Johnny one hundred pesos was an ambitious project, with an important message about a culture in a strained transition between a military dictatorship and democracy. Despite its strong intentions, however, the movie came together in such a way as to make it uncomfortable to watch altogether. It is heavy on the symbolism, which can be a good thing -- the media's involvement, the role of Chile's youth, and even the timing of the event is significant. And it does have a strong message behind it. But the movie starts to sacrifice plot for the sake of symbolism; a series of nonsensical events occur that don't make sense apart from the symbolic meaning behind them. Add to this the strange, generally unlikeable, almost painful-to-watch main character and the movie just was not salvageable in my opinion, even with its important message. Not an enjoyable experience overall.
