While Bunuel has certainly never been a stranger to criticizing the church as an institution, nor pointing out the blatant injustices of classism, his other films seemed to do so in a subtle and reserved way. With the extreme being Exterminating Angel, where one could glean the presence of those criticisms, but the overall story was still one of surrealist mystery, very much open to interpretation. Viridiana appears to exist on the opposite end of the spectrum. While Bunuel is still pointing out the hypocrisies and power abuses of the church and how the wealthy are able to get away with much more than they should, the message never seemed quite so obvious as it does in Viridiana. A switchblade hidden inside a crucifix, a prayer being said while cuts to acts of industrial destruction take place, A Christ-like woman who tries to help the poor, the sick, and the disabled ultimately being punished in her attempts to act virtuously in accordance with what she has learned at her convent. Viridiana, at least to me, feels like Bunuel at his least subtle and his most overt. And while this is not inherently a bad thing, it was somewhat jarring seeing a director so known for his work being “open to interpretation,” suddenly shifting to something like Viridiana. It almost feels spiteful, like he finally had the ability to metaphorically “twist the knife” into the heart of the theological institution he so clearly has resentment towards. It was not enough to simply point out the failings of the church, he chose to have the titular Viridiana herself, a woman who tries her best to behave in a way that is literally laid out in the scripture as being what Christ himself would do, be actively and violently punished for daring to do so. It doesn’t feel like criticism, it feels like Bunuel enacting some kind of deep-seated revenge.