Skip to main content

Tropa de Elite [Foreign]

Tropa de Elite (or Elite Squad) is a Brazilian made film dealing with the corruption of the police force and the conflicts against the drug lords in different divisions of Rio de Janeiro called favelas. It was released in 2007 to much acclaim including winning the best feature at the Berlin International Film Festival that year. It garnered much success in its home country of Brazil, quickly becoming one of the most watched movies in the country.

The movie follows a captain named Nascimento who is part of an "elite squad"called the BOPE, who are analogous to the ATF locally. Because the police force is so corrupt, the BOPE is needed to stay above the law that is above the law. They are a presence feared by everyone in the city, including the druggies and gangs, as they take no shit from anyone. But Nascimento is getting worn down by the risky nature of his job, compounded by the pressures of becoming a father, and so he seeks a replacement for his position. Two new recruits are quickly singled out by Nascimento: Neto and Matias. The problem is, each candidate possesses something that the other is missing. Neto, while ruthless and impulsive, has all the heart, but lacks the brains. Matias, who is highly intelligent, unfortunately lacks that intestinal fortitude. If only the two were combined into one, the problem would be solved. From there, the movie follows each man as they build themselves up as men of the law, while taking down drug cartels and other hooligans.

This was a brilliant movie. A man’s man’s movie. It is raw, it is rugged, it is ruthless. I’ve seen many horror movies, believe you me, but I don’t think I’ve seen violence this in your face with brutality. But I guess it’s two different sorts of violence. In horror movies, deaths are so fantastical and outrageous that in a way, it is beyond the realm of believability, whereas deaths in movies like this are a bit closer to home. Deaths like these happen every day. The most brutal scene was seeing a woman getting shot point blank in the face. There are no cuts or pan arounds to the back of the head. We see it upfront, head on and it’s brutal.

The story and the style in which it is shot make the whole journey a visceral one. We grow with these men as they enter the BOPE with a child-like innocence and as they mature into hardened men of the law. The movie was made in an almost documentary like fashion, similarly to Hurt Locker, putting is square in the middle of the action.

It’s definitely a movie to check out and watch with a group of guy friends. If you see it on the store shelves, I recommend a rent at the very least. Til next time, later geeks!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Lion's Tale: Around the World in Spandex

As part of my "campaign of cheapness", the past 3 months I've been going to the Indigo bookstore downtown about twice a week to read Chris Jericho's autobiography A Lion's Tale: Around the World in Spandex . I'd park down for about 1.5 to 2 hours per visit and it took 3 months to do, but I finally finished it. Let it be known, that Jericho was my favourite wrestler from 1997 to 2002 (it only lasted this long because from 2002-07, I stopped watching/following wrestling completely). I learned of him during my junior high school years when me and my friends would watch WWF and WCW programming religiously. I knew there was something that stood out in Chris, it might have been his style of fighting, his comedic arrogance on the mic or his boyish good looks. Well whatever it was, I believed in him. My friends at the time were skeptical, but I would argue with them why he was so great. It was during his cruiserweight feud with Dean Malenko that really brought ou...
Post a Comment
Read more

The League of Denial (2013)

The topic of concussions in sports is a dialogue that’s been growing the past number of years.  Do a search on ‘concussions’ and ‘football’ and you’ll get several thousand hits on the controversy that’s surrounded the sport.  It’s a challenging topic as the research is all relatively new, and the topic itself challenges the mentality and philosophy adopted by football loving Americans.  Now, I’m not a fan of football or NFL but when I saw this book lying at the local bookstore, my interest was piqued.  Although I’m not a fan of football, those that know me know that I’m an unabashed fan of prowrestling.  Talks about concussions are also quite a hot topic even within the prowrestling sub-culture.  Earlier this year, one of the hottest wrestlers of the current era, Daniel Bryan, retired early at the age of 34 due to a history of concussion related issues.  Interestingly, he was not permitted to return to the ring due to the disapproval by WWE’s medic...
1 comment
Read more

MAX PAYNE was oh so PAYNEFUL!!!

What a failure this was. An EPIC FAILURE~! And I'll tell you why. This movie had everything going for it which was why it made the failure seem so huge. It had star power. It had a very competent director. The visual style was there. It had a simple storyline... a storyline that was basically fuck-proof because it's so basic. The effects (when there were any) were also pretty great. So where did they go wrong? Pacing. If the first two-thirds of the film was like the last third, I think it would have been a fine film. Not great by any means, but fine. I mean, there was hardly any action in the first hour. It was all talk and build up. Every 5 minutes I was saying to myself, "okay, something cool is gonna happen now". But it never came. I think had they added 2 or 3 big action sequences during that hour, that it would have helped the film breathe and flow better. I mean, didn't they realize that the source material was an action game? Max Payne is ba...
7 comments
Read more