Tropa de Elite Duology

Title: Tropa de Elite and Tropa de Elite 2 – O inimigo Agora  É Outro

Director: José Padilha

Writers: José Padilha,  Bráulio Mantovani

Cast: Wagner Moura (Capitão Nascimento), André Ramiro (Aspirante Matias)

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller 

Special Notes: Brutal description of human mind 

Reality is bound to one’s ability to perceive what is happening around him and this has a direct influence on the reality perceived by others. It is interesting how this subject can be the main theme of an action movie. José Padilha, a director who only did these two movies, captured the essence of action and its philosophical aspects in this “Tropa de Elite” duology and surpassed most of the contemporary moviemakers.

            Emphasizing the corruption and the destructive power of an organization, both movies build their action around the links between the drug cartels and the police force. These two organizations are tied to each other in the same way the two parts are because of the semiotics: the first part damages the view of the drug dealers and the second part attacks directly the politics that drives order to chaos.  
            The main theme can be summed up in the following sentence: poverty drives people to desperate measures but wealth drives people to madness. 

The characters are powerfully built and complex but we can establish from the beginning the main types: the righteously powerful, the powerful evil, the desperately poor and the hopelessly poor. With the archetypes fully covered the action writes itself, the story self suffices and the fiction merges into reality.

The action revolves around the “Elite Squad” and its captain, Nascimento as the ideology reigns war on the tangible. He has a unique way to see life and, even if it is platonic, his view closes the gap between reality and fiction. A modern day hero, a 21st century Samurai Jack, the captain does only what is right and doesn’t fear the consequences. He drags the viewer through corruption and blood assuring his baptism of real life fire, and BOPE (Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais - Portuguese for Special Police Operations Battalion) is the extension he needs to transcend his ideas into actions. 

There are several poetical scenes that challenge the mediocrity of ones mind (a human rights shirt covered in blood, several plastic bag choking scenes, torture mechanisms). It is harder than usual to relate to the characters but this offers the change much needed in the modern cinematography as we grew tired of the director induced stereotypes.

Even if it’s about a movie, Padilha hints to a semi fiction at the beginning of the second part with a satirical statement (any resemblance with reality is entirely coincidental).

This duology has all it takes to be a must see movie: great director, talented actors, exquisite plot and a view of the world that many share but don’t dare to talk about it. 

“Dagger to the skull and nothing to the wallet” 

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