The Movie Trade-off Tab

Elite Squad (José Padilha, 2007) - but with strong reservations



At genesis pig's suggestion, I watched the Brazilian thriller Elite Squad, and although I believe the film sends harmful mixed messages, I would have to say that it's well-made and occasionally thoughtful in its presentation of life in the slums of Rio where most of the police are much worse than the criminals and a very small elite squad of "honest cops" believe themselves to be the last stand against utter chaos within the city. The film follows an Elite Squad colonel (Wagner Moura) who feels the need to find a replacement so that he can escape the constant violence of his job and live a more normal domestic life with his wife and their soon-to-be-born son. There are other characters and subplots, but I'd rather talk about the films apparent themes and messages.



Since the film is intense and has action and violence, and it's shot with bright-colored filters and has a loud, danceable soundtrack, I can understand why it's become something of a cult item with the young and downloaders. However, I'm not sure that many of the viewers even understand what it is that they're watching during the film. To boil down the situation in the Rio de Janeiro slums, at least according to the director who is also a documentarian, the regular police are corrupt and allow all manner of criminal activity to thrive in the slums as long as they get their kickbacks. These same police rip off the police department itself and steal carpool supplies and anything else they can get their hands on. The slums are where people make a meager living selling drugs, but the people responsible for the drugs are seen by the Elite Squad to be college-aged students, mostly rich and spoiled. You know, those kids who like to dance, party and smoke a joint. Well, the Elite Squad, which comes across as a self-righteous fascist organization, will come upon one of these parties and shoot and/or torture youths to get the names of drug dealers, lookouts or people holding drugs. All drugs are looked upon equally as worthy of a death sentence by these "special police". Now the fact that this colonel may have a few moral qualms about his job giving death and torture orders doesn't make him come across as any kind of hero, especially when he trains the new group of recruits to do the same things after he's left his position at the top of the elite command.

Some parts of the movie remind me of the training techniques used in the first part of Starship Troopers, another film set in a fascistic South America. There are also echoes of the opening Boot Camp scenes in Full Metal Jacket where the soldiers are trained to become inhuman killing machines. I'm not really sure what to think the actual message of the film is, but I suppose people should watch it and decide for themselves. I realize that there is already a sequel, so that may help clarify things, but this post is strictly about the first film. It is highly watchable even if there's nothing terribly new or breakthrough about the story of police corruption except for the setting and language. It's not really all that far away from Serpico in many ways except that Serpico's choices really impacted his own life and safety.

Brazil (1985) Terry Gilliam

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957, Lean)

There's a lot to like here. What I like first and foremost is that the narrative standard is not disturbed by the scale of this epic film. This isn't the case in, for example, Gladiator. Yes, that film is quite spectacular, but there's not a lot of meat to the story and the characters aren't developed very well. This isn't the case at all in The Bridge On The River Kwai, where I found the most interesting feature to be the character development of Nicholson (Alec Guinness) and Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) and the mental struggle they fight for command over the British prisoners of war. Both men are so perched in their personal visions on honor and national pride that they will never understand each other. Eventually, they are both dancing on a tight rope, Nicholson going through great physical distress whereas Saito goes through great mental distress, as he struggles to come to grips with the stubornness of Nicholson which he cannot understand from his cultural perspective.

That struggle for command is the most thing about The Bridge On The River Kwai. Next to that there's also the moral dilemma that Nicholson faces. He is essentially helping the enemy, meaning he is committing an act of collaboration. When the medic confronts him with this, he tries to justify his actions by claiming that the work on the bridge is good for the men's morale. Moreover, he claims that his men are doing it out of their own free will, meaning that the Japenese couldn't break their bodies nor their spirits. And it is a pesky situation that Nicholson is in. In order to help his own men, he has to help his enemies. That's the madness of war, upside down.

Also there to be admired are the images and compositions of the scenes. It all seems a bit low-key, as there are no sudden camera movements or flashy editing techniques, but the composition of some shots are just top notch in my book. The scenes where the men are called in front of Saito are beautifully shot. In the background, you can see the under-officers hesitantly looking at each other. On the foreground, the proud Nicholson stands in confrontation with Saito, who elevates himself above the prisoners whenever he can. This composition adds to the drama of the sequence, as the under-officers are looking at the two commanders, whilst these are looking at each other, knowing that others are looking at them, so they must behave accordingly to their position.

I do have some criticism. I don't think the story line with William Holden works that well, perhaps because it's much more traditional as opposed to the mental struggle that Nicholson and Saito are fighting.

Still, this is a bloody good war film with splendid all-around acting, a compelling plot, beautiful imagery, excellent dialogue (good show!) and a nice soundtrack.