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Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite) [Sub: Eng]
Through Wagner Mura's book, that controversial story begins. In Brazil, the writer Nascimento wanted to find an alternate. But it seems that the writer Nascimento wanted to track drug distributors and stay one step on the Pope's arrival to Rio de Cainero. It seems to be a real risk for the writer to tell the story is the coolest.
25 February 1980, São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil
1980, Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
1970, Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil
10 October 1980, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
September 25, 2008
Given that Brazil, as a Latin American moviemaking powerhouse, steadily produces vibrant, vital films of real impact and humanity, it's a crime itself that Elite Squad may be the only Brazilian film that American audiences see this year.
September 19, 2008
With no star names and a tough subject, it will be hard sell despite being a runaway hit on its home turf.
September 15, 2008
It bears a resemblance to viscerally exciting seventies urban thrillers like The French Connection, in which only the fascists could do what needed to be done.
September 18, 2008
Trying to address important and serious social issues in this violent world rather than just creating something sensationalistic or exploitative gives Elite Squad an edge over normal police thrillers.
January 13, 2009
A satisfactory enough cop movie, but not one that people will still be name checking years hence
September 19, 2008
A poor man's City of God that suggests the only answer to the problems of Brazil's slums are blazing guns wielded by a neo-fascist police force.
September 19, 2008
Elite Squad is a relentlessly ugly, unpleasant, often incoherent assault on the senses from Brazil.
September 20, 2008
A depressing film that celebrates brute strength as the only means to stem the tide of violence and crime in Rio de Janeiro.
August 08, 2008
It is impressively made, but leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.
September 17, 2008
Elite Squad can't decide whether it wants to pull the lid back on what urban decay has wrought or simply open up a can of whup ass.
September 19, 2008
For nearly two hours, Padilha bombards viewers with senseless, sickening violence for its own sake.
September 17, 2008
[José Padilha] recariously pitches the squad's brute force as less a necessary evil than the outgrowth of an existing evil -- a no-win situation that mocks liberal ideals and warps conservative pragmatism into domestic terrorism.

