Jason KingTropa De Elite (2007)
June 11th 2008 08:42
Category: No Category
Tropa De Elite (2007) aka Elite Squad $14-
I finally got to see this amazing film as my second film from the Sydney film festival. I rocked up to the State Theatre on Monday with Sammy and was still massively hung over from my (near) all night birthday party prior to going to work at 8am on Monday morning (not a wise move). I was worried I was going to fall straight to sleep as soon as the lights dimmed. The screening was taking place immediately after the Australian premiere of Kung Fu Panda with Jack Black in attendance along with many more celebrities including the most awesome Cate Blanchett and a band who, for the life of me, I cannot remember their name. Anyway - on with the show.
Tropa De Elite is a Brazillian film that you may remember me and friend talking about in my City of God review. Elliot, a friend of mine is currently living in Brazil and has not shut up since he saw it about 4 months ago. I mean literally every time I speak to him on MSN or Facebook it is the first thing he asks - "have you seen Tropa yet" - SO ANNOYING. But love him anyways. So I really only went to see this film so I could shut him the f*&k up. But boy am I glad I did watch it. I was awake from the opening credits.
This Brazilian movie, a big winner in Berlin, tells the story of the BOPE elite police force within the regular police. BOPE (Portuguese: Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais), the Special Police Operations Battalion of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police. The film is set in the favelas (A favela is the Brazilian equivalent of a shanty town. The majority have electricity, but in most cases it is illegally tapped from the public grid. Favelas are constructed from a variety of materials, ranging from bricks to garbage) of Rio de Janeiro. In the first part of the movie, the daily reality is shown with the criminals running the favelas, paying off the regular police to be left alone. It gets almost ridiculous with all the different police squadrons trying to defend their own piece of the action; to be corrupt here turns out to be a real challenge. The BOPE force is a sort of paramilitary group that operates by its own laws; torture and silent killings are the preferred methods to achieve the objectives. The second part gets more personal and everything turns more grim. You could get the impression that this dance between drug gangs and police has some sort of equilibrium, but this last half of the movie shows how all people involved are trapped in this life and that there is no escaping from it. This movie, although in perspective is completely opposite from that of ‘City of God’, tells the same story, in this respect. But this is much more realistic, thanks to it’s in-your-face camera work and it’s not so polished filming as ‘American Gangster’. This one hits home hard. That logo at the top with the skull and guns is BOPE's actual logo. It states clearly what they stand for.
This film is HEAVY - it is not one for a quiet rainy day under the doona unless this kind of film is your thing or you appreciate brilliant film making. I have read descriptions that this film makes City of God look like a children's story. And it is completely true. The elder lady sitting in front of us jumped at all the gun shots and she had her hands over her eyes for scenes like someone getting burnt alive in a roll of tyres and people getting shot in the head. It hits hard because "this stuff" happens!! I would not allow my mother to watch this film. It is shot well, almost documentary in some scenes. It is acted superbly, especially the lead, Wagner Moura, he is amazing. The one thing that annoys me about these characters is that the BOPE squad and the people involved you feel for - you are watching the film from their point of view but these guys are murderous "SAS" types - they are wiping out drug dealers and thugs (given) but they do it like a fascist military group and to put a bullet in someones head is no issue. It's a catch 22 situation. They have to be brutal to endeavor to stem the flow of drugs and violence - does this make them any different from the dealers and thugs trying to survive in a forgotten part of the world? There will never be any United Nations to help these people and they will be left to wipe themselves out.
Trivia: 1) During the shooting of the film, a van with 90 firearms (30 real and 60 prop guns) was robbed in the hill of Chapéu Mangueira. Teams from the local police stormed the Favela Pavão-Pavãozinho, in Copacabana, to recover the guns, but the operation was only partially successful. 2) This film was already a best-seller almost three months before its official release. Illegal copies of what the director called the "3rd cut" flooded the streets of all major capitals in Brazil, for the equivalent of five dollars a piece. Criminal investigation revealed that the original DVD was robbed in the Company Drei Marc, which does the subtitles. According to estimates at least three million people watched the bootleg version, which is six hundred thousand more than it managed during its theatrical run. However, it was the most seen Brazilian film that year in Brazilian theaters.
I thoroughly recommend this to serious filmies or someone who wants to see a greatly made, heavy film about a troubled area of our small world. Corruption is BAD people. Why can't we all just get along?? Worth $14-
I finally got to see this amazing film as my second film from the Sydney film festival. I rocked up to the State Theatre on Monday with Sammy and was still massively hung over from my (near) all night birthday party prior to going to work at 8am on Monday morning (not a wise move). I was worried I was going to fall straight to sleep as soon as the lights dimmed. The screening was taking place immediately after the Australian premiere of Kung Fu Panda with Jack Black in attendance along with many more celebrities including the most awesome Cate Blanchett and a band who, for the life of me, I cannot remember their name. Anyway - on with the show.
Tropa De Elite is a Brazillian film that you may remember me and friend talking about in my City of God review. Elliot, a friend of mine is currently living in Brazil and has not shut up since he saw it about 4 months ago. I mean literally every time I speak to him on MSN or Facebook it is the first thing he asks - "have you seen Tropa yet" - SO ANNOYING. But love him anyways. So I really only went to see this film so I could shut him the f*&k up. But boy am I glad I did watch it. I was awake from the opening credits.
This Brazilian movie, a big winner in Berlin, tells the story of the BOPE elite police force within the regular police. BOPE (Portuguese: Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais), the Special Police Operations Battalion of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police. The film is set in the favelas (A favela is the Brazilian equivalent of a shanty town. The majority have electricity, but in most cases it is illegally tapped from the public grid. Favelas are constructed from a variety of materials, ranging from bricks to garbage) of Rio de Janeiro. In the first part of the movie, the daily reality is shown with the criminals running the favelas, paying off the regular police to be left alone. It gets almost ridiculous with all the different police squadrons trying to defend their own piece of the action; to be corrupt here turns out to be a real challenge. The BOPE force is a sort of paramilitary group that operates by its own laws; torture and silent killings are the preferred methods to achieve the objectives. The second part gets more personal and everything turns more grim. You could get the impression that this dance between drug gangs and police has some sort of equilibrium, but this last half of the movie shows how all people involved are trapped in this life and that there is no escaping from it. This movie, although in perspective is completely opposite from that of ‘City of God’, tells the same story, in this respect. But this is much more realistic, thanks to it’s in-your-face camera work and it’s not so polished filming as ‘American Gangster’. This one hits home hard. That logo at the top with the skull and guns is BOPE's actual logo. It states clearly what they stand for.
This film is HEAVY - it is not one for a quiet rainy day under the doona unless this kind of film is your thing or you appreciate brilliant film making. I have read descriptions that this film makes City of God look like a children's story. And it is completely true. The elder lady sitting in front of us jumped at all the gun shots and she had her hands over her eyes for scenes like someone getting burnt alive in a roll of tyres and people getting shot in the head. It hits hard because "this stuff" happens!! I would not allow my mother to watch this film. It is shot well, almost documentary in some scenes. It is acted superbly, especially the lead, Wagner Moura, he is amazing. The one thing that annoys me about these characters is that the BOPE squad and the people involved you feel for - you are watching the film from their point of view but these guys are murderous "SAS" types - they are wiping out drug dealers and thugs (given) but they do it like a fascist military group and to put a bullet in someones head is no issue. It's a catch 22 situation. They have to be brutal to endeavor to stem the flow of drugs and violence - does this make them any different from the dealers and thugs trying to survive in a forgotten part of the world? There will never be any United Nations to help these people and they will be left to wipe themselves out.
Trivia: 1) During the shooting of the film, a van with 90 firearms (30 real and 60 prop guns) was robbed in the hill of Chapéu Mangueira. Teams from the local police stormed the Favela Pavão-Pavãozinho, in Copacabana, to recover the guns, but the operation was only partially successful. 2) This film was already a best-seller almost three months before its official release. Illegal copies of what the director called the "3rd cut" flooded the streets of all major capitals in Brazil, for the equivalent of five dollars a piece. Criminal investigation revealed that the original DVD was robbed in the Company Drei Marc, which does the subtitles. According to estimates at least three million people watched the bootleg version, which is six hundred thousand more than it managed during its theatrical run. However, it was the most seen Brazilian film that year in Brazilian theaters.
I thoroughly recommend this to serious filmies or someone who wants to see a greatly made, heavy film about a troubled area of our small world. Corruption is BAD people. Why can't we all just get along?? Worth $14-
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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Comment by Jason King
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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giving out my adress to all my stalkers LOL
nah, its good that you have it, you can send me presents all the time!
*checks facebook security settings*
im so amused right now
but yes i would love a copy if you have the time!
thanks!
Comment by Jason King
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I said for you to Facebook me your address as opposed to adding it in a comment here. LOL
I would KILL Facebook if they published my address.
Comment by Morgan Bell
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ummm and i just tried find a way to contact facebook to check on things and apparently there is none haha its so dodgy, i like how theres no admin or complaint process
but it doesnt matter anyway as im clearly just dyslexic and mis-read what you wrote . . . ill send you a PM and put you in the inner circle for future refence
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I really wanted to catch this but couldn't squeeze it in. Great review makes me want to see it even more!
Comment by David L
KUng fu panda was brilliance by the way, you will love it.
I got to sit three meters from blanchett, she is a goddess, she just glows like nothing else.
Comment by Jason King
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JD - I have seen it on DVD for sale on EBay. I could burn you a copy too. It is good quality. If you want to message me a postal address I can forward it to you. It's not the final copy - it's one of the leaked originals and while 95% accurate it has some small variations on the final cut. But looks good still on my plasma.
Dave - I can't believe you missed this one!!!!! But you watched Kung Fu Panda? Makes me ponder your dedication in becoming the next Margeret. Oh sorry - David? LOL. I will bring a copy into work. I saw Cate a few years ago now. She is enigmatically pure and beautiful. I ran into Nick outside following the premiere. You prob walked right past me. Am looking forward to watching Kung Fu in CIN 1.
Comment by Rix
Comment by Jason King
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Then why were you laughing at that poor lady in front of us who was obviously in a constant state of mortification?
Comment by David L
But trust me jason KUNG FU PANDA is really brilliant. The marketing is absurd does no way do the film any justice..
I saw nick hayes outside the theater before panda, didn't get to talk to him though..he was all jack bauer looking like a man on a mission.
I spoke to him briefly before funny games, which i have to say is quite possibly the most brutal, haunting and raw intense film i have ever seen. you should try and check that out in it's encore screening...I was just reminded because of sams comment about this one..in funny games people were crying and gasping, and it had people running out in disgust/ terror. Its truly powerful.
By the way, i just saw THE WACKNESS earlier tonight, and have to say its a masterpiece, thats a film you should race to check out!!! its screening next sat i think?
I like david stratton more than margie, Ive got his autobiography which is amazing if youre ever in want of a good read.