Spanish director/co-writer Carlos Saura’s 1960 feature-film debut follows a downtrodden group of young men on the fringes of society. With few available legitimate activities to rise above their Madrid slum, the delinquents turn to petty crime to get by, hanging out between scores as they try to ignore their grim future. When one of the men decides to pursue a dream as a bullfighter, the rest of the crew pitches in to provide him the necessary financial support, hoping his potential success will pull them all out of poverty.
Buy Los Golfos Blu-rayThe actors range from non-professional to inexperienced, heightening the realism of their situation. We follow the gang on their daily rounds, always on the lookout for easy targets, but also content to while away hours of leisure simply enjoying each other’s company. Once the bullfighter gets serious about his profession, the men have a new sense of purpose and hang all of their hopes on his potential fame, only to be reminded that they were never expected to succeed. As the bullfighter winds down his disastrous first and last appearance in the arena, they look on in agony as their hopes die before their eyes, just like the bull succumbing to his blade.
Saura shot the film in a highly realistic style bordering on the documentary format, relying on natural exterior settings around Madrid. This added realism drives home the impact of the gang’s precarious lifestyle, with the seedy, underdeveloped area of Madrid looking far more destitute than typical representations of the city. Saura intended the film as a diatribe against the repressive Franco regime, calling attention to the impacts of his authoritarian rule on the next generation. However, the film was made within the bounds of Franco’s rule, which resulted in quite a story about how we got to this new Blu-ray release.
After its 1960 debut and Palme d’Or nomination at Cannes, the film went through multiple rounds of ridiculous Spanish censorship resulting in about 10 minutes of cuts, unfavorable distribution classification, and a two-year theatrical delay that doomed its domestic box-office potential. The original copy presented at Cannes was never recovered, and in fact no prior releases have come close to Saura’s original cut until this restoration was completed last year. Utilizing the original censorship notices, the 35mm acetate negative of the censored film, 35mm print elements and other intermediate sources, restorers spent 10 months of comparative analysis of various versions and fragments, piecing together and cleaning up this new, nearly complete 4K cut. Only one known brief sequence is currently lost, with the new 84-minute run time roughly equal to the original Cannes cut.
The Blu-ray presents the restored film in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Image clarity is superb, highlighting the super-cool, luminous black-and-white cinematography. A couple of brief imperfections remain, but overall the transfer is clean with moderate grain. Bonus features are extensive and informative, including a lengthy discussion by author Esteve Riambau about the film, an interview with a knowledgeable filmmaker and curator, a featurette about the censored scenes, and two early short films by Saura.
Additionally, the booklet in the 2500-copy limited edition contains a wealth of detailed information about the state of the Spanish film industry under Franco’s rule, Saura’s life and career that led him to make this film, and the restoration process including flowchart diagrams showing the painstaking steps taken to bring this version to fruition.
