Elite Squad
by José Padilha
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DVD details
Actor: André Ramiro, Caio Junqueira, Fernanda Machado, Milhem Cortaz, Wagner MouraDirector: José Padilha
Brand: Genius
Writer: José Padilha
Producer: Bia Castro
Writer: André Batista
Writer: Bráulio Mantovani
Writer: John Kaylin
Writer: Luiz Eduardo Soares
Writer: Rodrigo Pimentel
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Portuguese (Original Language); English (Dubbed)
Format: Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-10-28
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 81548
Studio: Weinstein Company
Product features:
- An action-packed thriller that follows an elite police battalion (BOPE) tasked with cleaning up a drug-ridden Rio de Janeiro slum in advance of the pope's 1997 visit. A team of trained killers, they struggle to do what's right in a corrupt system and dangerous neighborhood. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: NR Age: 796019815482 UPC: 79601981
DVD Reviews of Elite Squad
DVD Review: Mid-budget production provides unspoken commentary on "the war".
Summary: 4 Stars
I think the movie makes a good case for the legalization of drugs, period. Or at least in Rio, if this movie is any kind of true marker for the reality of the situation there. One has to question why drugs are illegal in the first place. Is it not that they are considered to be a danger to the individual and society as a whole? With this in mind the decision to outlaw these substances was declared. Make drugs illegal = protection of society. The logic is fair enough. But what the ruling never took into account was the incredible demand this creates on the black market. So as the buyer's demand is responded to by the criminal element, there is now need for a police force to deal with that element. And the wars ensue. And the numbers of guilty and innocent dead on both sides accumulate. And accumulate. And accumulate some more. Finally, you have to question the basis of the original law to illegalize these substances. When the basis of that law is to protect society from the harmful effects of drugs, the final result of the law is that it creates more violence and more danger to everyone through police/gang warfare and gang/gang warfare than ever would be if people simply weren't harassed for drug use and if it were legalized on the free market. If the government itself would simply step into the trade and offer better product for lower prices (with perhaps the same kind of health warnings you find on cigarette packages) you would see a dramatic decrease in death statistics and "danger to society". If this movie is any indication of the real situation in Rio, I think the first thing to be done there is to turn Rio into a little Amsterdam. Get rid of the drug wars by legalizing it. Sure, there will be dangers, addictions, and the problems of people strung out on various kinds of dope. But that already exists. Now you've got that AND the problem of the violence of the trade which is probably of GREATER threat to society than the problems of drug usage.
For ten years during the "depression" era, booze was a black market item in America. And the trade of liquor became a dangerous thing and gangs thrived on their ability to bootleg it. What happened to those gangs when the govt legalized alcohol again? They vanished. The legalization of alcohol at the time simply eradicated the black market of that item and all the violence that went with it.
You just marvel at this movie as you see cops and drug lords war over it, with innocent civilians getting picked off in the background. It's so ironic, that this war on drugs is meant to "protect society".
As for the movie itself, it's decent but doesn't reach the eloquence of scriptwriting and cinematography found in the more well-known Rio set "City of God", or TV series "City of Men".
It's a watchable movie for the most part though I often couldn't figure out which direction it was trying to move in, what it was trying to say. Whereas the "City of God/Men" productions were told from the point of view of two boys growing up in the favela, "Elite Squad" is told from the point of view of a captain of a favela police raid task force, a kind of police "special forces" unit called the 'Elite Squad' (Troupa de Elite). As such, it is their duty to rain hell on the favela when things get out of hand there. But more than this, the movie goes into the corruption of the police force in a general way prior to the main mission of bringing down the favela's main kingpin which takes up the second half of the movie. Without saying so directly, I think the main point of the movie may have been just to show how ridiculous this war and the violence it involves is - though it never says so explicitly. Besides the captain of the Elite Squad, who narrates the movie with a voice-over, there is another main character - a police officer who at the beginning of the movie is also enrolled in law classes at a university. One of the issues he will need to face is the obligation to bust some of his pot-smoking "playboy" college friends, as his identity as a cop is revealed and he must choose sides.
Description of Elite Squad
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 10/28/2008 Run time: 118 minutes Rating: RThough José Padilha's action-packed crime drama won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival, a steady stream of controversy and acclaim has followed in its wake. Some critics have even accused the director of promoting fascism, while Padilha (Bus 174) contends that Elite Squad argues against police brutality. Like Vic Mackey, who heads up The Shield's LA strike force, narrator Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura) heads up Rio de Janeiro's Police Special Operations Battalion (BOPE). It?s 1997, the Pope arrives for a visit in six months, and BOPE will stop at nothing to reduce crime in the favelas. The way they see it, drug traffickers have them outmanned and outgunned, so there's no point in playing by the rules. With their black uniforms and berets, the Skulls certainly cut an imposing figure. New police recruits Neto (Caio Junqueira) and aspiring lawyer Matias (André Ramiro) turn to Nascimento when their efforts to operate by the book only lead to frustration (Matias was inspired by author/law student/BOPE member André Batista). The burned-out captain sees his salvation in the two childhood friends; as soon as he selects a replacement, he plans to leave the force and spend time with his pregnant wife. Nascimento may find his man, but the ending is far from happy. Brutal and bleakly funny, Elite Squad depicts 1990s Rio as Danté's Ninth Circle of Hell. Nonetheless, Brazilians made the film an even bigger sensation than City of God, to which it serves as an essential companion piece. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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