La crueldad como instrumento de la tragedia en Los olvidados de Luis Buñuel

Abstract

This paper analyses the film The Young and the Damned (1950) by Luis Bunuel according to the tragic philosophy of Clement Rosset. My research focusses on discussing the concept of ‘cruelty’ and its connection with the tragic, as well as to spell out the elements that make it possible to read the film as a tragedy in the classical sense. The paper argues that Bunuel’s realistic portrait of the children’s life in the slums of Mexico City follows the principle of cruelty coined by the aforementioned philosopher, according to which an artistic (or philosophical) work must be cruel and represent the truth without minimising it, without taking sides or any kind of moral perspective. The paper undertakes an analysis of cruelty as an aesthetic category in the realisation of tragedy, and key concepts of what is considered tragic are associated with the film.