| . | 04/19/2008
“Elite Squad” (Tropa de Elite)
By: Ted Faraone
Tribeca Film Festival Review
Four stars out of five. $8.50 ticket on a scale of $0 to $10.50
Wagner Moura as Captain Nascimento
THE BRAZILIAN CONNECTION
Drug pushers and crooked cops have become such a staple of American cinema that it is refreshing to see the subject through the eyes of another culture. “Elite Squad” (Tropa de Elite), a feature by helmer José Padilha , does not disappoint. Set in Rio de Janeiro in the run up to the 1997 Papal visit, it pits an elite division of paramilitary police (BOPE, the Special Police Operation Battalion) against a drug lord who runs one of Rio’s 700 teeming slums and an openly corrupt municipal police force.
Srcreenplay by Padhila, Bráulio Mantovani , and Rodrigo Pimentel, whose 19 years in BOPE are its basis, is adapted from the memoir “Elite da Tropa” by Luiz Eduardo Soares , André Batista , and Pimentel. It starts in mid-story with about half the action in flashback. BOPE have been ordered to clear of weapons the slum adjacent to the home of the Catholic bishop of Rio, where Pope John Paul II will stay. The squad of Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura), whose wife (Fernanda de Freitas) is giving birth to their son that night, intervenes in a firefight between cops and drug dealers in the slum. Two rookies, Neto (Caio Junqueira) and Matias (André Ramiro ), who are not crooked, are at its center. Nascimento is looking for his own replacement. He has anxiety and panic attacks. His marriage is headed for the rocks.
It is a complicated story, but Moura’s narration of much of the exposition, economical direction by Padhila, and editing with a cold machete by Daniel Rezende make it comprehensible and suspenseful. Much of the dramatic action is played out in scenes that function more as tableaux whose stage is set by the voice over. These devices keep pic’s length down to a manageable 101 minutes.
Audiences who can’t stand blood, stop reading here. “Elite Squad” is among the most violent of films. Handheld camerawork lends jumpy immediacy to action shots. The BOPE routinely torture suspects and conduct summary executions. So do the drug capos. What the BOPE do routinely makes Abu Ghraib look like Club Med. One telling scene has Nascimento’s squad torturing a drug soldier to find the whereabouts of capo Baiano (played with menace by Fábio Lago ) who killed a paramilitary. Beaten and suffocated, the guy refuses to talk until Nascimento grabs a broom and orders the guy’s pants pulled down. Can anyone spell “Abner Louima”?
Therein lies pic’s irony. Of the two rookies who are selected as cadets in Skulls, as BOPE is known, Matias is a law student. Neto, his childhood friend, is a tough guy. Matias considers all the angles before making a move. Matias’ buttons have to be stomped on before he gets tough. Neto acts on instinct. Neto gets killed. It’s not “The Odd Couple,” but it makes for a compelling film.
Pic’s social message is driven home with a sledgehammer, but that does not detract from its power. The poor little rich kids who buy illegal drugs are financing a subculture of murder. The point is made by a subplot in which Matias finds romance with wealthy upperclass hottie Maria (Fernanda Machado) at law school.
Fortunately, tightly edited scenes of mayhem are intercut with comic relief. All the underpaid street cops are on the pad – heck, they even steal engines from new cruisers and sell them on the black market. Neto, assigned to the motorpool, hatches a scheme to pay for car parts that the police department can’t afford: He hijacks the payoff of one of the police captains. What’s the guy to do, call the cops?
“The Elite Squad” is in Portugese with English subtitles. Performances are solid. Tech credits, especially cinematography by Lula Carvalho, shine. Original music by Pedro Bronfman is a perfect fit. It is not rated. Due to violence, it may be inappropriate for children. Pic’s general excellence belies its estimated $4 million budget.
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