Elite Squad

If the entire film was only about the training of the new members of the “elite squad”, the only thing that would bother me would be the ideological aftertaste left by almost every scene. But Elite Squad has many more things that bothered me: there isn’t a lot of action, and when there is some, it’s not very clear, half the scenes are pointless, the subplots are uninteresting, the script goes nowhere and there are many ugly male characters that (other than the main trio) I could never tell apart. To tell you the truth, after half an hour I was already looking forward to the end (and I kept on looking forward until the end). (21/04/2011)

Considerably weaker than City of God, but still a drama of immense power. The worst is that we are forced to watch hell on earth through the eyes of the cruellest policeman ever, whose actions become increasingly disgusting as the story progresses, but at the same time we understand more and more that there is no other way. Whether it's the torture and shooting of dealers or the incredibly tough military training, which at one point is really hard to follow, in any case, José Padilha has achieved his goal of presenting us with a society so bleakly devastated and corrupted on both sides of the law that I will never forget it. (28/08/2012)

Rio de Janeiro is full of pissed off drug dealers and gangs, and they must be taken off the streets before the Pope comes to visit. The elite BOPA unit will be happy to do the job. A very impressive and well shot action drama about how life in Brazil is far from idyllic. But this audiovisual and atmospheric banger has a problem with perhaps too radical ideas in the script. (09/07/2008)

Elite Squad wants to shock and awe, but it lacks the better expressive devices, emotion and directorial virtuosity of the makers of City of God – which it so closely resembles at first glance with its volatile cinematography, raw tone and choppy editing. Unfortunately, the story is about nothing and the characters don't win you over one bit, after an hour you're actually just waiting for everyone to get shot in a shouted and eclectic jumble to keep the peace. (02/03/2022)

I did not find any exorbitant political incorrectness in Elite Squad. The film provides no instant solutions to a sad situation, nothing gives hope, and if it does provide something, then it is a rather appalling picture of decaying justice and its humiliated servants. Personally, I was quite convinced by invectives toward left-wing intellectuals from good families, and I was able to identify with Captain Nascimento's views, although the depicted effects of the Crusades on justice evoke appalling feelings. What I really like about the film and find healthily provocative is the fact that the operation in the slums is initiated by the Pope's visit. This strange virtual detachment of civilization from the devastated world of slums and the effort to seek in it a kind of nobility of poverty contrasts well with the aspect of the glued and formatted "black" brains from BOPE. We can argue about where the truth is, but the fact remains that Padilha does not offer any. And if it is on the side of brutality of the men of the law, from my point of view, it does so because a) I am able to identify with it, b) even if I did not identify with it, it is still an aspect I want to know about. BTW, the film is technically brilliant. (14/10/2009)