I found this to be movie heart wrenching. It is amazing that such horrific things can happen in a modern world (even though it was 1976). I was a young wife at that time and find it hard to believe things like that were happening in my era. Gaby was a beautiful little girl that was normal in everyway. I think she had a past that she in her heart knew was there, she just did not realize it. She showed that in the songs that she sang and the way she reacted when her older cousins were playing war games. The one thing I found hard to believe was how naive Alicia was. How could such an educated woman be so unaware of what was happening around her. She taught Argentinan history. How could she not know about the victims of the dirty war? How could she not realize what had happened to her good friend who had been tortured by paramilitary forces for living with a man who was thought to be a submersive? I amazed me that the middle class women could put "blinders" on and not see the world as it was. Caught in the middle of all of this was Gaby and the countless others who were taken or murdered by the military and the brutal Argentine regime.
I did like that Alicia started to figure things out after her conversation with her friend Ana, who finally revealed to her how she was brutalized and the things she witnessed while she was in exile. Alicia's interest was peaked when she questioned Roberto and he told her to put it out of her head. This is where the machismo theme came in, as we have seen in a lot of the films we have seen. Roberto was the "head of the household". He made the rules and Alicia was to follow them. He was to be the breadwinner. I saw him as not only machismo, as he was a father who wanted to keep his family together.
I do not think that Gaby's life would have been hopeless. I think she could have had the best of both worlds. I think that Alicia and Roberto could have worked out with Gaby's grandmother a way for them to be the caregivers for her and let her have her grandmother. She could have given her the family she was never going to know otherwise and the mother and father she knew and loved dearly. This was a very powerful movie. I can see why it won an Oscar.
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I would have to totally agree with you on the "not knowing" part of Argentinian history. She was a teacher andyou would have thought she would know this. This could be that the "Dirty War" was kept mostly quiet. From what I could tell the truth was just starting to come out beacuse we see all the protests of people wanting to know where thier loved ones were. Alicia obviously was not in the know about what was going on. But you have to think though, maybe the director of this film wanted us to think just that. How could a woman with such knowledge and education not be up on current events? Maybe she did know and did hear of such things but chose not to get involved because it did not concern her - that is until she learns that maybe this adopted child of hers is the result of a wrongdoing. Alicia tries to get Roberto to tell her the truth and as you put it, his "machismo" took over and he refused to budge. We have to wonder what comes of the relationship with Alicia and Roberto. What I found odd was, you get your head banged into a door jam - hands smashed in the door and yet before you leave you hug and kiss the guy on the forehead? I don't about everyone else but I thought she was going to kick him in the jewels or something.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that no matter what Gaby was in good hands. I think too that she will most like;y get the best of both worlds.