Tropa de Elite

If the entire film was only about the training of the new members of the “elite squad”, the only thing that would bother me would be the ideological aftertaste left by almost every scene. But Elite Squad has many more things that bothered me: there isn’t a lot of action, and when there is some, it’s not very clear, half the scenes are pointless, the subplots are uninteresting, the script goes nowhere and there are many ugly male characters that (other than the main trio) I could never tell apart. To tell you the truth, after half an hour I was already looking forward to the end (and I kept on looking forward until the end). (21.04.2011)

Rio de Janeiro is full of pissed off drug dealers and gangs, and they must be taken off the streets before the Pope comes to visit. The elite BOPA unit will be happy to do the job. A very impressive and well shot action drama about how life in Brazil is far from idyllic. But this audiovisual and atmospheric banger has a problem with perhaps too radical ideas in the script. (09.07.2008)

Ich habe keine schwindelerregende politische Unkorrektheit im Film Elite Squad angetroffen. Sie gibt hier keine instanten Lösungen einer traurigen Situation, es wird nichts rosa lackiert, und wenn denn etwas dahergebracht wird, dann ein ziemlich erschütterndes Bild einer zerbröckelnden Gerechtigkeit und ihrer gedemütigten Diener. Mir persönlich haben die Invektiven recht gut gefallen, die auf linke Intellektuelle aus gut situierten Familien abzielten und ich war in der Lage, mich mit den Ansichten des Kapitäns Nascimento zu identifizieren, obwohl die dargestellten Auswirkungen der Kreuzzüge im Namen der Gerechtigkeit entsetzliche Gefühle hervorrufen. Was ich an dem Film wirklich mag und ich finde es auch in gesundem Maße provokativ, ist die Tatsache, dass die gesamte Operation in den Slums durch einen Besuch des Papstes initiiert wird. Diese eigentümliche virtuelle Loslösung der Zivilisation von der zerstörten Welt der Slums sowie die Bemühungen, hierin eine Art edle Kümmerlichkeit und Armut zu suchen, kontrastieren mit dem Aspekt der geklebten und formatierten "schwarzen" Gehirne von BOPE. Wir könnten nun darüber streiten, wo sich die Wahrheit befindet, jedoch Tatsache bleibt, dass Padilha keine anbietet. Und wenn er auf Seiten der Brutalität der Männer des Gesetzes steht, tut er dies meiner Ansicht nach so, dass a) ich in der Lage bin, mich mit ihm zu identifizieren; b) selbst wenn ich nicht damit einverstanden wäre, so ist es immer noch ein Aspekt, den ich kennen möchte. Und nur mal so am Rande -technisch gesehen ist der Film brillant. (14.10.2009)

Every couple of years me and some Brazilian movie’s paths cross. And every couple of years it’s a movie that is only hard to forget. This year Tropa de Elite was released. A picture that went perhaps too far in terms of authenticity and intensity of experience. The type of movie that you wouldn’t expect from a western production. Each part is about something else a little differently. Power abusing special units, corrupt police, a hopeless social situation in the slums, politics, the system, society and unit training. All of this throughout the movie will drain you to the core, something that is amply helped by the à la Greengrass documentary style. Despite all the strong aspects of the movie, especially in the second half is the best (or worst, depending) thing about it is Matias’ transformation. It sends shivers down the spine. The negatives here are just purely personal things. Like for instance, Matias’ glasses seem a little out of place in the elite unit, and also the fact that the unit members didn’t cover their faces (EDIT a little later: after watching the documentaries Favela Rising and Bus 174, I take these naive objections back). It’s a powerful movie. Even exceptional. But in no way “nice". Good? Bad? Oh come on, those are long since obsolete terms. No hope, no illusions, no good feelings; pure depression. That is what Tropa de Elite will leave behind in you. For a long, long time. (08.01.2008)

The affiliation with the famous film City of God is distant and takes place purely on a thematic level. Elite Squad looks at the problem of favelas, poverty, and crime from a completely different angle and uses different film techniques. It is the personal confession of the commander of a special police unit in the form of his inner commentary, complemented by a shaky handheld camera that creates a semi-documentary impression. The craftsmanship of the film amounts to a weak 4 stars. What bothers me is the ideological foundation from which Elite Squad stems. The main character is an elitist who seems to have come straight out of Armin the Knight from Vláčil's film The Valley of the Bees. Armin would let the angels survive, but Nascimento wants to exterminate society to such an extent that the result would be similar. There are very few contemporary films that so prominently promote a right-wing authoritarian and elitist ideology. The film is essentially a defense of the creation and operation of the notorious Brazilian E.M., motorized brigades of the São Paulo police that have been "cleansing" the city of child street gangs since the 1960s and have come to be called death squads. The film's protagonist wants to heal the criminality and corruption of the system through executions and torture. Overall impression: 40%. (22.09.2010)

Rio de Janeiro isn’t just a sunny city with Jesus standing on a hill. The slums are overflowing with drugs (and trash), and cops’ pockets with money. Because the men from BOPE are here, doing what is necessary, using whatever means necessary. The direction is marvelous, visually inventive and the screenplay develops on several ideas with huge social implications at once. Whether suffocation by plastic bag or fighting against the system (while still keeping your job), it always hits a nerve. So where would you like to go on holiday? To Rio? (29.05.2013)

Elite Squad wants to shock and awe, but it lacks the better expressive devices, emotion and directorial virtuosity of the makers of City of God – which it so closely resembles at first glance with its volatile cinematography, raw tone and choppy editing. Unfortunately, the story is about nothing and the characters don't win you over one bit, after an hour you're actually just waiting for everyone to get shot in a shouted and eclectic jumble to keep the peace. (03.03.2022)

Considerably weaker than City of God, but still a drama of immense power. The worst is that we are forced to watch hell on earth through the eyes of the cruellest policeman ever, whose actions become increasingly disgusting as the story progresses, but at the same time we understand more and more that there is no other way. Whether it's the torture and shooting of dealers or the incredibly tough military training, which at one point is really hard to follow, in any case, José Padilha has achieved his goal of presenting us with a society so bleakly devastated and corrupted on both sides of the law that I will never forget it. (28.08.2012)

I won't deny that in the first half of the film I was still about two minutes ahead of the scene playing out and it was getting on my nerves a bit. The cinematography was confusing with its disjointedness, the frantic and not-so-skillfully strung together editing, the nonsensical voiceover, the confused characters and timelines, and especially the lack of any memorable scene sure did their part. However, in the second half there is brilliant, severely incorrect, brutal, and escalating violence. (02.05.2011)

Gesehen bei der Challenge Tour 2015: 30 Tage mit internationaler Kinematografie. Film Nummer 4 - Brasilien. Nach der Enttäuschung aus Island musste ich mich wieder fangen, deshalb setzte ich auf Gewissheit. Tropa de Elite wollte ich schon sehr lange sehen, und dank der Tour bin ich endlich dazu gekommen. Eine raue Geschichte aus Rio, die ohne Beschönigungen einen Blick auf die alltägliche Realität bietet, in der man Drogensüchtige, Verletzte und Tote nicht mehr zählen kann. Wagner Moura ist in seiner Rolle einfach Spitze. Durch die Tour kann ich somit im Geiste darüber nachdenken, welche Länder, die ich ausgewählt habe, ich gern einmal bereisen würde bzw. wo ich gern eine Zeit leben würde. Für Brasilien, konkret Rio, gilt das Zweitgenannte ganz sicher nicht, und das Erste steht in absehbarer Zeit erst mal nicht zur Debatte. (05.04.2015)