April Captains (2000)

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Carnation Revolution is one of the most beautiful chapters of World History in the XXth century and Portuguese movie "April Captains"matches it. Maria de Medeiros's movie is beautifully filmed. Cinematography is amazing, with great frames, both aesthetically and creatively. Besides a brutal opening and some other violent situations such as the one inside the public bathroom and a "Full Metal Jacket"-style scene, there are also many funny moments. Off course one cannot help but becoming touched as people are shown supporting freedom. The image of people putting carnation flowers in the barrel of the guns, which gave the name to the revolution, is also shown. "Grândola Vila Morena" song was an anthem for revolutionaries and it is heard many times during the whole film. Italian actor Stefano Accorsi and French actor Frédéric Pierrot are great in the leading roles. Both for its content and for its artistic realization, "Capitães de Abril" is a film to make all the Portuguese people proud.

A true story about a true revolution, 25 of April ; a revolution against a repressive regime of 41 years, that was imposing a colonial war on it's military's, for maintaining an empire (Angola, Mozambique, Guine-Bissau, Cabo Verde, S. Tomé e Principe; the first and the last of the great colonial empire's of Europe) of 600 years, since it's beginning in the conquest of Ceuta in 1415; a revolution by the army for the people, and for a democratic Portugal; the most's surprising fact in this revolution is that it were no people killed in it (except those that died in the hand's of PIDE, the political police of the State, during a brutal gunfire against an unarmed crowd protesting in front of it's headquarters in the day of the revolution, in 25 of April 1974, has it show's on the film).And has all revolutions it has it's heroes, one them of was Captain Salgueiro Maia, a returned soldier from the war, whose convictions along with the rest of the army, was that they were fighting (since 1961) a hopeless war, and that sometimes a soldier has to disobey it's country.

"Capitães de Abril" is a very good. The story isn't a documentary about the 1974 revolution in Portugal. But it gives us an idea of how it was like. The fiction of the story isn't of great interest, but it doesn't spoil the movie. The heroic actions of Captain Salgueiro Maia aren't exaggerations and the film is also a tribute for his deeds. Captain Salgueiro Maia remains one of the greatest heroes of the 25th of April Revolution.All the actors are very good and even the smallest roles are played wonderfully. Lisbon looks beautiful as ever. Don't miss it! I liked this film very much.

For her feature directing debut, Maria de Medeiros ("Pulp Fiction", "Henry and June") has certainly taken on a big story: the Portuguese Revolution of the 25th of April 1974. However, the film isn't a history lesson; rather a fictional story that introduces fictional characters and situations into the actual historical facts and places of the day, alongside some of its real protagonists. It's basically a schoolboy comic-book adventure, full of naive heroics and larger-than-life moments, quite well played and adroitly directed; the script is the weakest link, fanning out into a number of parallel stories some of which are rather pointless. The film exudes the contagious energy and juvenile joy of actually living out an adventure (although one might point out that no, the actual Revolution was not an adventure!), and it's precisely that schoolboy-adventure side that, along with its no-nonsense storytelling which adheres relatively faithfully to the actual run of events, is enough to recommend it. .