El Ángel Exterminador (The Exterminating Angel) poster & wallpaper
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Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, Jose Baviera, Augusto Benedico, Luis Beristáin ... see more see more... , Antonio Bravo , Enrique Rambal , Enrico Garcia Alvarez , Claudio Brook , Pancho Cordova , Rosa Elena Durgel , Lucy Gallardo , Ofelia Guilmain , Tito Junco Sr. , Chel López , Bertha Moss , Ofelia Montesco , Javier Loya

The great screen surrealist Luis Buñuel co-wrote and directed this dark, bitterly witty satire. A group of people in formal dress arrives at an elegantly appointed home for a dinner party. However, on... read more read more...ce dinner is over and the guests retire to the drawing room, they discover that the servants have gone away, and for some reason they cannot leave. There is no explanation why -- there are no locked doors or barred windows preventing them from going home -- but the guests are convinced that they're stranded. Left to their own devices, they slowly but gradually degenerate into genteel savagery, taking an axe to a water pipe for drinking water, killing and eating a sheep that was to be part of the post-dinner entertainment, hiding the bodies of dead guests in the closet, dabbling in witchcraft, and burning the furniture. Buñuel's dry, quixotic wit is abundantly displayed in this film. Leading the cast was Silvia Pinal, the renowned actress who starred in several of Buñuel's Mexican films (she was married to noted producer Gustavo Alatriste, who produced several films with Buñuel). Other than the short subject Simon of the Desert, El Angel Exterminador proved to be Buñuel's last film made in his adopted homeland. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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93% liked it

6,331 ratings

Critics

94% liked it

18 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 35 min.

Directed by: Luis Buñuel

Release Date: August 21, 1967

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DVD Release Date: February 10, 2009

Stats: 484 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (484)

  • fb1672039553
    June 25, 2011
    fb1672039553
    This movie criticizes the strangeness of etiquette with a hyperbolic tale of social rules gone wrong. No one can convince themselves to leave, apparently because no one else has left. Its not as though these rules of propriety have turned us into sheep, its that we were sheep to ... read morebegin with, and these individuals with their nuanced rules are self-blinded of the suffering society around them. As time passes, or is made entirely meaningless, civility is eroded and these people are revealed to be the horny, hungry, irritable and fearful animals found in the rest of the animal kingdom and social classes. It took someone with a bit of free spirit who very early in the movie, before the whole trapped issue, lashes out by breaking a window for no explicit reason. She locks herself in a closet. People are murmuring to each other how she's still a virgin. They try so hard to turn everyone else into sheep just like them. They are fortunate that they failed.
  • imrealgod
    July 9, 2010
    imrealgod
    A weird satirical piece of work that's thoroughly watchable & fairly enjoyable. Surrealistic movies are generally not my cup of tea, but thankfully, there's more to it here than merely surrealism.
  • RCCLBC
    May 20, 2009
    RCCLBC
    I have to say that this is probably not eveyones "cup of tea"...but I really enjoyed it.
    Sure the basic premise has been done before to varying degrees...but you haven't seen this particular "morality tale" until you've seen it told as only Luis Bunuel can tell it.
    It is one of... read more those films that, the more you think about it...the more you "see".
    There is so much going on and so much "symbolism" both subtle and blatant that I think you really need to watch it more then once to really "get it".
    And even then...I think there is much that Bunuel left to "your interpretation". Which I love.
  • rubystevens
    March 11, 2009
    rubystevens
    surrealist screwball comedy/horror. probably only buñuel could pull this off. it's complete nonsense but functions perfectly according to it's own absurd logic.
  • pier007
    June 17, 2007
    pier007
    Buñuel's disgust for the upper classes was never more evident than here. Surreal, intriguing, claustrophobic, and riveting film about the most primitive human behaviors. A must see.
  • ebs90
    June 8, 2007
    ebs90
    If something could ever define Buñuel's sense of humor it is this social critique, surrealist piece. The repulsive characters (which Buñuel is so damn good at creating) deliver memorable dialogue within the asphixiating horror tale. It has never been better done.
  • Ivan6655321
    July 24, 2010
    Ivan6655321
    Before Bunuel's "deconstruction of the upper class" zenith that is "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", "The Exterminating Angel" was made 10 years earlier, but ironically, a much fatalistic one. The 1972 Oscar winner portrayed its disdain on the eponymous social class by way... read more of a series of dinner hiatus, which is a lot "tamer"(but such word does not belong in a Luis Bunuel film) compared to the "de-evolution of the mannered ones" theme depicted in this film. The story was very simple on paper that it may look as if its plot grasps can only contain that of a short film. But with Bunuel on the helm, it can maintain the simplicity of the initial plot, but can still go on for 3 hours without exhausting ideas(whether with a message or not). Well, after all has been done on the exquisite mansion, after hypocrisy was temporarily washed, what's the next stop for "The Exterminating Angel"? Well, where else but the church. As with all surrealist films, it's either you love it or hate it.
  • DrStrangeblog
    January 13, 2010
    DrStrangeblog
    Bunuel's indictment of the upper class is rather one-note, but impressively pulled off by a large cast as essentially an audacious one-room exercise. The idle rich, he seems to tell us, are only separated from the poor by their possessions, social standing, and observations of e... read moretiquette. Stripped of those, the inner savage has no disguise and subject to the same fears and envies as anyone else. Slow building yet interesting surreal set-piece.
  • John2223
    April 14, 2009
    John2223
    This surrealistic movie is a great satire on the upper class.
    Original premise, great cast and acting.
  • divinetrash
    April 17, 2008
    divinetrash
    A funny, fascinating, poignant and true character study by a funny, fascinating, poignant and true artist.

View All El Ángel Exterminador (The Exterminating Angel) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Bosley Crowther
May 20, 2003
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

My feeling is that his canvas is too narrow and his social comment too plain to keep our interest fixed upon his people and their barren stewing for an hour and a half. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

A macabre comedy, a mordant view of human nature that suggests we harbor savage instincts and unspeakable secrets. Full Review

Ken Hanke
September 15, 2011
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

A wickedly designed, satirical and quite possibly dangerous work. Full Review

Christopher Long
July 29, 2009
Christopher Long, Movie Metropolis

Absurdity is relative; it requires a reality (or something less absurd) to be contrasted with. Full Review

James Kendrick
March 11, 2009
James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk

Bunuel's ultimate cosmic joke against meaning itself Full Review

Donald J. Levit
April 11, 2008
Donald J. Levit, ReelTalk Movie Reviews

One of the master director's most concentrated and unambiguous works.

Christopher Null
June 29, 2006
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com

In typical fashion, Buñuel offers no explanation, but the way your head spins around this simple premise makes each scene more fun than the last. Full Review

Emanuel Levy
July 6, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Though less popular than other works, this is one of Bunuel's most philosophically profound and eccentric films, bearing undeniably disturbing effects on the viewers. Full Review

Gabe Leibowitz
March 1, 2004
Gabe Leibowitz, Film and Felt

A blistering attack on social classes and conventions, The Exterminating Angel may be the best in a long line of Buñuel masterpieces. Full Review

Pablo Villaca
November 19, 2003
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena

Buñuel faz uma contundente crítica à burguesia através da sátira e do absurdo.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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