Elit halálosztók

I did not find any exorbitant political incorrectness in Elite Squad. The film provides no instant solutions to a sad situation, nothing gives hope, and if it does provide something, then it is a rather appalling picture of decaying justice and its humiliated servants. Personally, I was quite convinced by invectives toward left-wing intellectuals from good families, and I was able to identify with Captain Nascimento's views, although the depicted effects of the Crusades on justice evoke appalling feelings. What I really like about the film and find healthily provocative is the fact that the operation in the slums is initiated by the Pope's visit. This strange virtual detachment of civilization from the devastated world of slums and the effort to seek in it a kind of nobility of poverty contrasts well with the aspect of the glued and formatted "black" brains from BOPE. We can argue about where the truth is, but the fact remains that Padilha does not offer any. And if it is on the side of brutality of the men of the law, from my point of view, it does so because a) I am able to identify with it, b) even if I did not identify with it, it is still an aspect I want to know about. BTW, the film is technically brilliant. (2009.10.14)

Every couple of years me and some Brazilian movie’s paths cross. And every couple of years it’s a movie that is only hard to forget. This year Tropa de Elite was released. A picture that went perhaps too far in terms of authenticity and intensity of experience. The type of movie that you wouldn’t expect from a western production. Each part is about something else a little differently. Power abusing special units, corrupt police, a hopeless social situation in the slums, politics, the system, society and unit training. All of this throughout the movie will drain you to the core, something that is amply helped by the à la Greengrass documentary style. Despite all the strong aspects of the movie, especially in the second half is the best (or worst, depending) thing about it is Matias’ transformation. It sends shivers down the spine. The negatives here are just purely personal things. Like for instance, Matias’ glasses seem a little out of place in the elite unit, and also the fact that the unit members didn’t cover their faces (EDIT a little later: after watching the documentaries Favela Rising and Bus 174, I take these naive objections back). It’s a powerful movie. Even exceptional. But in no way “nice". Good? Bad? Oh come on, those are long since obsolete terms. No hope, no illusions, no good feelings; pure depression. That is what Tropa de Elite will leave behind in you. For a long, long time. (2008.01.08)

Rio de Janeiro is full of pissed off drug dealers and gangs, and they must be taken off the streets before the Pope comes to visit. The elite BOPA unit will be happy to do the job. A very impressive and well shot action drama about how life in Brazil is far from idyllic. But this audiovisual and atmospheric banger has a problem with perhaps too radical ideas in the script. (2008.07.09)

The affiliation with the famous film City of God is distant and takes place purely on a thematic level. Elite Squad looks at the problem of favelas, poverty, and crime from a completely different angle and uses different film techniques. It is the personal confession of the commander of a special police unit in the form of his inner commentary, complemented by a shaky handheld camera that creates a semi-documentary impression. The craftsmanship of the film amounts to a weak 4 stars. What bothers me is the ideological foundation from which Elite Squad stems. The main character is an elitist who seems to have come straight out of Armin the Knight from Vláčil's film The Valley of the Bees. Armin would let the angels survive, but Nascimento wants to exterminate society to such an extent that the result would be similar. There are very few contemporary films that so prominently promote a right-wing authoritarian and elitist ideology. The film is essentially a defense of the creation and operation of the notorious Brazilian E.M., motorized brigades of the São Paulo police that have been "cleansing" the city of child street gangs since the 1960s and have come to be called death squads. The film's protagonist wants to heal the criminality and corruption of the system through executions and torture. Overall impression: 40%. (2010.09.22)

If the entire film was only about the training of the new members of the “elite squad”, the only thing that would bother me would be the ideological aftertaste left by almost every scene. But Elite Squad has many more things that bothered me: there isn’t a lot of action, and when there is some, it’s not very clear, half the scenes are pointless, the subplots are uninteresting, the script goes nowhere and there are many ugly male characters that (other than the main trio) I could never tell apart. To tell you the truth, after half an hour I was already looking forward to the end (and I kept on looking forward until the end). (2011.04.21)