
In an undetermined country, area of diamonds
lands, a group of villagers, diamond-diggers, are informed that they will be
evicted by military forces, try to protest, but they are repressed. In there,
lives Castin (Charles Vanel), with his deaf-mute daughter Maria (Michèle
Girardon), then arrives the stranger Shark (Georges Marchal); in the midst of
the turbulent environment, Father Lizardi (Michel Piccoli) tries to persuade
everyone not to rebel. Shark meets Djin (Simone Signoret), attractive
prostitute who gives him to the military, who accuse him of a robbery. But
Shark manages to escape the dungeon, the military kill many of the villagers,
Castin is accused of exhorting the people to revolt, he hides in Djin's house
and proposes marriage, and she accepts, with the old man's money in mind. They
embark on the run, Shark, Djin, Lizardi, Castin and his daughter, also aided by
Chenko (Tito Junco). The merciless jungle punishes them, while the soldiers are
always following their trail, Djin, and then Castin will get losing strength, since
scarces food and rains copiously. Shark then finds food and even jewelry, it
seems that salvation has come, they must build a raft and cross a lake. But
Castin suddenly falls prey to dementia as they plot to flee, and while Shark
and the prostitute fall in love, while others fight for the many jewels found,
he takes a rifle and kills Djin and Lizardi. Shark afterwards wipes him out and
finally leaves with Maria.
In this film, Buñuel articulates the narrative
structure in well differentiated parts, the first, with the supposedly
civilized world, but in which at the same time violence and bullets reign; the
second in which the jungle will take care of arising the most desperate side
of the unfortunate, until they lose their calm, sanity, and eventually even
life; and then lucidly returns, but at the same time, and hand in hand with
that lucidity in some cases, their ambitions and malice, find salvage, food,
and even superfluous well-being, jewels. But with the jewels it returns to them
much of the evil in their humanity, an antagonism that seems to be an echo of
the caressed in Robinson Crusoe, the return to the most basic of man, the
questioning of the most elementary principles of civilization (although it does
not get to the extreme of the solitude and total isolation of the aristocratic
English adventurer, whose journey to the interior was much deeper). In one of
the films where the filmmaker most vigorously portrays one of his affiliations,
the political interest and to some extent with revolutionary guidelines, from
the beginning of the film, promptly and immediately portrays a crude
confrontation, a class confrontation that will become violent. The exploiters,
in the form of the oppressive government, the military, against the exploited,
the humble and hardworking diamond workers, who see their way of life, their
modus vivendi and only source of income, abruptly cut off. Thus, one of the
first things we see is violence, the violent shock of the beginning, the
military repressing the workers, a clear variety of the traditional class
clash, and the figure that immediately shows, after that confrontation, is
allegorically a board of Chess. In the aspect of staging, some frames, some shots,
although not in abundance, leave evidence of maturity, of the technical mastery
that has been acquired by the director, already hardened, and who was already
entering to full-color films; but, in the general analysis, this is a film in
which surrealism shines by its absence (the only moment this is broken, is when
a photo appears, car sounds flow, cars and lights, improbable picture that
fades as the focus of the photo moves away), a linear, flat film, in which
Buñuel rather explores other topics that draw his attention powerfully. The
director recovers in that sense one of the themes that would permeate his
guidelines in more than one film those years, the unbelievable created hell
that human beings face, in space and situations that become minimal. Now, as in
Robinson, there is a slow and gradual ruin and degradation, faced with an
extreme situation, a voracious jungle that opens its threatening jaws, the
subjects are prey to despair, old Castin being the most useless, the most
defenseless.

Father Lizardi, from his first appearance, from his first words, is clearly outlining what character he is about, he wants to quell the revolt, "who kills iron, he dies iron," he says quietly but determinedly. The priest is a key character, who transits in a certain way, from one side to another, in that sense his evolution makes him one of the most interesting characters: although at the beginning he urged Castin to surrender and end with the killings and violence, afterwards collaborates to hide him, does not betray him, helps to hide him from the militia. He renounces his faith, symbolically pulls out the leaves of the bible to light the fire, has sacrificed his faith for the material, for survival, the flesh has prevailed over faith, is certainly the most attractive character, in which Buñuel seems to have poured the most of his curiosity and interest. Deliriously tells an anecdote about hard-boiled eggs, without anyone paying the least attention, an unrelated anecdote with what is lived, and, in my opinion, very probably an anecdote intimately linked to Buñuel himself; in the end significantly tells Shark that his opinion about him has changed. Shark is a kind of heretic, does not believe in God, does not kneel before the image of Christ in a chapel, but until, by force, with a rifle blow on his legs, they make him. And it is complemented at the end, when the boat arrives, saying "it's funny, 60 men had to die for God to save us" (Castin also adds something to this, when he is already a prey of the dementia, he is about to kill everyone, saying "the righteousness of God shall speak"). As always, in his characters, the filmmaker overturns human traits, the innocence of the mute girl, the restrained behavior of the prostitute, the naive old man, and that indecipherable priest, all make up what could be considered the totality of human nuances to the eyes of Buñuel. In the violent ending, after all the lived -and survived- Djin and Lizardi are killed by Castin, the strongest and weakest finally are the survivors, Shark and Maria, her innocence is what saves her, and in regard to that duality of the survivors, Buñuel affirms not knowing why that pair was the one that resisted in the end, "the nature does not act according to the human laws: it is blind", he says to us. The film unfolded at a momentous time in Buñuel, who was already well established in Mexico, who had achieved fame, notoriety and recognition, both public and critical, but to whom the doors of the Mexican film scene began to close. The great change was already beginning, the co-productions with Europe were a more than affordable way, it was becoming the only way forward, and the European producers began to look with longing on the young and promising Spanish filmmaker, who, more than a promise, was then already a reality, sensing that his great explosion was coming soon; it was the right time, the turning point in his career had come. Atypical and conjunctural, very Buñuel but at the same time different from his most traditional exercises, worthy and indispensable for the scholars of his work, a feature not of his better known, and recognized, but necessary for the global understanding of his oeuvre.













