Elite Squad (2008)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Really Surprised!

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

"Elite Squad" is one of my favourite movies of all time. I saw it for the first time a couple of years ago and yesterday I rewatched it. And I back then I liked it a lot, this time, I loved it. Its a rough and realist depiction of the inner Rio de Janeiro, where cops and drug dealers take part on a never-ending war for the favela's dominance. Within the law enforcers side we are presented to three major characters - Captain Nascimento (played by Wagner Moura, the best Brazilian actor from my point of view), and the both aspirants to be cops Neto and Matias. Nascimento is the main character of the two movies and he couldn't be played by a better actor. Moura delivers a performance of a troubled anti-hero, who wants to retire from BOPE (Brazil's special law enforcers) to spend more time with his wife and his future son. Moura is so believable and real that we all tend to love him, despite some of the dubious actions he performs throughout the story. He's a conflicted man, who just leaves when he feels his duty is fulfilled. "A given mission, is an accomplished one". Neto (played by Caio Junqueira) and Matias (played by André Ramiro) are also deeply explored on the plot, with the first being a younger version of Nascimento, reckless and motivated by his sense of justice and duty, while Matias is a young man split between two worlds - the one of the law enforcers and the one of the drug dealers. The directing of José Padilha really leveled the movie up. The sense of tension and pressure is present in the way he shoots the scenes, with the use of over the shoulder angles and a bit of shaky cam on some chases. The firefights are perfectly shot and Rio is showed at its best and worst. The film was produced by the Weinstein brothers which solely gives it distinction amongst other productions.A must-watch.

This movie is ultra-violent, fast paced and has a plot that is all over the place (apparently, with some people saying that it is hard to follow). But that is the point (why else would the director bother to make it the way he did?), it is supposed to be frenetic (explained a bit more later in my review) and very, very unsettling to watch when it gets violent, although I wouldn't say that the movie is sadistic because the movie does not make the violence entertaining the same way "Kill Bill" (good movie by the way) does. Maybe you can laugh a little by the absurdity of the violence, but that might mean that you're not really well mentally (note that I wrote might). I can see why people can get turned off by the violence, but that's the point. It is supposed to be uncomfortable.As far as the pacing goes, it is energetic and I think that it was made that way so we can feel as confused or as lost as the characters in the movie. Also the characters are more gray (more non-descript) compared to what we would get from mainstream movies to make them more human, thus making them seem more lost. If the movie had more stereo-typical characters (the good versus evil, black and white etc.)the movie would have had less impact. If you ask me. Makes it a bit harder to relate to them though, meaning that it is harder to root for them. But then again, are there people to root for in this world when it comes to killing people? For me it just seems that the people who try to stop violence with violence breeds violence. Making things worse.Also it does have a strong message. I find it a bit hard to understand that some people said that this movie is a mindless action movie with no message. But the message is: When dealing with the corrupt, there are pretty big chances to get corrupted yourself. Or more philosophically written: If society is corrupt, then you are also corrupt because you are society.Anyway, if you read this far you've noticed that I gave the movie 10/10. I gave it 10/10 not because of how entertaining it was (it really is not), but for the sheer power of the movie. It left me in shock and in awe. The movie has substance and a strong plot, but it is a bit hard to swallow (for some, very hard to swallow). Strong movie.If I made some grammatical mistakes, my excuse is that English is not my mother tongue.

Elite Squad is one of the few really good Brazilian movies (over the past 15 years there have been around 4-5 truly good Brazilian movies and only one truly great, City of God). This film is a highly brutal portrayal of the proxy war existing in the crime infested districts of Rio de Janeiro and depicts a deconstruction of the main character, an elite police officer who has to deal with the heavy psychological burden of directing an elite police squad in operations against the heavily armed gangsters and also depicts the process in which the captain Nascimento chooses his successor for this low paid/high risk job among two candidates who reflect differing qualities which he values and which these characters are living embodiment.

Tropa de Elite plays out like a fascist recruitment video.My main problem with this film comes from its exploitation of a real world problem, and creating a loud, violent action movie, and welding it to a pro-authority message.The film is shot in a manner similar to other recent Brazilian crime fair, but instead of the bursting intensity of City of God, the directors shoot in drab colours, with a drab lead, expounding a far from subtle, and rather sinister, social message.Although its quick, chopping editing should suggest urgency, we are left with a barely passable story of characters strewn together, in a bumbling action thriller.