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Derek Malcolm's rating
Brutal boys from Brazil
By
Derek Malcolm
7 Aug 2008
When Brazilian José Padilha’s first fiction film won the Berlin Festival’s Golden Bear earlier this year, there were those who thought the jury, headed by the veteran Constantin Costa-Gavras, had taken leave of its senses. But the judges were not the only people who liked Elite Squad: more than 10 million Brazilians did too and the film became a notable cause célèbre there.
It is about Rio’s anti-drug elite squad, who shoot to kill and even torture, knowing all too well that the regular police are in cahoots with the drug lords in control of the favela communities.
This is the Rio of 1997 and Captain Nascimento, a brutish member of the elite squad, wants someone to replace him now that his wife is having a baby.
Neto and Matias are police rookies, the latter studying law at college. They know about the corruption and that many students are part of the trade. So Nascimento gets them trained up for the elite squad — but a gang leader is after them.
Padilha orchestrates this corrupt and chilling world, in which the end invariably justifies the means, with a hand-held realism that comfortably outdoes Fernando Meirelles’s City of God in violence, substituting the police for that film’s youthful gangs.
Nascimento himself provides the macho commentary, which suggests that the elite squad, however addicted to violence themselves, are the true heroes. We might think differently even though most Brazilians would applaud the fact that they treat the drug barons more or less exactly as they deserve.
Padilha has made an uncomfortable film which some may regard as retrograde. Clearly Costa-Gavras, who made Z and other notable films in Latin-America, did not. Hence the Golden Bear for a film that simply doesn’t have enough cinematic flair to make it a better than average cops and robbers thriller.
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Reader views (9)
Living in London for 17 years now, I almost forgot how horrible and brutal the crime can be in Rio and this film shows just that. How can you fight criminals and drug dealer whose got war arsenal? When they control the whole "favelas" communities? When they have police protection? You can not expect a British police approach! "Police, drop your guns"!? The reality of this film is chocking, but you have to remember this is base in a real facts, this exactly what happens in the slums "favelas" in Rio.
This is a true story and for that deserves all credits.
- Sueli Bimbato, Santo Andre Sao Paulo Brasil, 11/08/2008 01:23
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It is very intriguing to see people from developed countries having the impression that Padilha ,the director of Elite Squad is merely taking advantage of cinematic pyrotechnics, to utilize the violence present on blockbusters and to navigate on this sort of "starving for violence" audience .
He would even allow himself to fool an unadvertised audience, to get them into the theatres, until they realize this movie has its roots on reality, not on westerns, war epics and action thrillers.
It is even strange how movie critics might end up believing what a mediocre audience would: That this is about the glamour of the macho man, Rambo type.
Opposite to this, the film depicts a harsh environment, in which the characters end up developing some kind of “cold blooded attitude”, to cope with the real nightmare.
Nascimento is not a Rambo type.
He is real.
His real name is Rodrigo Pimentel ,who nowadays totally dismisses violence as a practical solution.
He even appears to have fear, during the picture.That really happened in real life, when he was about to become a father.
He left the squad to preserve some sanity and continue alive for his family.
Movie critics, please watch the film again.
It's not a Hollywood blockbuster.
- Dean Taker, Brasília,Brazil, 10/08/2008 00:07
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I live in a small town near São Paulo - Capital, but I had already lived for 2 years in USA and 9 months New Zealand and I believe this movie shows the scenes exactly the real life in Rio. I would not like to go to Rio even on vacations. Rio is for sure the most dangerous place in Brazil. But we can forget that in Brazil there are a lot places exactly like the called first world countries. Brazil is much more than Rio.
- Pompeo Reali Neto, Tatuí, São Paul - Brazil, 09/08/2008 22:06
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Hey guys. Take it easy. It it a fiction movie not a documentary.
Aren't you looking for "hair on the eggs"?
But slums are slums all over the world aren't they?
- Luiz Stoll, Porto Alegre - RS Brasil., 09/08/2008 21:05
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It's all true. It might be weird for someone from Europe, but it happens everyday. Some times cops kill innocent people too. Some people say it's class conflict. Drug lords from the poor classes and Police from the riches. In the mean time people are dying, getting hurt and traumatized. It's a true war. I have to agree that the movie looks like a kind of Brazilian Rambo.
- Pedro Cabral, Recife, Brazil, 09/08/2008 19:24
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It's interesting to see how people like Mr. Derek Malcolm are quick to jump on the criticism band-wagon against the Brazilian police which is fighting criminals using the ultimate weapon that can stop them: guns. And I see no comments by Mr. Malcolm and other "enlightened" reviewers on the immoral and outrageous relationship between the middle/upper class college youth (many of them dovish "peace and love" activists) whom are drug customers and thus responsible for pumping up the criminal's power. This is the real message of the movie: when police kills an innocent during a confrontation they are quick to go out on the streets marching against the supposedly police's brutal methods, meanwhile conveniently forgetting that they themselves buy drugs from criminals, and in turn criminals use the money to buy more drugs from Colombian FARC, and procure powerful weapons that will enable them to maintain their terrorizing hold over the community.
For once, I wish those foreign "experts" would come to Rio de Janeiro, and try to live a normal life within one of the State-parallel communities. It would be an eye opener for them.
- Wendel Souza, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 09/08/2008 18:33
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There is an important background issue here before talking about the movie itself. The way Brazilians deal with polemic themes like racism, prejudice and ideological violence against the poor, unfortunate people is often incompatible with the European approach to that. Europeans misunderstand Brazilians in this field, and Elite Squad is a perfect example.
Racist and prejudicial thoughts are understood by everybody, although unwanted. Whilst Europeans talk about them in a very diplomatic way, being highly cautions not to hurt, Brazilians speak them out as a way of protesting. Famous artists like the musician Caetano Veloso and others have written the worst racist thoughts that people always try to hide, as a way to help the public admit that they exist. I think, this is a better starting point to combat prejudice in a more conscious level. If Europeans catch that difference, they will realize that Elite Squad is a hard criticism to the Brazilian police system, and to the dual behaviour of the Rio de Janeiro middle class. Just that things are not given very easily in that movie.
- Roberto Silva, Sao Paulo, 09/08/2008 14:46
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Unfortunately, this "average cops and robbers thriller" is more than fiction. It is reality in Brazilian people life. Yes, it is true, there´s a still unknown war in Brazilian slums. Not a fictional war.
- Jose Ricardo, Recife, Brazil., 09/08/2008 06:13
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I think the difference between the vision of the critics in the "developed world" and Costa-Gravas, and as well the Brazilian audience, is based on life experience. It's very easy to point the problems with the methods of a 'Black Ops' police force like the one from the movie when the critic comes from a country that the police until very recently didn't even need guns to keep the peace; a bubble of sorts in a increasingly violent world. I come from Brazil and live in Canada, where a lot of people had the same reaction to the movie (mostly people who never been to a third-world country). But in a place like Rio, where nobody is safe no matter where you go, to see brutal drug dealers being treated the way they do in the movie became almost like a catharsis for the people. The director is not applauding these brutal policemen, he is merely showing how it is in Brazil, where things are so bad right in terms of urban violence that people are sometimes inclined to see hope in equally violent reactions. Anyway, good even-handed review on your part.
- Gabriel, Vancouver Canada, 09/08/2008 02:04
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