Review of Elite Squad (2007) by Sherief A — 06 Aug 2008

Flip the coin, and you get 'City of God'; As shocking and intense. The two films are comparable, however, Tropa de Elite was more serious and less visually breath-taking; I guess Jose Padilha, as a documentarian, was not as keen on pleasing his spectators by visual gimmicks as just telling the story and explaining the troubled situation in Rio de Janeiro.

A fitting sound editing and camera work helped a lot in expressing the tension captain Nascimento was going through. I liked his performance. I liked the scene where Matias was defending himself while debating the police's methods to the "rich kids", because, I think, this is the film's aim: Whom to judge? The already-fucked up situation, based on the saying "Desperate situations calls for desperate measures" ? Or the police ways of dehumanizing their aspirants, who will dehumanize the people they're supposed to protect?