD. This extraordinary film from Colombia is certainly one of the most powerful and moving documents concerning the waste, poverty, and violence of life among the underclass in Medellin.

Using primarily street kids for his film, Victor Gaviria provides an unflinching portrait of their lives: trying to make money and have fun; running and hiding from the cops who would beat, disappear, or kill them; turning their own violence on each other. The story focuses on Rodrigo who, throughout the film, is trying to find drumsticks and music lessons so that he can realize his dream of being a punk musician. He is inhibited by poverty, the loss of his mother, animosity from his family, and the violence which proscribes his life. He is overwhelmed and ultimately sees but one way out.

Mr. Gaviria, in a postscipt, points out that six of the beautiful boys in his film were dead by the time it was finished, victim of the senseless violence in Medellin. One can only imagine how many more have gone after, and how many more will, in a society where repression and poverty replace hope.

Thanks to the producers of this DVD who also saw the necessity of an presenting this important film to a larger audience. It must be seen.

rodrigo d.......2004-07-31

I have seen this movie before, wayyy before I get into independent movies and I fall inlove with it, I have been trying to gte this movie forver and I am so suprise that I found it is not even relese yet and I am going to buy ittt is a most buy moviee..

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