The present article stands on the idea that Juan Rulfo’s novel Pedro Páramo is built on one of the formulas of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema –that is to say, a powerful and authoritarian man that faces the burden of a powerful and yet untamable love. Based on that evidence, the author unfolds the hypothesis that Rulfo’s novel holds a subtle critique to the limitations and liberties taken by Mexican cinema while simultaneously creating a deeper and much more realistic impact on the true causes of the crisis of Mexican countryside and Mexican society.