Luis Buñuel uses simple techniques to great effect in this film. He uses a fade cut most often and it represents the fact that all of these events are tied to one another, each event leading further and further down until Jaibo's death as he falls alone. One edit in particular is when he shows Jaibo, Pedro and another boy going after Don Camilo and fades them into an image the steel beams of an unbuilt building before they beat the blind man. The imagery shows us that these kids have no wholeness in them, that they haven't been raised in a way that they are a completed work, like the building they are raw and have been abandoned.
Buñuel also creates a great deal of tension, both with his camera and from character. We see, for example the tension in the build up of one of the boys attempting to steal Don Camilo's pouch, we are waiting for it to happen and expect it at any moment until the blind man sense it and beats the kid with his stick. Then through the conflict between Pedro and Jaibo we are made to feel a great sense of tension as we root for Pedro to come out of his pain in tact and with a win at some point. But, he does not get it, he is instead killed. The director here is revealing that the path these kids are on lead only to death, it is a shocking ending, but a horrible truth that he is telling.
This film has the feeling of real life, and that was Luis Buñuel's intent. He even states that this film is based on true events at the beginning of the story. That what he is revealing through his lens is the reality of poverty, broken homes and the need for children to be loved, trusted and raised by their parents.
