MUBI

If I was going to judge a film only by my moral standpoint I’d say this is another pamphlet that tries to convince people that the only answer to deal with crime is to turn into a neo-fascist robot and crush it from its marrow, the same way central characters have done in some classic thrillers like “the french connection” or “dirty harry” making an apology for the unmeasured use of force. But as a regular moviegoer I think this extremely graphic and repulsive dialectical exposition is also absorbent, put me there, right in those crummy battle fields of rio. The war with no truce and the corruption inside the system are shown in an unapologetic documentary style, maybe not alluring to reason, but certainly to my guts.

Creo que el primer error está en considerar esta película como otro ejemplo de cine social. Sencillamente el tono de la misma lo impide. No quiero decir que la película no toque algunos problemas que supongo reales (el trafico de drogas, la corrupción policial, la violencia en las favelas, etc) pero algunas escenas son una copia (muy buenas) del mejor cine de acción.

Afortunadamente no toda la película es así. También es un estudio de carácter, especialmente si consideramos al personaje del Comandante Nascimento (Wagner Moura). Fuera de eso los otros personajes, quizás con la excepción de André Matias (André Ramiro), son unos estereotipos, o del cine policial o del cine social.

De todas maneras la película está dirigida con una energía y un uso de recursos simples extraordinario.

An unapologetic take on the police-favela dynamics, and the story of an inevitable transformation.

How much does Tropa de Elite owe to Cidade de Deus? Much. But where Meirelles paints a saga in which the favela becomes a character on its own, Padilha decides to take a step back and zoom in his own unlikely heroes. The result can be less appealing, but it is every bit as audacious. And hard slaps on guilt are always welcome.

This is the kind of film that you can’t really just see and let go. Its portrayal of the hardest part of Brazilian reality is haunting, especially for a Mexican like myself, who’s living in the middle of a war against drugs that starts to look like the Brazil pictured by Padilha. Not only are the brutal images shocking, but also are the questions that the viewer is forced to think of and try to answer.

The film’s characters are so human, and each has his or her clearly justified reasons to do what they do so that you can’t get on anyones’ side, but eventually, the film unmasks society’s hipocrysy by showing its members consuming drugs and tolerating dealers while expecting peace to come and organized crime and police corruption to be over, so the only ones you end up hating are the so-called innocent or socialy aware, who hide their vices behind peace marches and altruism.

The film stands as neutral as it can, but from time to time, you end up applauding police brutality since it seems like theonly option left.

Parra pa parra pa parra pa pa parra pa pa parra pa parra pa pao.

I can’t get the opening song out of my head. This movie is great entertainment. Like the squad in the movie the structure and style goes straight for the throat. The drama has some tough and manly performances as well as some of the most energy driven action sequences I’ve seen anywhere.

It’s unlike any Brazilian film (or South American film) that I’ve seen and I’m amazed how they made it with such lean economy. I also liked how the subject never got into the superfluous asides that other movies do with similarly heady topics. And despite the very limited female presence in the film, the few scenes with the soldier’s wives and loved one’s didn’t feel tacked on at all. The scenes struck me and really added to the film. Like films like Serpico or Full Metal Jacket (which this flick is indebted to) it observes that a cop must dehumanize himself somehow to survive in a corrupt system and then have to regain that humanity urgently and without hesitation. In this war you aren’t just a killing machine, you must become a superman.