The Night of the Pencils (1986) User Reviews

To deny our past...

[fulvio-1 · 8/10 · 14 June 2005]

To Deny our past, sometimes means to be ashamed of it. In Marychase's words, I can find only a feeling like this. As in my home country, Italy, in these years a lot of people try to deny the atrocities of Mussolini's dictatorship, I can see that in Argentina there are people that don't trust the slaughters committed by their military government during the seventies. This movie is poetic, sad, tragic but, I think, is very close to the truth. It's a movie, of course, with a plot, screenplay,...in a movie you can't necessarily see the whole story of a class of students. But what you see in it is something strong, hard and...unbelievable. And that's for some people don't want to believe it. Don't want to accept it. But it was true, sadly... And another shame regarding this movie is that's very hard to find it on DVD!!!

Sad and powerful

[AmyLouise · 7/10 · 16 February 2006]

I have seen this movie only twice, and the last time was at least ten years ago, but the memory has stayed with me. As my country becomes more repressed and dictatorial, this film has come back to haunt me.

The events start out very simply but under a paranoid regime, quickly escalate to a point that must have been unimaginable even to those living in Argentina at that time. When I first saw it, my heart ached for those children and their families caught up in a situation that was hard for me to imagine; now it seems closer than I could ever have dreamed.

The very simplicity of this film and its straightforward telling of the story of these bright and idealistic teenagers is all the more powerful for its lack of embellishment. There is no need to beat up the story and its hand-held cameras and lack of sophisticated lighting or makeup has the effect of breaking through the fourth wall and making us participants in the unfolding drama. We can't get away but neither can we help, and our powerlessness reflects that of the children and their families.

It should be mandatory viewing for all those who think "it can't happen here".

Truth.... hurts.

[imbrunitoh · 8/10 · 14 September 2010]

Argentina is remembering the Nigh of the Pencils today, so I watched this movie. To a foreign person, this may only be the name of this movie or a catastrophe, but for any Argentinian, it's part of our soul, a part that we all are ashamed and we try day after day to prevent to happened again.

Argentina has a slogan for this event "Nunca mas" (Nevermore), and this movie reflects this event and most importantly, the environment this actions were taken and how did they suffer.

This movie is strong and cold, but show's the real experience of this event with a very smart cast, 7/10 but I will add +1 for being national.

Face the truth

[Pez2005 · 21 July 2004]

I must disagree with "Marychase", undoubtedly she speaks for that sector which still denies the atrocities which occurred under the Argentinian regime. Anyone with a minimum criteria and has seen this film, (which is based on TRUE facts, and not supposedly), cannot say that children are terrorists, just because they had an ideal and thought differently and then were prived of their lives. This movie shows how far hatred can go and how a regime can intend to erase beliefs and dreams of a better world. The "terrorist" argument has been used and abused as an argument against a movement which fights a dictatorship. It's like calling "la resistance francaise" terrorists during the nazi occupation. In my opinion this movie also shows the common reality between several southamerican dictatorships.

Great movie of universal value

[rainerup · 10/10 · 10 June 2002]

This movie is not for the faint hearted, but it's the most realistic one I have ever seen about the brutality of a military dictatorship. But what I like most is the description of the friendship of college students who, despite emprisonmente and tortures, keep their dignity and their desire to struggle jointly for a better world. A movie which should be watched by every apathic teenager - the shock may really make him/her mature his/her views and attitudes.

Intense, but necessary

[el_Ringo · 10/10 · 25 March 2006]

I have always known of the existence of this film, but avoided it through many years due to the heartbreaking intense scenes I knew it contained. This year we are remembering in Argentina the thirtieth anniversary of the terrible dictatorship, so the film was shown at my high school and I could see it for the first time. There are not enough words to express how I felt; imagining I could have been one of the victims if I had lived thirty years ago. I am definitely against this dictatorship, and I admire all the kidnapped and disappeared guys' mothers, who continue struggling to find their sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. But besides this, I think the interesting side of the film is that despite our political positions (as I'd previously said, mine is against this dictatorship) we can be sure that everything that's happened to these students is TERRIBLE. Terrible because they were standing up for their ideas, they were asking for a decrease in the students' bus ticket price. Whatever our political position is, we cannot deny the fact that everyone has their right to be judged as a human being. The very talented actors let us see, feel and listen how badly, unfairly and terribly those students were taken away from their homes and relatives; tortured to insanity, rapped and killed with no mercy on 1976. I recommend this film to everyone who would like to know what happened. The film only shows one episode of the whole horrible dictatorship. There were about 30.000 disappeared people between those years, not only students but also Jewish people, artists, politicians, journalists... and many more. La Noche De Los Lápices retells one of the -if not the most- horrible and terrible episode during the dictatorship. As an Argentinean I can tell you all that this film touched my heart and made me cry so hard I could hardly watch it through the tears at times. In spite of the pain the film may provoke, it is a "must" for all those people who ever had a dream, an ideal, a wish. Knowing, by listening to my parents, by reading books and by watching this film, the atrocities occurred that night and every night and every day during the dictatorship make my heart jump and my vocal chords shout as loud as I can: "NEVERMORE". Thank you for reading.

Great movie about a sad part of Argentinean history

[anisvil · 10/10 · 15 May 2005]

First of all I'd like to know who this Marychase user is? Maybe the daughter of Videla or Massera? I mean, how can anyone deny something that was proved to happen! Specially knowing how painful it is for most Argentineans.

This movie tells the true story of a group of teenagers (16-17 years old) who were incarcerated, tortured and killed during the military government in Argentina. One of them survived and was a witness in the trial against the "Juntas militares". Excellent movie. A must see for Argentineans and anyone who is interested in learning more about this history.

A film that makes you shudder

[rocknroll-eagle · 9/10 · 9 March 2007]

I came to watch the movie in my Spanish lesson, and as they are talking very fast, I did not understand everything they said. But what I understood was enough to make me never forget that film. It describes the struggle of the pupils for a student ticket and how the government acts against it. It starts showing students who are enjoying their time, until the plot switches and seven students are taken away into a secret prison. From there on, the viewer feels some kind of apprehensiveness, as the students are kept in cells, blindfolded and handcuffed. It is shown that they are tortured with electric shocks and the screams one hears are really nerve-racking. One cannot believe that these things all happened in Argentinia in the 70s, for it is just unbelievable that human beings can do such cruel things to kids. Still, there is a group of mothers in Buenos Aires whose children disappeared, and a square in the city reminding of those horrible ages in Argentinian history. Most of the "desaparecidos" never turned up again, and no one exactly knows what has happened to them.

a true that hurts

[meeri-g · 17 July 2007]

I have wanted to watch this movie for like three years, but my parents wouldn't let me because i was too little. Today i took courage, i sat down at my couch and i watched it, all by myself. Although i already knew the history of "La noche De los lapices" I must say, it really touched me in many ways. I'm 15 now, and until today I wouldn't realize the importance of a bus ticket, i really wouldn't because i would think that that couldn't have history. But now i understood that since the most big thing until the most little thing in the world are here for a reason. I don't know if you people will understand my point here because i actually find it very confusing to explain here. The thing is, these kids were around my age now. And until today i would not think thsat some kid could chamge the world, not the way they did. I personally know Pablo Diaz (the one who survive) because he is a friend of my mom, and i think this film impressed me this way because i actually knew one of them. I also want to say that this movie doesn't show all the facts, because there wasn't only one surviver, there were four of them. And i don't know why this film doesn't show them, because they are part of our history and they changed the country too. And to MaryChase, you can't say that a group of kids could be terrorists just by showing their ideas, that in fact, is what we do in a daily basis, and no one would kidnap us and torture us and KILL us now. SO YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT IT. I'm sorry if my English is bad, i hadn't practice in a long time.

A great masterpiece of the Latin American cinema

[Chaves7777 · 10/10 · 15 October 2006]

This movie talk about the sad night of September in 1976 in La Plata. If you see ''La noche de los lapices'' don't be surprised if you feel a little sad, also that means that the film has made its duty.

This movie presents the story of fight of this young people; young people that wants to live in a better world. A world that is dirty thanks to the corrupt ones.

But, no matter what that bad people do. The word and the dreams of this young people always is here, and always this word goes to be more important than of the persons with power and no heart and the corrupt ones.

Look all the things this movie do in a person

PD: The music in that film are great

*Sorry for the mistakes, if there any

A taste of reality

[aelursadgod · 8/10 · 22 May 2013]

I first watched this movie when I was 12 years old. Our primary school teachers wanted us to learn the depth of what had transpired in Argentina's darkest times. It goes without saying that my mind became haunted by what I saw - a couple of kids just a few years older than I, protesting for rights that I was enjoying then (a special bus fee for public school students), and who paid a terrible price for it. Since then I've had the opportunity to watch several flicks focused on showing torture and the darker side of human nature - and mostly they've come off as an angst-ridden teenager's sick and cartoon-like fantasies of what real horror is. There's no romancing the captivity they went through, there's certainly no sugar-coating; the subject matter is treated with solemnity and with a care that not even Saló could ever hope to achieve. That is why, ultimately, the movie truly makes an impact on the viewer; you never can quite forget that everything shown there happened to men, children and women alike.

One of the greatests Movies from Argentina

[bicho_dbz · 24 July 2003]

"La noche de los lapices" is one of the best movies Argentina's made, not only because the story behind the movie was one of the worst part of our history, but also because it was for the director a heroic act to release a movie like this on those times.

I strongly beg you to NOT believe marychase's comment about this movie. If you actually WATCH the movie you'll notice that you'll need no "extra" info about that times.

English subtitles

[mundosubte · 4 December 2005]

hey folks you know where i can find the English subtitles for that movie?

/ / / /

This movie is not for the faint hearted, but it's the most realistic one I have ever seen about the brutality of a military dictatorship. But what I like most is the description of the friendship of college students who, despite imprisonment and tortures, keep their dignity and their desire to struggle jointly for a better world. A movie which should be watched by every apathetic teenager - the shock may really make him/her mature his/her views and attitudes.