Just like the excellent City of God, this Brazilian film (also known as Elite Squad) is set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. It’s 1997 and police captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura) and his special team called BOPE are very busy with tracking down criminals in preparation of the pope’s visit. Nascimento wants to stop working, but first needs to find a good replacement.
Although the movie is set in the same environment as city of God, there are not that many similarities. Instead of focussing on the criminals, the focus in Tropa de Elite is on the police. It doesn’t take long to find out that their work is extremely dangerous. The drug gangs are heavily armed and because of the narrow streets and lookouts on every corner it is very hard to get results.
To get into BOPE you have to be very though and there are a lot of men that don’t make it through the training. Neto (Caio Junqueira) and Matias (André Ramiro), who are friends, decide to sign up with the intention to join this police force as they will be doing something right in upholding the law. Unfortunately they find out that the police force also can be very corrupt and political. Will they be able to follow the straigt and narrow?
The movie wasn’t as good as City of God, but did tell a very interesting story. The characters have depth to them and some hard choices need to be made.
Tropa de Elite shows how hard life is in some parts of Rio de Janeiro. The acting is great and the movie has a lot of drama, action and violence. I really liked this movie and hoped that part 2 would be just as good. I saw Tropa de Elite 2 yesterday and thought it was even better.
Score: 7
Sounds like an awesome film. I will be on the look out for this.
Try to see both of them. These Brazilian films are really violent and they are not afraid to show it. Really makes them feel very raw and realistic, which I liked.
True they are not affraid to show very graphic content when it comes to violence, but I guess that is all to capture the true essence of Brazil.
Yeah, I think it and i think exactly that rawness of it, is something that only adds to the end result. It’s not a documentary, but you would be able to say that if a documentary would be made that it would pretty much the same.
You are right, this isn’t nearly as good as City of God but overall, I quite liked it. Very gritty and almost documentary-like. Heard some great things about the sequel, must check that one out.
Any other Brazilian movies that are highly recommended?
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