i agree with OP here.
Replying to this thread really late, but i feel this must be said.
Although both were well made and enjoyable films, and i was previously one of the many who thought that this movie presented an objective, raw examination of the social and political situation in Brazil, i have learned some things from since then.
Anyone know what a death squad is? A group of highly trained soldiers secretly sanctioned by governing bodies to manually eliminate members of a population.
Anyone think anything of the countless slum massacres in Brazil? Men, women, children and any dog happening to pass by getting shot? How a police presence all of a sudden turns into everybody; gangster or no gangster, getting murdered?
What about the disappearing homeless children? Thousands of young boys going missing, then their shot in the back of the head bodies turning up every which way? What about the countless assertions by slum residents, politicians, healthcare workers and surviving children that is the cops who are killing children? Even a few cops themselves?
Why so many reports of police/BOPE sweeping through a slum with little/no crime to end up in lots of unarmed boys being shot or rounded up into vans and never seen again by anyone? What about COUNTLESS eyewitness and government reports of BOPE intentionally sweeping through slums and killing people, and nothing done about it?
This movie display's BOPE as tough-good guys who must do messed up things to people to protect other people from drugs and the people who push it. What i realize i see though is a complete white wash of BOPE and a brain washing of viewers. In all the action scenes, you ever see BOPE explicitly shoot any kid gangster/non-gangster in the two movies? NOPE. Why? Too shocking. It might get people's brains jogged into thinking that SOMETHING can be done to reach out to these little 6-15 year old kids other than a bullet. Yeah, their drug dealers who have guns and shoot every which way with them, but what drives someone that young to do something resulting in them confronting a heavily armed and overly trained commando unit?
Tropa de elite 1&2 seems to have one of its over-arching, general focus on suggested awesomeness of BOPE being a lethal killer unit. They like to flash that BOPE skull & duel pistols logo to hardcore sounding rock music in order to imprint an insignia that represents DEATH & VIOLENCE in the viewers minds as cool and badass. The movie doesn't bother to show what makes a criminal a criminal; the movies take on it is that they are mean, got guns, and shoot at you. End of story. They don't bother showing you that social/ financial inequality, racism, and behind-closed door deals, laws and sanctions conducted at the highest level of government are the reasons a slum remains a slum.
This movie is nothing but highly financed and slickly produced damage control. Government sees the poor are getting more vocal about being killed by cops while they are given guns and drugs by cops, so they make this puff piece, which happened to be "leaked" into favela's, to pacify the poor.
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ts-conceicao
12 years ago
Not really.
The director himself is a leftist, and the story is based on a book of an ex-soldier denouncing the unit.
If anything they used the violence in an attempt to outrage the viewer. An attempt that failed, because for once people saw the bad guys getting what they deserved.
The truth is that the population is tired of impunity. They want to see criminals dealt with, with death if necessary.
Poverty does not equal crime. If poverty was problem then you would see petty crimes like stealing food or wallets, not criminal organizations making millions selling drugs and spreading terror across the land. Nobody likes the criminals, especially those who are the most vulnerable to them. If many stay silent about it, it is because of fear not because of support.
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hollan-george
11 years ago
I fully agree with you, but the director can say whatever the director says, it doesn't make it true. Not saying he is lying, but probably misinformed or misguided.
The violence was not an attempt to outrage the viewer. Watching the movie we see the violence is depicted as brutal but necessary. The drug dealers are bad guys with guns and that's it. Do a little digging and you would see that alot of Drug gangs in Brazil don't bother people(besides enemy gangs and police, though), and help out the neighborhood with money and security from police incursions, incursions which always result in disappearances and tortures for money.
Statistics and reports from slum residents, government officials and police personnel all confirm that law enforcement are just as terrible to slum residents as the bad drug gangs. These bad drug gangs further give public justification and cover for when the cops go in and kill people.
Poverty does not equal crime, but add in organized gun and drug selling from the police to the gangs, and the governments complicit actions in covering it up or supporting it, then yeah, you got crime. And your forgetting the social and economical roots of crime itself. Think a 15 year is going to feel like dangerous drug work or robbery of they got a school or good paying job to go to? Quality of life dude, once that goes up crime goes down.
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calneto
11 years ago
In a rich country, a kid might aspire to making big bucks legally. For a slum kid in Rio (I am from Rio, though no slum kid) it is rather unlikely.
So, people are not content with just stealing food for dinner. A 12 year old kid from the slum watches the same ads as a rich kid. They both want the nice sneakers, the fancy clothes. Only the rich kid gets it all from daddy and is pretty sure to follow his footsteps.
Let me put this in perspective. I am a math professor in Rio, with a PhD. There is absolutely no way in hell I will ever be able to afford a home in the city. I don't even own a car and am freaking out about the time my 8 month son will have to go to school (around 600 USD a month).
People sometimes think that a minimum wage under 2 USD/hour is offset by a lower cost of living, but basically everything a typical US middle class consumer buys goes for 2 to 3 times the price here.
Middle class salaries here only "work" if you come from a family with property. Then you don't have to pay rent. A professor makes around 40 k (USD) and analysts in our papers say that if you want to buy an apartment in Rio for a family, you should not expect to pay less than (close to) 1 million USD.
Sometimes I wonder if I should not go to the drug market.
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spookyrat1
9 years ago
Statistics and reports from slum residents, government officials and police personnel all confirm that law enforcement (is) are just as terrible to slum residents as the bad drug gangs.
The film is making that point, thus the creation of and specialist training, nature and uniforms of the Elite Squad. 🐭
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