Amazing film

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 2003)

Amazing film about boys growing up as gangsters in a Rio De Janeiro ghetto. I haven't been there, and don't want to go! It is not a complete narrative about the ghetto, but a violent and living thing, full of machismo. You lack the perspective from the women, the peaceful children, the workers - those that kept everyday going through the mayhem. So it is in essence a gangster movie. Cinematically, and partly in subject, it reminded me a lot of the 1974 O Amuleto De Ogum. I saw little documentation for that one, but check it out if you have a chance - it saw it on swedish television ages ago, and it "blew me away" much as this one. There are also other violent argentinian movies, and I wish I could make a proper list, but I know to little. Maybe later. I see references to Pulp Fiction and Goodfellas...but these comparisons are misplaced. Especially, some young americans should learn not to call everything Tarantino. There's a story of gangsters movies, and there's a tradition of gangster movies, that go way back, and which is international. I enjoyed the movie fully, because of all aspects - actors, cinematography, the depiction of kiddie gangs, the brutality. It is genre perfect. But even a top movie, a 1o points movie, is allowed to be critized. I think that the playing with time - introducing scenes in advance, and making us confused, was unnessesary. Even if everything was nicely explained in the end, it would have better flow with straight story telling. I often wonder why gangster leaders are so irrational, like Ze in this movie. They just can't use those violent methods and expect to succeed. But I guess those sociopats are the one that leave most stories to be told after them.