Brazil, United States, Argentina · 2007
Rated R · 1h 55m
Director José Padilha
Starring Wagner Moura, Caio Junqueira, André Ramiro, Milhem Cortaz
Genre Drama, Action, Crime
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In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum nearby where the pope intends to be lodged.
Pokes and prods the viewer to watch the brutal, indiscriminate methods of Rio's SWAT-like cops and then demands only one conclusion: That cops in Rio's drug-infested slums must do what they do and if that means rampant point-blank executions, so be it.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
The captain narrates in a punchy, journalistic style that gives Elite Squad an air of sociological realism--it bears a resemblance to viscerally exciting seventies urban thrillers like "The French Connection."
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
A relentlessly ugly, unpleasant, often incoherent assault on the senses from Brazil.
The Hollywood Reporter by Ray Bennett
Poorly structured and at times incoherent.
It boggles the mind to think that Elite Squad won the top prize at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival in February.
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