The Young One · reception & legacy
1960 · Luis Buñuel
How The Young One has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Attacked from all sides in 1960 — Buñuel recalled a Harlem paper writing he ought to be hung upside down from a lamppost — and a total flop, it's now hailed as one of the most unflinching films about American racism of its era, decades ahead of its time.
What's debated
Fans still argue over whether its refusal to hand out easy villains and victims is its bravery or its problem — Buñuel himself blamed the flop on audiences wanting moral clarity he wouldn't give.
Its footprint
It barely lives in wider culture at all — its afterlife is as the perpetual 'why does nobody talk about this Buñuel?' rediscovery, one of only two films he ever made in English.
Where it stands
The classic deep-cut flex in Buñuel's filmography: a beloved-but-forgotten title that cinephiles routinely rank among his most underrated.