Rating of
3/4
"Elite Squad" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 01/20/12
A pair of young recruits join Rio De Janeiro's police "Elite Squad" and are given the task of cleaning up a gang controlled slum before a papal visit. Infernal Affairs meets Full Metal Jacket in this Brazilian crime drama about a police unit that's a cross between SWAT, Internal Affairs and the Gestapo. Matias' transition from idealistic law student to trigger happy storm trooper has some parallels with Michael Corleone's from The Godfather but I'm not 100% sure that the irony was intended by Padhila. The BOPE squad is shown as a bunch of jackbooted thugs who are the only ones who are incorruptible in the face drug money but at the same time their immoral methods make Guantanomo look all warm and fuzzy in comparison. It has a brutal realism in a similar style to City Of God, but it's missing the heart and likeable characters that made you care what happened to them. Its blase attitude toward some pretty distasteful fascistic attitudes may be a little hard to swallow but it has gritty action aplenty and some pretty powerful scenes. A sequel showing the story from the point of view of civilians caught in the crossfire could be fantastic.
