Tropa de Elite
Tags: violence, realism

Plot synopsis:
Captain Roberto Nascimento (Wagner Moura), top member of BOPE, narrates the film, briefly explaining how the police and the drug lords of Rio de Janeiro cooperate with each other (policemen collect periodic bribes and drug lords are left free to operate) in the 1990s.
In 1997, in medias res, officer Captain Oliveira (Marcelo Valle) and his colleagues are shown driving through Morro da Babilônia towards a baile funk. Nascimento and his other colleagues are also shown in their armored car. Meanwhile, novice police officers André Matias (André Ramiro) and Neto Gouveia (Caio Junqueira) are shown riding a motorcycle at the same favela, though not with the other officers. Once they make it to a vantage point, Neto uses the telescope of a sniper rifle to check on the police team as they talk to some drug traffickers. Neto shoots one of them and provokes a deadly gunfight between police and thugs, both sides unaware of where the bullet came from, forcing Mathias and Neto to flee the scene. Nascimento leads his colleagues from BOPE, Rio Special Police Department, heading to the shootout to interfere and save the officers.
Six months earlier, Nascimento and his wife Rosane (Maria Ribeiro) are shown during her pregnancy of their first child. Not wanting to be an absent father when his child is born, Nascimento decides to search for a worthy successor for his position as a BOPE captain, since he will be promoted to lieutenant colonel. This coincides with an operation at Morro dos Prazeres set to secure the location and clean it of drug dealers during the visit of Pope John Paul II, who will spend the night in the Archbishop's home located near the slum buildings. Because the operation requires daily trips into the favela filled with heavily armed drug lords, Nascimento strongly opposes it, but is forced to accept it as his last mission by his superiors due to the Pope's regards and requirements.
Meanwhile, Neto and Matias debut as police officers. Both hold high moral grounds and rebuff everyday payoff offers, but are soon disillusioned to realize their superiors are corrupted. While Neto begins working as a supervisor at the police auto mechanic shop, in charge of the mechanics who are fixing run-down police cars and bikes with newer parts, Matias is responsible for registering and filing every police complaint in a small archive office with fellow other officers. Both share a small apartment in Rio and are long-time friends and flatmates.
Parallel to his work as a police officer, Matias attends Law school at "Rio's best new Law University" (according to Nascimento), where his classmates are usually wealthy youngsters that tend to see the police as a repressive institution, while others are selling marijuana around the campus. He soon befriends Roberta (Fernanda de Freitas), Edu (Paulo Viela) and Maria (Fernanda Machado) (whom he later dates), who are all members of a NGO that supports poor children from a local favela. Roberta dates Rodrigues, who helps Maria run the organization and represents a Senator who sponsors the NGO. The three smoke marijuana regularly provided by Edu, who serves as a drug dealer at the university. Edu is supplied and bossed by Baiano (Fábio Lago), the local drug lord of the Comando Vermelho, who allows the NGO to operate as long as it doesn't interfere with his business or bring police attention to his area. Aware of the NGO's and Maria's connections to the illegal drug trafficking and fearing for the life of Romerito, a boy who befriends him, Matias keeps his police career as a secret from his classmates.
Neto is soon tired of working at the autoshop, but fails to be transferred to another department. During a routine patrol with Captain Fabio (Milhem Cortaz), he learns about corruption schemes adopted by police officers, such as payment of periodic bribes by small shopkeepers in exchange for police presence in front of their spots, and a common "relocation of dead bodies" to other battalion's areas (in order to artificially decrease criminal statistics of one battalion and leave less work to its officers). Upon discovering this scheme, Matias maps and charts every crime committed or investigated in every battalion, but is berated by his superiors after presenting the report. Also, due to the government's budget deficit to provide tow trucks, the police hire private tows and pay for every towed car (towing vehicles had since become a lucrative activity and corrupt officers are shown to own tow trucks).
Looking to raise enough money to fix as many police cars as possible at once, Neto comes up with a plan to steal the bribes Oliveira collects periodically from the favela drug lords and asks Matias and Fabio to help him. Fabio declines, since he will not have a share in it. The duo succeeds in stealing the money and celebrate their success, but Oliveira finds out about their involvement and punishes them by demoting both to cooks at the battalion's kitchen. However, Oliveira believes they were carrying the task under Fabio's orders, and orders him to attend a false police report at the Morro da Babilônia during a baile funk. Realizing he is going to be killed, Fabio warns Neto and Matias, who follow him and arrive at the vantage point to protect Fabio (the first scene of the film). When one of the dealers touches his gun, Neto opens fire, provoking a gunfight between police officers and dealers. Fabio takes cover behind a bar and engages in a shootout with Olivera's men while his two protectors fight some of the heavily armed dealers with only two pistols, a rifle and a sub-machine gun, but quickly run out of ammo.
Meanwhile, Nascimento is confronted by a woman trying to locate her the body of her son, who worked as a lookout for the drug lords. She believes her son was murdered after being brutally interrogated and then released by Nascimento. In guilt and thinking of his unborn child, Nascimento gathers some officers and goes into the slum to look for the boy's body. During the search, Nascimento is informed of the situation at Babilônia and ordered to intervene. After rescuing the trapped officers at Babilônia, he meets Matias and Neto for the first time and orders them to help clean up the scene, during which Matias is unwittingly photographed by the press. Soon after, the two friends, along with Fabio, apply for BOPE's training program. Matias and Neto are motivated by their desire to be good and honorable policemen, while Fabio applies due to his fear of retaliation from Oliveira. Meanwhile, Rafael, Nascimento's son, is born.
At the NGO office, Baiano confronts Maria and her friends with a newspaper showing Matias's picture and accusing them of bringing a cop into his area. He threatens the group and instructs them to get rid of Matias as soon as possible, as he is distrusting of police officers.
Soon after, BOPE's training program takes place over a few weeks in the jungle. The course proves a tough challenge, since all enrolled officers are subjected to severe physical and psychological treatment and trained under extreme pressure. Nascimento explains that this is "in order to eliminate the weak and, mainly, punish the corrupt", leaving only the honest and tough officers. Many candidates quit the program, including Fabio after he gets foot fungus, but Neto and Matias reach the final level, where they are brought into Nascimento's final operation. To celebrate his approval, Neto gets a BOPE tattoo in his arm.
At the university, Matias is rejected by Maria and her friends after his exposure as a cop. All the same, Matias confronts Edu and orders him to arrange a meeting with Romerito, to whom he has promised to deliver glasses for eyesight problems. Because of the slum's dangers, Matias tells Edu he will meet Romerito at an arcade at the base of the slum to delive his glasses. However, upon returning home, Neto informs Matias that he arranged a job interview in a prestigious law firm that will conflict with his meeting with Romerito. Hoping to see his long-time friend succeed in a law career, Neto offers to deliver the glasses to Romerito in Matias' place.
Edu reveals to Baiano that he had been threatened by Matias, and Baiano decides to take revenge on Matias for getting his friend killed, as well as interrupting his operations. When Neto meets Romerito and delivers his glasses, he is ambushed and mortally wounded by Baiano and his men, but ultimately sees Neto's arm tattoo and realizes he is a BOPE officer. Aware that killing an elite officer will "sign his death sentence" (as narrated by Nascimento), he murders Roberta and Rodrigues for revenge and goes into hiding in another favela. Severely injured, Neto dies in the hospital.
Seeking revenge for his friend's death, Matias, as well as Nascimento and fellow BOPE officers, start making daily incursions into Baiano's slum to torture dealers into telling them of his whereabouts. When one of them reveals Edu tipped Baiano about Matias's meeting with Romerito, Matias ragefully interrupts a peace walk, beats Edu up and insults Maria and the others, accusing them of being spoiled hypocritical drug users working for a drug dealer to provide for their work.
In the final act, BOPE officers discover the exact location of Baiano and raid his hideout. Baiano tries to escape, but is shot in the chest while running through the rooftops. Nascimento holds him at gunpoint, but Baiano pleads to not shoot him in the face to secure "for the wake". Nascimento grabs a shotgun, hands it to Matias and tells him to shoot Baiano in the head, as a final test to ascertain Matias's worthiness as his true successor. Matias takes the gun, points to Baiano's face and cocks the slide after a brief hesitation. The screen cuts to black as a gunshot is heard.

Review: The main plot revolves around the captain of an elite police unit trying to find a replacement for himself, while dealing with the birth of his child and the horrendous stress of his job, and a mission to clear out a dangerously violent slum.There are no wholly good people in the movie, and it's frighteningly easy to compare some of what goes on to things happening in the USA (and other places) today.
For anyone living in a 3rd country it's way more than that: it's a brutal picture of our degradation and corruption, a revelation that runs over you like a truck.The most striking aspect about the movie is how clearly it shows how everyone is at the same time guilty and victim in the whole war against drugs: the do-gooders NGOs, the politicians, the corrupt police and the not-corrupt but truculent "Elite Squad".
I don't like to give 10 ratings to movies, because it's hard to find a movie that is excellent, but this one is.While you watch the movie it's unavoidable to compare it to City of God (Cidade de Deus), and until the middle of the movie I was thinking to my self that City Of God was a better movie then this one, but when this movie ends and I summed everything I saw, it's was harder to choose one, but I believe this one is better, for several reasons.First of all this movie has a great story, and focuses on real life issues, I'm not from Brazil, but I know some of this stuff is true.
Prior to its theatrical release this October, "Tropa" was seen by an estimated record 11 million people who bought pirate DVD copies or illegally downloaded it on the net (the biggest Brazilian box-office success in the last 25 years was "2 Filhos de Francisco" with 5,5 million tickets sold).The reaction is passionately polarized: some call it the best Brazilian movie since "City of God" -- a definite influence here, in the cinematography, editing and screenplay structure, with an omniscient narrator and use of mixed chronology -- exposing the endemic corruption of Rio de Janeiro's police force and the "unorthodox" methods used by BOPE (the self-called "incorruptible" elite squad of Rio's military police force, created in 1978 and inspired by the U.S. SWAT) that include torture and shoot-first-ask-later modus operandi in the ultra-violent, ever-growing drug war in Rio's favelas.
Others have publicly attacked it as fascist in its glorification of BOPE, its sadistic depiction of torture and the reductionist, simple-minded vision of the complex issues involving violence/ drugs/police corruption in Rio. Director José Padilha and co-writer Rodrigo Pimentel (a former BOPE captain who left the squad for disagreeing with its praxis) had collaborated in the extraordinary "Bus 174", a multi-faceted documentary on Rio's violence.
It combines a discussion about the problem of violence in Rio de Janeiro, the police corruption and the society responsibility and, what is more important, Elite Squad is a terrific thriller: nervous, intriguing and entertaining.
Bráulio Mantovani, from City of God, wrote the screenplay and Daniel Rezend, also from CDD, is the editor (Both nominated to the Oscar).Above, one article about the film: "WASHINGTON (Reuters Life!) characters lie dead in the street within minutes of the opening of Brazilian director Jose Padilha's new film which he hopes will shed new light on gang violence and police corruption in his country."Elite Squad," which Padilha wrote with former Rio police officer Rodrigo Pimentel, follows two young Rio de Janeiro police officers as their fantasy of implementing law and order disintegrates into bloodshed and corruption.It details night raids through the makeshift homes of the city's hillside slums known as favelas, as well as the stark class differences that feed an appetite for riches among many of its poor residents.Padilha, 39, said he had originally hoped to use the information he received from Pimentel for a documentary but quickly realized that it would not be feasible."How would I do this, go to corrupt cops with cameras?" he asks.
"If I tried to make this film as a documentary, it would probably get me killed." Padilha, whose highly-acclaimed debut film "Bus 174" about a real-life bus hijacking in Rio was released in 2002, has strived to make the film as realistic as possible, shooting much of the film on the favelas' narrow streets."Elite Squad" is based on Pimentel's account of his tenure as captain of Rio's elite police force which has come under attack by Amnesty International for brutality.Like "Bus 174," it exposes the darker elements of Brazil that contrast vividly with the nation's colorful, extravagant Carnival celebrations.".
Despite all of the frenesi it's causing all around, it has a good storyline, excellent screenplay and a brilliant performance from all the cast in the movie, especially Wagner Moura who deserves all prizes he can get for this great performance.Basically the movie explores the fight between drug dealers and corrupt cops against the good policemen's, some of them from the military police force and most of them from BOPE.
The movie is shot like a documentary, many times in fact I felt like I was intrigued and interested on how and what the police does to get around the city.It is basically about the two main characters working their way up the police academy in Rio until they reach the BOPE unit.
Tropa de Elite is about a group of Rio de Janeiro cops that grow tired of the system and declare war against crime and corruption and literally aren't taking any prisoners to the point that you just can't help but cheer for BOPE no matter their brutal methods of interrogation.
Although an admittedly reactionary and authoritarian BOPE member, Captain Nascimento, narrates it, the film's primary criticisms are regarding low pay for police, systemic corruption, and, the middle class's irresponsible consumption of drugs.
Captain soon see that he have 2 good men in hands (they are infancy friends), 1 have heart and the other intelligence, but the substitute must have the 2 attributes.The movie have about 110 minutes and keep your eyes on the screen from the beginning to end (a lot of shoot out), and title in English is Elite Squad.Well i'll stop from here, but again, this is a must seen movie if you want to see a action movie in the real life, because we here in Rio de Janeiro live this, we see this, this is our war that is bit worse other wars..
I just love a good ol cops and robbers movie, and Elite Squad shows that it indeed is a generous cut above the rest, and along the way had snagged the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival.
On the surface, it looks very much like Hollywood's SWAT, but only much better, with its induction and training program where rookies get groomed from the mediocre to the cream of the crop in their attempts to join the BOPE, and on another level it tells of the friendship between two newcomers to the police force, where they're face with 3 options in an organization where corruption Is rampant  join in, turn a blind eye, or wage war.
What I particularly liked his character was how he subconsciously turned into the stereotypical view the citizens have of the cops  of being violent, unreasonable and corrupt, that save for the latter, he unwittingly becomes transformed into that mold, a disillusioned turn against his idealistic viewpoint of what a cop stands for, of becoming one of many misunderstood, honest cops.The BOPE are no angels, and are quite heavy handed in their ways, though one could also argue that extreme methods and operations are totally justifiable when in a "war zone" dealing with criminals armed to the teeth who have no hesitation to shoot first and to kill.
Given that this is set in the gritty streets of Rio de Janeiro, the shaky cam seems impossible not to be utilized, so if you're those who feel nauseous at the erratic movement of the camera, you might want to take the necessary precautions.For me, it's not often always to have a movie like this work on all fronts, from acting to action to a tightly designed and layered narrative.
From Brazil with fury: Tropa de Elite shows us, with realistic violence, all the horrors of the drug war in Rio de Janeiro "favelas" (slums).
It's really weird to see a movie with an impact and an intensity as big as in Tropa de Elite.This is an excellent film.The film exposes a valid and important message and I admired the professionalism showed on a lot of scenes.It's a real pleasure to watch a professional movie.Director José Padilha made a perfect work.His direction is precise and he could extract very natural performances from all the actors,who do not seem to be acting.The only fail I found on this movie is the ending which is pretty abrupt.In spite of that,I recommend Tropa de Elite with a lot of enthusiasm for many reasons,specially for being a professional movie which is not something we see everyday..
I liked each and every frame of their activities especially the training of the new recruits, that shows why they are so tough.Storyline is a narrative type narrated by Capitão Nascimento(Wagner Moura) who is the captain of the BOPE and a very good fighter and seeks a replacement.
But still i think we can justify their activities, because without such powers BOPE cannot fight against those heavily armed slums.The camera and lighting's are very good.It gives a real effect to the movie.There are a few shot from the sky showing the slums which is excellent.Anyway it is a must watch movie.You will surely enjoy this movie.If you have seen City Of God and liked it i am damn sure that you will really love this movie as i do.It is like City Of God taken from the other side(law enforcement side).You must really watch this movie, or else you are gonna miss something great..
When the "favela reality" movies seem to be running out of 'ideas' - trying to profit by copying the acclaimed "City of God" over and over -, director José Padilha (of the equally engrossing documentary "Bus 174") brings us "Tropa de Elite" ("Elite Squad"), the most controversial Brazilian film in a long time, having sold millions of pirated DVD copies even before its theatrical release (and still managed to become the biggest Brazilian movie event of 2007)."Elite Squad" shows the routine of a group of cops in Rio de Janeiro, and the inhumane training they have to go through in order to become a BOPE (Special Police Operation Battalion) captain, the policemen who are supposed to fight drug trafficking, in the rawest possible way.
1997, Captain Nascimento (Wagner Mouraw , this character was based on screenwriter Rodrigo Pimentel) has to find a substitute for his occupation while trying to take down drug dealers and criminals before the Pope comes to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil .
The movie deals about BOPE , a Special Operations Squad similar to American SWAT and their fight against factions in Favelas Rio Janeiro .
I have watched over 100 films this year and this is in the top three I've stumbled across.The acting, cinematography, plot, characters and the way this unfolds, will be loved by any fans of the City of God. This is like a way way more realistic portrayal of why all this dreadful stuff keeps going on, seen from several sides of the conflict.The three main characters - Captain Niscamento of the Elite squad - paranoid, troubled, stressed but somehow holding it together.
Thought provoking, highly charged, and just about damn near pitch perfect, Elite Squad is a document about what goes on day in, day out in the "war" between the elite BOPE forces and the drug cartels, dealers,and dare I say, addicts within the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This movie is a must see for pretty much anyone (unless you only like comedies or something).Some people (human rights activists and critics mostly) have attacked the film for not portraying the truth about BOPE, and for glorifying violence and "fascism", but I don't think that is the message here.
It just is amazing the reality we face throughout the movie, the bitter realization of the lives of everyone involved : the people on the 'favelas', the trafficants, the drug-using middle class, the dirty cops, the honest cops, and mostly, BOPE."Tropas de Elite", or "Elite Squad" is the story of Capitão Nascimento - a BOPE Captain decided on leaving the Brigade after his wife got pregnant, but before he can do so, he needs to find a replacement, someone that can manage and cope with the responsibility and pressure of being a BOPE Captain.
It's also very thought-provoking due to the way we're shown the corruption of the system (in Brazil as it is on several other countries...), and the difficulties honest people (police in this case) have just with dealing with their own problems and situations.A MUST SEE for everyone that's into good movies.
A brutal, unwavering & violent dive into the criminal underworld existing within the slums of Rio de Janerio, Elite Squad is a semi-fictional account of Brazil's own SWAT team, known as BOPE, and while the film became a cultural phenomenon in its country during its time of release, I fail to see anything that's so impressive about it.Set in the late 1990s, Elite Squad (also known as Tropa de Elite) follows the leader of Rio de Janerio's Special Police Operations Squad who is looking for his replacement as he intends to retire from the field soon and take the job of training new recruits.
But his final operation requires him to take down drug dealers & criminals in the slum area before Pope's arrival in Brazil.Co-written & directed by José Padilha, there isn't much wrong with the singular aspects here for the direction is pretty good, screenplay does put up some interesting characters on screen, and its raw handling of its subject matter does evoke a gritty feel but what the film lacks is a proper presentation for the whole picture has a messed-up structure which makes it very difficult to follow.Set pieces & locations do give this story the atmosphere required to set the desired mood, Cinematography encapsulates the film with a crude, unrefined layer but its poor execution of hand-held camera-work does hurt it at times.
Tropa de Elite plays out like a fascist recruitment video.My main problem with this film comes from its exploitation of a real world problem, and creating a loud, violent action movie, and welding it to a pro-authority message.The film is shot in a manner similar to other recent Brazilian crime fair, but instead of the bursting intensity of City of God, the directors shoot in drab colours, with a drab lead, expounding a far from subtle, and rather sinister, social message.Although its quick, chopping editing should suggest urgency, we are left with a barely passable story of characters strewn together, in a bumbling action thriller..
The scene was also perfect!Basically the movie describes the fight between drug dealers and corrupt cops against the good police officers, some of them from the military police force and most of them from BOPE.
This movie told about elite squads of police officers, BOPE as like as SWAT in America perhaps.
This movie shows police officers in Rio de Janeiro who, even making little money and been poorly equipped, choose to risk their lives in the war against drug traffic, instead of become corrupted or stay away from problems, like many others.
Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad) tells the story of honest policemen of an Elite Squad called BOPE (Batalhão de Operações Especiais - Special Operations Squad) of the Rio de Janeiro police.It tells about the pervasive corruption of the regular police, its commanders and the politicians who want money to finance their campaigns.According to the principle that states that the supply only exist because of the demand, the film criticizes the students, specially the left-winged ones, who say they care about the poor people that live on the favelas (very poor houses on Rio de Janeiro hills), which are dominated by the powerful drug dealers, but like to buy drugs from them to "get high".
This Brazilian masterpiece, based on the book Elite da Tropa from several Brazilian authors, presents us a Brazilian social system and the special police of the federal state of Rio de Janeiro through the eyes of the main character and narrator, Captain Nascimento.
A script that talks about traffic, crime and favela by a different angle, the angle of the police, more specifically the BOPE, a special regiment of the military police, who tells us the story is Captain Nascimento, who mixes with the story of Mathias and Neto, young honest police officers who seek to fight organized crime, the elite troop script is accurate, but not perfect, it has many parallel plots that end up not being deepened, but it has a great construction of characters besides being brutally honest , even sometimes abusing scenes and phrases of effect - which eventually made the movie explode on its release.
Yes I know that that was part to see the transformation of their characters but they shouldn't have been so nice at first.This movie is about how two honest rookies policemen, who get in a special police unit that attacks drug dealers in the favelas in Rio de Janeiro, and the police who is going to be their boss in this "tropa de elite".I recommend you to watch this film because is entertaining and maybe you will learn some things that you didn't know about our societies..
Brilliant acting and scene, it portrays the life of a member of BOPE, a special tactical team like America's SWAT, which is in charge of confronting the drug-dealers when the city police can not control them.I strongly recommend this movie for everyone who enjoys real action movies.