Machuca

Chris Pappas

Machuca

                Machuca portrays the story of two school aged kids, growing up in Santiago, Chile, during a time of national turmoil and political unrest.  Gonzalo is a boy from the rich side of the river, while Pedro is from a shanti town on the on the other.  They meet in prep school, where there is an effort to communize an elite school.  From the beginning, they both share a common problem; a bully in the class targets each of them.  They develop a friendship that began with looking out for each other.  Their interactions are pretty awkward at first; neither really knows how to treat each other, or just where each is coming from.  There is a real, unavoidable fact that they are from different parts of the world, even though it’s only separated by a river.  They develop an inseparable friendship, along with a neighborhood girl; spend all their free time hanging out together. 

                Definitely, the kids see a distinction between their skin color and social classes.  This is very apparent by the clothes they wear and the reaction to the possessions each other has in their house.  Though they learn to look passed those distinctions, they are always present, right down to the end.  The film shows the classes in the city pretty clearly.  The poor have to wait in food lines, whereas the rich have access to black market goods, not available to the people who don’t have money. 

                The main message that the film shows, is that no matter where you are from, people are not as different as it seems.  Though Gonzalo’s family has all the money and items to make their lives easier, money doesn’t buy happiness.  Gonzalo’s mother has an ongoing relationship with an older man, his father seems to be disconnected with the family.  So much so that he takes a job in Italy.  The film sends a powerful message about government forcing ideals on public.  The communist versus democracy, versus military rule.