This article does not intend to promote the image of Brazil as a violent country. This film is a very big deal in the news, and I thought it appropriate to discuss.

Tropa de Elite is a film based on the book Elite da Tropa, written by Luiz Eduardo Soares, André Batista and Rodrigo Pimental, and directed by José Padilha, acclaimed director of Bus 174. Based in factual accounts, the fictitious film shows the world for the first time the inner workings of the BOPE (Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais) of Rio de Janeiro. The BOPE is like a SWAT team on steroids; these are the guys that get called into the favelas when total mayhem breaks out.

The film focuses largely on the corruption of the Polícia Militar in Rio, which necessitates an elite, incorruptible task force totally separate from the regular police. Towards the beginning of the movie, when the BOPE arrives to enter a favela, a young PM officer is heard saying, “Faca na caveira… e nada na carteira,” a witty slogan referring to the skull-and-knife logo of the BOPE, and their incorruptibility (Knife in the skull, and nothing in the wallet).

I won’t get too much into the plot. Let me just say that the movie is amazing.

Wagner Moura, a popular novela star, plays Captain Nascimento, the troubled leader of the BOPE squad who longs to leave the stressful job to raise his newborn son. The rest of the cast is phenomenal as well; between the acting and the scenery, the movie is perhaps even a little too real.

Imagine my surprise as well when I saw that half the movie was filmed at PUC-RIO, the very college that I did my study abroad program.

Many have made the obvious comparison to another Brazilian film, Cidade de Deus, a film that bore the brunt of many of the same criticisms as Tropa, mainly that Brazil ought not be ‘exporting’ the image of violence by making Hollywood-style movies revolving around favela life and violence. Take it or leave it, it is not my place to pass judgment on these movies; I appreciate many facets of Brazilian culture and feel it is possible to learn from this type of film if has a defined notion of Brazil outside of poverty and violence.

Tropa made its way into the news in months past largely as the result of the leaking or vazamento of the film, allegedly by the subtitling firm [source]. The film was leaked onto the internet several months prior to its scheduled release, apparently in an incomplete version:

Director José Padilha: “Eu não fiz nenhuma mudança no filme por causa da pirataria. A diferença entre a versão pirateada e a versão que estará nos cinemas é o equivalente a um mês e meio de trabalho na montagem. Há narrações que não existem mais, ou que não existiam antes, a mesma coisa com cenas que não existiam, sem falar no trabalho de som e imagem que nos custou um milhão de reais para fazer. Em cima de tudo isso, ver o filme num cinema e não numa telinha de computador é a grande diferença.” [source]

The leaking of the film also led to the release date of the film in major Brazilian cities to be moved up.

I caution anyone who wants to see this movie that it is very graphic, certainly at least an R rating here in the US. It will eventually be released internationally, and I discourage the illegal downloading of the film, especially through the use of torrent file-sharing technology.