#68 - Tropa de Élite (2007)

You probably don't know what Tropa de Élite is, heck, not even with its English name (Elite Squad). It's a Brazilian film on the tension between the Rio de Janeiro police force and the drug dealers from the favelas. And you know what? You're not missing out on anything. I had Portuguese at high school, and it's not a very useful language (not even given that I live in a country bordering Brazil) so nobody took the subject seriously and we were always nagging our teachers for movies or something, and Tropa de Élite kept being the most requested one. We never got to see it, though. And after watching it on my own, I don't regret it.

Tropa de Élite is part drama/crime film, part documentary. Thingy. The narrator is a captain of the BOPE (pretty much the Brazilian SWAT), who is starting a family and wants to get someone to replace him as captain, all while he has to lead an operation to secure the Pope on his visit. On the meanwhile, two rookie policemen climb the ranks while trying to stay away from corruption and do the right thing and all that. The different storylines are woven together surprisingly well, but at the same time I wasn't drawn in too much by the plot.

       

Let's spend millions of Reais protecting one man's safety while millions are starving around him. Genius.

One of the things I liked about the film is the depiction of crime and corruption in the favelas. The arrangements done between the police and the dealers, the bribes, and schemes, such as paying the police for "extra" protection, or dumping bodies in another precinct to decrease their own crime rate, that was pretty shocking. The depiction is shows on cops is rather impartial, in some ocassions being corrupt and greedy and in others... well, a little overglorified, but it doesn't really get out of hand.

All that being said, there's nothing in Tropa de Élite you won't find in reality cop shows. Aside from the drama and the setting there's nothing special about it. Maybe it's a personal thing, but I didn't find it appealing. If you want to watch a film on the favelas, drug lords and all that so you can get the wrong idea of what my subcontinent is like, I'd suggest and recommend Cidade de Deus (City of God). It's a really good film on its own, too. Sorry for the short review, but I wasn't that interested in the film, really.

   

    Trust me, Cidade de Deus is ten times better.