Elite Squad (Tropa De Elite) [Blu-ray]

A couple of rookies join Brazil's thin blue (well, green) line and get more than they bargained for when they are forced into extremely dangerous 'slum' situations night after night. Which isn't helped by the fact that they are surrounded by unsympathetic civilians and corrupt colleagues at every turn, who're happy to feed them to the streets in order to line their own dirty pockets..Thoroughly enjoyed this cop thriller with its constant displays of violence and brutality. The themes are quite heavy, probably justifiably so, albeit I have no idea how realistic, or close to the bone this is, having never been to Brazil ~ I have however, on occasion, wandered the mean streets of the Scilly Isles if that counts?!The story is engaging and the music and action is lively and chaotic enough for me to not really care about its social commentary or impact though, so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. In fact if you like tough crime flicks with a very grey moral compass you could do much worse than neck a few cold Brahma's and check this out.The bluray print is crisp and colourful but there's little in the way of extras, with only a trailer and a director interview.Obviously people will see immediate similarities to this and City of God but I would also recommend the lesser seen film Pixote as another foray into the world of very good Brazilian ghetto movies.4.25/5. Add an extra half a star if you like world crime cinema.

As an action movie with a tormented hero and some shooting (though not as much as you might think) Elite Squad works extremely well, and doesn't have to engage the brain too much.But it's also a movie with a very strong political subtext, about what happens when an entire society is corrupt at veery level, and where middle-class kids taking cocaine support ruthless criminal networks who corrupt policemen and politicians.The solution, insofar as there is one, is the BOPE - the Special Operations Battalion, who are really not people you would want to make enemies of. They fight drug trafficking literally, by killing those who are involved in it.Which is an extreme solution to be sure, and one that has attracted rather silly cries of "fascism" from the usual quarters, although the film is anything but an uncritical celebration of such methods. But the alternative is .... well, what exactly? Because the one thing that is very clear from the very start of the film is that there is no hope. So long as the gilded youth of Rio keep doing cocaine, the desperate kids of the slums will continue to join the gangs as soldiers because there's literally no alternative. In some way's, it's a vision of hell disguised as a thriller, with no hope of a solution of any kind, positive or not.

Another Brazilian masterpiece, Elite Squad (or BOPE) focuses on an elite police team fighting crime, rather than being it. Like City of God and other crime dramas it has moments of fast delivery (subtitles), action, suspense, gritty realism and individuality.The look of the film is superbly real and the characters are enjoyable, being part of a great insight into Rio's slum favela crime life (in 1997). There are three main characters, Nascimento (a BOPE leader needing to take a lesser role as he deals with stress and his newborn), Matias (an intellectual wannabe lawyer) and Neto (a crazy, hungry BOPE applicant). There are several other main people too, including friends, other cops and the drug dealer gangs.Elite Squad is a top foreign film movie, being interesting, engaging, intelligent and most importantly a believably realistic look at the slums in Brazil and the super-cop policing tackling drug barons. The film also touches upon corruption and education.For me the film starts well, dips and then recovers excellently with the intense and brutal training camp. A great film, full of tension, toughness, brutality, and much more.Blu-Ray Tech Stats- Director Interview and the Trailer. It is 1080p with 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio, it has only English subtitles, nothing else. The film has a lot of blacks and yellow and has strobe lighting effects. The backdrops of Brazil and characters faces are worth the HD upgrade.

ELITE SQUAD gives Hollywood a lesson on how to make an engaging, realistic action movie. It sucks you in, keeps your attention (which is hard these days) and takes you into the life of Brazil's elite police/military who operate in the the wild-wild-west favellas that perhaps only Call Of Duty has given us a glipse of before. So it's also refreshing to have a new world in this movie never before explored. Not only are their enemy the drug dealers but also the corrupt "normal" police.This movie is a must-have. My fave films include Scarface, Goodfellas and definetley this. Having seen City Of God, I would say this surpasses it. If you prefer Jason Bourne to James Bond, in other words your movies don't have to be sugar coated and have happily-ever-after endings, you want a raw, hard hitting but well made movie that is watchable more than once, this is it.

I have quite a lot of contact with Brazil. Believe me the law abiding citizen loves BOPE, the SAS style police unit for heavy use against drug cartels and other criminal organisations. BOPE don't go in for arrest so much as elimination of criminal elements, the favelas of Brazil are not nice places to police. This film is raw, but certainly does not romanticise the police, where the general units can be corrupt with a very big C. There is a murder every 30 minutes in Rio, so see it like it is, it's better the criminal is wasted by whatever means available, than the university student, the tourist, the policeman, the lawyer, and of course the Pope in his famous visit to Rio. Also it is not just Rio where the going is tough, nor just Brazil, but BOPE are doing a darned good job at cleaning up the country. I found that female members of my family declined to watch this film, it is not for the squeamish.

Realistic…