Emilio Echevarria did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying El Chivo in Amores Perros.
Amores Perros is Alejandro González Iñárritu's remarkable debut that tells three intersecting stories involving love, betrayal and...dogs.
The three stories in this film intersect, though I think Iñárritu makes a better decision here than in his later similar and lesser efforts of Babel and 21 Grams, to make the stories more of a piece on their own rather than constant cross cutting and chronological shifting. There is a little bit of that as in the first story we are briefly introduced to the central figures of the other two stories. One being Emilio Echevarria as just a regular old vagrant it would seem as he goes about his particular living. Echevarria, despite the brevity of these scenes, makes an impression with an innately captivating presence within his performance even just moving around his belongings, but also does inspire some pathos in just an excellent bit of acting from him as we see the vagrant passing over a specific obituary. Echevarria's reaction of heartbreak is moving in the moment and does make one immediately ponder more about this man, this as it follows along as we see him more attending the funeral related to the obituary, and just on the streets. Echevarria again is innately captivating here in creating the idiosyncratic manner where there seems so much more to the vagrant in his eyes, this as he seems to not be there, but rather actively observing in his own way.
We finally get to Echevarria's story in the last third of the film. We find him living in his ramshackle apartment living with his group of dogs he lovingly attends to, but also as a hit-man for hire. Echevarria's performance is essentially then this duality between two sides of this man, and effectively pulls off the juxtaposition through the inhumanity of the man's living against his humanity outside of it. We bluntly see this in the car accident, that directly connects the three stories, where Echevarria's El Chivo is one of the first on the scene and takes action by "helping" one of those in the accident by robbing the man. Echevarria's performance in this scene is key as there is a lack of hesitation of any kind in the robbing, despite the man crying in pain the moment, and shows a man acting on this survival instinct in the robbery. Echevarria emphasizing that really the robbery is nothing to him. This is in strict contrast to a moment later where El Chivo attends another passenger from the car, a dog, who unbeknownst to him was used for dog fighting. Echevarria couldn't be gentler in this moment of treating the dog, his eyes filled with compassion and gentle care in every moment of attempting to deal with the dog's wounds then bring it back to his home for the sake of recovery.
Echevarria's work manages to make sense of this juxtaposition as he naturally shows the man who lives the survivor, where he seems so blithe in every moment, particularly when tracing his next target for death, against the dog lover, or even the man looking at his past. In the latter two instances Echevarria reveals perhaps the good man that once existed within him as he portrays only the most earnest moments of care for the animals and genuine sadness in looking upon his old life that has past him by. Echevarria's work makes sense of this though by painting it not as the survivor versus the human, but rather the man whose lack of faith in humanity removes his own, while that can still be found within his treatment of animals. Echevarria has two amazing scenes late in the film that show the two sides, and what is so remarkable is that Echevarria makes them so different while coming within the same character. The first when he sees that the dog he was treating has killed his other dogs from his conditioning as a fight dog. Echevarria is wholly devastating in his reaction that shows his anger towards the dog, and but more so the intensity of his heartbreak towards all his killed dogs. Echevarria is amazing in the moment of anger in particular though in suggesting so potently the frustration yet still hesitation as he chooses to still not kill the dog despite what he has done.
Echevarria naturally realizing the whole conflict within the moment, and so powerfully the humanity in the man when it comes to dogs. This is against as he captures his target and here Echevarria excels in showing the smooth and efficient seeming criminal. Echevarria bringing this certain sardonic humor, just as he also naturally excels with a command of self as a man who knows how to handle this task. This however takes an unexpected path however even in these actions Echevarria presents a similar spirit this in this quiet distaste within his sardonic asides towards seeming the lack of humanity in the men he has been tasked to associated with. After this decision though Echevarria naturally seems to bridge the two sides of El Chivo in this moment of rebirth where the man wears his heart on his sleeve, and we just see an investment in humanity once again. Echevarria brings this to life in one long monologue that is masterclass for him as in his delivery he speaks in every word a real sense of history of his loss, that he lost due to that change he has now passed, but also that palatable distress of a man who truly cares once again. This is a great performance from Emilo Echevarria as it is a turn that is compelling before we even know his character, but only becomes more so in his realization of a portrait of a man of essentially coming to terms with his life in most unusual circumstances.
