The Circuit

It is no secret that the Brazilian middle class has fascist tendencies when it comes to crime. Polls taken after the massacre of 7 street children in Candelaria, Rio de Janeiro, for example, showed that the majority of the city's middle class supported the action. I saw this movie in the Higienopolis shopping mall in one of the richist neighborhoods in São Paulo and was disgusted to hear all the laughter during the scenes when the movies jack-booted anti-hero, Captain Moura, was torturing black teenagers. The movie not only tries to justify torture and summary excecutions by calling Rio's crime situtation a "war", but it shows a very innacurate picture of how the BOPE Elite Squad actually works. I real life, they don't go into slums like Rambo, but in armored cars shooting in all directions, which is why they have "accidently" killed so many innocent bystanders this year, including most recently an 11 year old girl in Rocinha. The Rio de Janeiro police killed over 1000 people in 2007. The tiny Bope division killed something like 80, officially, according to the local human rights organizations which are ridiculed in the movie as being a bunch of criminal, pot smoking college students when many of them are run by former police torture victims.. In summary, the film was a huge success in Brazil for three reasons: 1) Fascism makes good entertainment. Just ask Charles Bronson; 2) It is a very well made film; and 3) The majority of the Brazilian middle class has fascist tendencies when it comes to the crime issue.

Posted by: Brian | 2/28/2008 3:46:35 AM

That is not critical thing any, that is same spite! You don't admit but it is true. They should feel if embarrassed of so much cowardice. But the one what are worth your word?!... The one that is worth is that millions of Brazilians attended the film and he understands the one that perfectly it came. I adore national movies!!! To purpose, here in Brazil, we have own opinion and we liked that... We lived our reality, we appreciated mainly what is ours!... PS.: Are you even movies critic or you an enraged, same is?!!...

Posted by: Amélia | 2/19/2008 12:16:30 PM

(Text with language corrections, sorry for that) The Variety's comment on the presumed fascism of "Elite Squad" is an absurd. The review is not substantially justified. If the voiceover is sufficient to define the ideological position of the narrative, most of the noir movies, "The Clockwork Orange", among other masterpieces should be called "fascists" also. The violence of the film has a clear purpose: to make the audience experience the chaos in brazilian society. The situation in the favelas is really a war. If a policeman enters in these large communities without permission of theirs drugdealers, he's killed immediately by snipers. The film shows this situation, the mentality of the policemen and of the Elite Squad, and theirs consequences. If the reality is fascist we cannot show it? And the point of view of the fascists cannot be shown in films? The fascists are also complex human beings. And we have to remember a basic point of narrative art: the point of view doesn't define the ideological commitment of the narrative. Or Allan Poe should be forbidden. The winning of the Berlinale with Costa-Gravas, one of the greatest humanists of the film history, leading the jury ridicules the Variety's review. Thiago Cabrera (from Rio de Janeiro)

Posted by: Thiago Cabrera | 2/17/2008 5:05:41 AM

The Variety''s comment on the presumed fascism of "Elite Squad" is an absurd. The review is not substantially justified. If the voiceover is sufficient to define the ideological position of the narrative, most of the noir movies, "The Clockwork Orange", among other masterpieces should be called "fascists" also. The violence of the film has one clear purpose: that the audience experience the chaos in brazilian society. The situation in the favelas is really a war. If a policeman enters in these large communities without permission of theirs drugdealers, he''s killed immediately by snipers. The film shows this situation, the mentality of the policemen and of the Elite Squad, and theirs consequences. If the reality is fascist we cannot show her? And the point of view of the fascists is forbidden to show in films? The fascists are also complex human beings. And we have to remember a basic point of narrative art: the point of view doesn''t define the ideological side of the narrative. Or Allan Poe should be forbidden. The winning of the Berlinale with Costa-Gravas, one of the greatest humanists of the film history, leading the jury ridicules the Variety''s review. Thiago Cabrera, Rio de Janeiro

Posted by: Thiago Cabrera | 2/17/2008 4:56:41 AM

The movie has been accused of being fascist, but, in reality, it does not glorify torture and brutality. It merely exposes a deeply troubling reality, where good men are turned into monsters, where war makes everything a fair game. Tropa is a realistic portrait of the interaction between crime and law enforcement in Rio de Janeiro. The movie was a huge hit in Brazil, not only for the record box offices, but also and mainly because it stimulated a debate on what kind of leaders a society builds in such a devastating scenario. I recommend everyone to watch it; it's an universal epic.

Posted by: Lucio Marques | 2/17/2008 2:12:26 AM

Pretty stories about the slums are easy to tell and more even easy to sell. On the other hand, real life (the one we live in Brazil) is not often pretty. Real life bothers. This film is controversial because it bothers.

Posted by: Lucas Mandacaru | 2/16/2008 1:09:23 PM