Review of Elite Squad (2007) by Peter N — 16 Sep 2008

A story focusing on Rio's BOPE (Special Police Operations Batallion), juxtaposing the story of a BOPE Captain who wants out so he can focus on his (rapidly deteriorating) family life, and the two new recruits who might possibly be his replacements. As the story progresses, we see how the stressful work slowly permeates the Captain's home life until he ultimately shouts at his wife the way he shouts at the drug dealers and small time thugs in the slums, his word is law, and the law is what he says it is.

Simultaneously, we watch as the new recruits learn the ropes in a thoroughly corrupt police department. The whole film culminates in the training of a group of new recruits to see who will make the cut for the BOPE, an intense sequence in which the recruits are educated, humiliated, and toughened up. An initiation into this fascist military police organization.

Though the film is from the perspective of the Captain, and he is our primary source of identification, we are not necessarily encouraged to swallow his theories and beliefs. Ultimately the film is asking us to question the power structure and social heirarchy of Rio, not accept them.