quietearth [Celluloid 02.18.08] movie news action drama crime



Surpisingly beating There will be Blood, Elite Squad took the fatty home from Berlin. It's a tale involving the Pope, police, corruption, and gangs in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Based on a semi-fictional account of the BOPE (Police Operations Battalion of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police), it's the second feature from director José Padilha, and was written by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Bráulio Mantovani, based on the book Elite da Tropa by sociologist Luiz Eduardo. Check out the 9 minutes of subtitled footage and synopsis after the break, and if you understand Portuguese, you're in luck! The entire film is on youtube.

"Rio de Janeiro in 1997. Police officer Nascimento is in charge of an elite commando. He finds himself in a quandary when he is assigned to lead a rapid response force that has been given the task, on barest of pretexts, of maintaining law and order in a favela ruled by drug dealers. Unable to come up with a suitable successor for his job, he has no choice but to carry out the assignment himself. The fact that his wife Rosane is about to give birth to their first child and pleads with him every day to stop putting his life on the line, doesn’t make things any easier. This double burden weighing on Nascimento only makes him feel the pressure more keenly.


In the midst of his predicament he receives an emergency call. There has been a shoot-out at a party in another favela and Nascimento and his group rush to the aid of two young policemen. The two young cops are so impressed by the professional way in which Nascimento’s squad help them to break free, that the pair – Neto and Matias – immediately sign up as trainees in the elite commando. The commitment of these two young men is soon on everyone’s lips. One of them is well-known for his daring, and the other for his intelligence. If Nascimento could only manage to forge these two qualities in one person then he would have found his successor."



Film website

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Rafael (13 years ago) Reply

'Tropa de elite' is a pretty good movie, might be better than Cidade de Deus.
If you ever been to Rio, I guess you'll understand the concept of the movie better...
Watch it if you have the chance!

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