Review of Elite Squad (2007) by Maksim B — 18 Mar 2012

Extremely violent and brutal, The Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite) is a mindless cop action which destroys in pieces not only the Rio de Janeiro slums, but also all moral dilemmas and unrealistic liberal and social ideas. Unnecessary complicated in terms of a story, the movie is a ruthless spectacle of how the Rio de Janeiro special squad deals with the reality of the Rio Slums.

The narrative is not the easiest one to follow as going forth-and-back with Wagner Moura's voice-over is unnecessary prolonged in the middle part of the movie. Needless to say the beginning is gripping enough, but then it takes too long to introduce the audience to the corruption within the Rio police, the characters of Andre Matias (Andre Ramiro), Neto (Cajo Junqueira) and Captain Fabio (Milhem Cortaz) and their reasons to join the BOPE. Their presence in the story, combined with Wagner Moura's family issues do not quite match together in the first and the second part of the movie, but once the audience find itself in the BOPE training camp, the story gets a more clear shape.

Director Jose Padilha has chosen to be as brutal and ruthless as possible. His camera-shooting style is almost identical to watching a documentary on the BOPE in the Rio slums and the daily violence in Brazil's biggest city is shown with a shocking realism. Apart from the cinematographic qualities of The Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite), Padihna's movie delivers a hard punch in the face of all ridiculous NGOs, liberal and social organizations of rich kids and idealists who achieve nothing but to delude themselves. This message may not be liked by some, but at least Padihna has the gut to deliver it, even if it is in an ugly and extremely violent way.

The Elite Squad (Trope de Elitte) is an unconventional movie that will stun you with its brutality and conservative approach towards the social phenomenon called Rio de Janeiro's slums. It could have been even more successful, if the story-telling was not that messy and unnecessary complicated, but still the movie is definitely worth-giving a try.