Dantooine:
Anyone seen elite squad? Any good?
I ordered it before I posted this deal so will let you know in a few days, brilliant reviews though. If its half as good as City Of God it will be a brilliant film.
:
Brazil has long been a place of exotic fascination with its bright carnival colours, long white beaches and rhythmic Samba beats. At the same time, there has always been the underside of drug riddled favelas (shanty towns) and entrenched crime networks. In recent years it is this underside that has made it onto celluloid and the latest big screen offering, Elite Squad, is no exception. There have been attempts to romanticise Brazil’s slums – from the celebration of their ability to produce world class footballers to the guided tour of the favelas offered to tourists – but these acts often take away the political edge. When it is remembered that the current favelas are not just a place for the happy poor but are in fact the neo-favelas, which equal favelas plus drug traffic, the political edge is retained. It is within this sentiment that Elite Squad is firmly placed.
Based on the true-life accounts of BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) officers André Batista and Rodrigo Pimentel, Elite Squad originated as a book written by sociologist Luiz Eduardo Soares. At the time of publication, the book drew controversy for its description of BOPE as a killing machine and it is this perspective that has transferred most strongly into the film version. The central drive within the film is BOPE’s attempt to wrestle control over local favelas from the drug runners and heavily armed gangs. In each instance, brutal force and killing is acceptable when necessary.
The obvious forerunner to Elite Squad is the acclaimed City of God (2002) which also portrays the disturbing violence within Rio de Janeiro’s slums. It was released during the 2002 presidential elections and, shocked by the tremendous problem the film represented, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva urged the president of the time, Fernando Henrique Cardosa to see the film. City of God demanded an immediate political response. Although other films such as Walter Salles’ Central Station (1998) and Hector Babenco’s Carandiru (2003) (screening at GFT in September 08) depict the problems of poverty and crime in Brazil, it was City of God that seemed to capture the public’s imagination both nationally and internationally. The film spawned a TV series, City of Men which in turn led to another film, albeit not a direct sequel, also called City of Men. However, five years on from the original release of City of God the nihilism apparent in Elite Squad’s treatment of Rio’s favelas suggests that the political response that the former called for has not yet been fully developed.
Within Elite Squad, there is a sense that the problems of the favelas, particularly the on- going drug trades, are so fully ingrained that the work of BOPE and other organisations can only just scratch the surface. However, Elite Squad does offer a significant departure from the films mentioned above through its use of characters that exist outside of Brazil’s poverty ridden areas. In the first case, the film offers an insider’s perspective on the police force and how it operates. Rather than allowing the force to exist as an abstract enforcer of the law Elite Squad brings the viewer into the very thoughts and experiences of the officers. Captain Nascimento, an office who is tired of being in BOPE and looking for a successor to allow him to transfer, offers the voiceover that translates much of the activities in BOPE and the slums to the viewer. Although his participation in some of the more violent acts in the film makes him a problematic central figure, his internal viewpoint nonetheless offers insight into the mechanisms and corruption at work in the police force. The scenes which focus on his relationship with his wife and unborn child unpick the black and white notion that the police are corrupt and brutal without reason. Continuing this trend, the film shows two younger
officers, Neto and André, enter the force and eventually join BOPE. They have to make hard decisions about the corruption in the police force and the people they know involved in drug smuggling, demonstrating that there are no easy solutions to the problems depicted in the film. Perhaps the greatest quandary in the film is not whether the actions of the violent police force are justified but how an alternative can possibly be realised. The other side the film shows is the life of the middle class students that become involved in the favelas either through NGO work, drug buying, or a combination of the two. These are students that see themselves as politically enlightened, studying courses such as sociology and donating spare time to projects with youths in the favelas. However, their continuing purchase of drugs in the slums and their willingness to work with gang members, suggest that their ideals are somewhat short-sighted. The problems of violence and corruption are not necessarily internal to the slums but are instead perpetuated through on- going relationships with the wealthier residents of Rio. As with the corruption in the police force, the nihilistic view of this situation offered by the film means that there are no easy solutions or the possibility of an end in sight.
One of the major incidents that made Elite Squad notorious was the fact that 3.5 million spectators saw the film before its official release in Brazil in 2007. A copy of the film, close to the final cut, was made available to pirate networks and was seen illegally by millions across the country. Many speculated that rather than damaging the film’s eventual profits, the piracy created hype and buzz around the film which in turn led to increased box office success. The fact that Elite Squad was so popular, even before its release, suggests that in Brazil, at least, the themes of the film are still a pertinent issue.
