The style of Los Golfos is one of a deceptively simple realism. The background is authentic. The industrial and slum areas of Madrid, market places, dance halls, and river banks are areas frequented by the group of boys who form the subject of this film. The camera acts as an observer, conversations are clipped as if overheard, incident follows incident in the apparently formless fashion of real life. Here the intention is to present a certain point of view which will assume the validity of the subject matter itself. It is an artistic method which succeeds because the director creates characters rather than sociological concepts….

[The theme of Los Golfos] is the ultimate innocence of the delinquents. Their determination to raise enough money to launch Juan as a bullfighter has the selfish single-mindedness of the child. Their innocence springs from their lack of a realistic contact with society...