I absolutely loved the film. However, I still need to watch some reviews about it. What I can say is that when I watch a movie, I usually have my own way of interpreting it, almost as if it were a poem. Because of that, sometimes I tend to think about the meaning of a film in a different way.

For me, the entire movie is a message about the consequences of human cruelty. While not all the characters were truly evil, most of them ranged somewhere between bad and morally questionable. But when I stop to think about the character of El Chivo, it makes me wonder: how good or bad was he compared to the others?
The key moment that tells me he was a bad person is the scene where he steals Octavio’s money without even caring about helping him (besides the fact that he kills for money). Octavio wasn’t a saint and wasn’t close to being one either, but El Chivo didn’t know him. That means he probably would have taken the money from anyone who had been in that accident.

However, throughout the whole film we see that he seems to be the most “human” character. And I don’t say that only because he helps the dogs. The way he lives every day with resentment over his past is what makes me think that, compared to Octavio and the other couple, this character was actually the most compassionate.

Still, there’s something else I don’t understand: why did he ultimately refuse to kill the target he was paid to kill? That’s my main question. Did witnessing the accident make him redeem himself? But what exactly caused that redemption? Why did his actions change from one day to the next?

Finally, I would say that El Chivo also faced the consequences of being that kind of person. When Octavio’s dog kills all of his dogs, to me that moment represents the part where he suffers the consequences of his own wrongdoing. He might have been the most decent among them (with his flaws, of course), but he still had bad habits that led him there. In this case, crying for his canine companions.

With that said, would anyone be kind enough to explain their interpretation of why El Chivo refused to carry out the killing he was paid to do, even knowing that he could make enemies out of those people?

Can someone help me understand the character of “El Chivo” from the movie Amores Perros? There are some things that weren’t completely clear to me.