~I am writing this on the night of the Academy Awards (Kings Speech wins best picture.)I have just watched one of the best movies I have ever seen- Elite Squad 2 (2010).
I had refrained from watching this, though I thought Elite Squad (2007) was brilliant- because I find that most often the sequels are lacking the intensity of the original (think Matrix). This movie is better in my opinion than the excellent original (you need not see the first to fully appreciate this movie -this movie stands on it's own.)
I watch a lot of movies and review very few. Time is limited. To be a movie `critic' does not necessarily mean that you need to criticize a movie. I try to review movies that I like.
(The reason I watched this movie had everything to do with the reviews on the Internet Movie Data Base http://www.imdb.com/ .)
Brazil put the film "Lulu, the son of Brazil" - up to represent the country at the Academy Awards, and why not push for a positive depiction of your country with a rags to riches story? --" The true story of a working class boy who moves to the nation's financial capital at a young age and becomes one the most influential politician in Brazil's history." I have not seen that movie yet. the movie did not get selected as one of the five in consideration for the award. "In a Better World" from Denmark won, which was a huge upset for critic favorite Biutiful, which hailed from Mexico
Elite Squad 2 is much more `intense' than it's predecessor ( by the same director). It, like its predecessor, is described as an "action, crime, drama, thriller". And it succeeds in all those areas.
The IMDB gave the movie "Kings Speech" (based on collected criteria) an 8.4. And this sequal " Elite Squad 2- an 8.6.
It might be possible to argue, that as an United States citizen that I cannot fully understand the psychological depth of this movie. I would have to agree. But for me, because of how well it was .. choreographed --the film transcended it's location - and simply was a great film.
However it for some was more than just a `movie'. There are references in other reviews that it was almost a `truthful' documentary about the state of affairs in Brazil. It definitely touched in the pulse of that country= "about 11.1 million paying viewers made Elite Squad 2 the most seen movie in Brazilian cinema history. It also became the highest-grossing film of all time in Brazil, beating Avatar(2009)'s record."
Consider this review:
"I saw the film in its world premiere in Paulinia, São Paulo. 1,500 people in the audience. Perhaps, 1/3 industry members and 2/3 non-industry members. It was a collective catharsis, I only remember a group experience of the same intensity watching Crouching Tiger in its Cannes premiere.
The audience applauded the film five times, the last a standing ovation."
(Emphasis mine)
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So what is it all about? No spoiler.
A man, who is the leader, of what we in the US would call SWAT, is involved in a prison uprising that gets out of control. He is the narrator of the film. He is divorced. He has a young son. His wife has remarried a very left wing professor . The two major social problems (the plot of the movie) that the government seeks, through its police to eradicate, are drug dealers and arms dealers.
With that short scenario you can predict both violence and emotional conflicts, which the movie provides.
The director and writer of the film José Padilha has made several documentaries- thus there certainly, in my opinion- at times, a documentary feeling within the film (though not boring). Padilha studied business studies, politics and economics in Rio de Janeiro, followed by English literature and international politics in Oxford.
The star is Wagner Moura who seems to me as an unlikely choice, but who he makes his role work (he is also the narrator of the movie) by his personal intensity.
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