Elite Squad
Elite Squad (, ) is a 2007 Brazilian crime film directed by José Padilha. The film is a semi-fictional account of the "Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais" (BOPE), the Special Police Operations Battalion of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police, analogous to the American SWAT teams. It is the second feature film and first fiction film of Padilha, who had previously directed the documentary "Bus 174". The script was written by Bráulio Mantovani ("City of God") and Padilha, based on the book "Elite da Tropa" by sociologist Luiz Eduardo Soares and two former BOPE captains, André Batista and Rodrigo  Pimentel. "Elite Squad" was an overwhelming critical and commercial success and became a cultural phenomenon in Brazil. The film won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. Its sequel, "", released in Brazil on October 8, 2010, holds industry records in the country for ticket sales and gross revenue. Plot. The film opens with a narration by BOPE Captain Roberto Nascimento (Wagner Moura) explaining the illegal liaisons between Rio de Janeiro's military police force and the city's drug lords. In 1997, novice police officers André Matias () and Neto Gouveia (Caio Junqueira) use a sniper rifle telescope to  watch officer Captain Oliveira (Marcelo Valle) and other policemen meet drug traffickers at Morro da Babilônia. Neto accidentally pulls the trigger, which causes a deadly gunfight between the officers and thugs; as Mathias and Neto flee the scene, Nascimento and his men head to the shootout to rescue the officers. Six months earlier, Nascimento leads an operation to secure the Morro do Turano neighbourhood before Pope John Paul II's overnight visit at the Archbishop's home near the slums. With his wife Rosane (Maria Ribeiro) pregnant with their first child, Nascimento begins searching for a worthy successor at the  unit before switching to a desk job. Meanwhile, long-time friends Neto and Matias share an apartment in Rio and have just completed the admission tests to the PMERJ: Neto begins working as a supervisor at the police auto mechanic shop, whilst Matias is responsible for registering and filing every police complaint in a small archive office. Matias also attends Law school, where he befriends classmates Roberta (Fernanda de Freitas), Edu (Paulo Viela) and Maria (Fernanda Machado); all three are members of a NGO that operates in a drug traffic area run by a major drug lord nicknamed "Baiano" (Fábio  Lago), who provides marijuana to Matias' friends. He also befriends Romerito, a local boy who suffers from severe myopia. Neto eventually applies to another department, but his transfer is denied. Disgusted by the corruption practices carried on by police officers in a routine patrol with Captain Fabio (Milhem Cortaz), he asks Matias to help stealing the drug dealers' payoff money to fix as many police cars as possible at once. Their plan is successful, but Oliveira finds out and demotes both to kitchen work as punishment, as well as ordering Fabio - whom he believes is the mastermind - to attend a  false police report at Morro da Babilônia during a community funk party. Fabio realizes is a set-up to kill him and discreetly warns Neto and Matias, who rush to the location and arrive at the vantage point from the first scene. Aftet the shootout - during which Matias is photographed by the press - both are rescued by Nascimento and, soon after, they apply for BOPE's training program motivated by their devotion to the force and eagerness for more action. At the NGO office, Baiano confronts Maria and her friends with a newspaper featuring Matias's picture and threatens to  kill them if they bring policemen inside his territory. The BOPE's training program proves to be a gruesome challenge as many candidates quit the program, including Fabio (who applied as a way to avoid Oliveira), but both Neto and Matias successfully pass the course, which Neto celebrates by having a BOPE tattoo on his arm. In college, Matias is rejected by Maria and her friends, but confronts Edu and orders him to arrange a meeting with Romerito the next day to give him a new pair of glasses. Edu reveals Matias' plan to Baiano, who sets an ambush to  kill him; however, upon returning home, Neto informs Matias of a job interview in a prestigious law firm that will conflict with his meeting with Romerito, and volunteers to deliver the glasses in his place: this results in Neto being mortally wounded. When Baiano prepares to execute him, he notices his BOPE tattoo and goes into hiding for fear of retaliation. After Neto's funeral, Matias, Nascimento and his men make daily incursions into Baiano's slum, torturing several dealers into revealing his whereabouts. After one of them reveals Edu tipped Baiano, Matias storms in a peace walk, violently beats  Edu and insults Maria and the others. The BOPE team finally locate and corner Baiano: Nascimento holds him at gunpointas he pleads to not to be shot in the face as it would ruin his funeral. Angrily amused at Baiano's suffering, Nascimento grabs a .120 shotgun, hands it to Matias and orders him to "finish him off" as both a vendetta for Neto's death and as a final rite of passage for himself. As Baiano pleads and cries, Matias cocks the gun and the screen cuts to black as a shot is heard. Inspiration. The movie is based  on "Elite da Tropa", a book by two BOPE policemen ("Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais" - Rio de Janeiro military police squads for special actions), André Batista and Rodrigo Pimentel, together with sociologist & anthropologist Luiz Eduardo Soares, which provided a semi-fictional account of the daily routine of the BOPE as well as some historical events, based on the experiences of the two BOPE policemen. The book was controversial at the time of release, in its description of the BOPE as a "killing machine", as well as the detailed allegation of an aborted assassination attempt on then left-wing governor of  Rio de Janeiro, Leonel Brizola, and reportedly resulted in Batista being reprimanded and censured by the Military Police. The writing contained some discrepancies, however Soares did not retract his novel. The novel had a unique reception when it was translated in 2010. There were many fans of the original novel and film who felt that the Portuguese-English translation was poor and did not follow the film and vice versa. Ultimately the novel (before translation) was more like the film than the novel in English. Production leak. In August 2007, prior to the movie's release to theaters, a preliminary  cut of the film was leaked and made available for download on the Internet. The cut, which included English title cards but no subtitles, was leaked from the company responsible for subtitling the film, resulting in one person being fired and a criminal investigation. It was estimated that about 11.5 million people had seen the leaked version of the movie in 2007. Reception. Popularity and box office. "Tropa de Elite" became one of the most popular Brazilian movies in history. According to Datafolha, 77% of São Paulo residents knew about the movie. The word of mouth was also important for  the disclosure of the film, with 80% of the people rating the movie as "excellent" or "good", according to the same poll. The movie was released in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo on October 5, 2007 (with the intention of being considered by the Ministry of Culture to compete as the Brazilian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar). It was released nationwide on October 12, 2007. By January 2008, 2.5 million people had seen it in theaters. In Rio and São Paulo, with no promotion other than billboards, 180,000 people saw the movie during its opening weekend . The movie was also the cover issue for the two Brazil's most important weekly magazines, "Veja" and "Época". In the beginning of 2008 it was confirmed that Rede Globo would produce a TV series based on the movie. In 2011 Rockstar Games recommended "Elite Squad" to fans of its video game "Max Payne 3", which is set in Brazil and depicts battles between special police units and favela gangs. Outside Brazil reviews of the film were initially mixed, but after time the film was received more positively. Based on 34 reviews, the film received a 53% approval rating on  Rotten Tomatoes, with its critics' consensus calling it a "brutal, action-heavy Brazilian cop film with a pointless voiceover. Lacks flair, overdoes the violence and is never quite sure where its morals lie". Criticism. When the first version of the film leaked, it caused a major controversy for its portrayal of Captain Nascimento's unpunished police brutality in slums (favelas); some saw it as glamourizing police violence. After its exhibition in Berlin Film Festival, critic Jay Weissberg, in a "Variety" article, called the movie "a one-note celebration of violence-for-good that plays like a recruitment film for fascist  thugs". Michel Misse, a researcher of urban violence in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in an article by "Carta Capital", tried to explain why some people cheered at Captain Nascimento's actions: "as the judiciary system cannot keep up with the demand for punishment, some may think civil rights leads to unpunishment. And then, they want illegal solutions. That's why Captain Nascimento is called". Awards. On February 16, 2008, "Elite Squad" won the Best Movie award of the Berlin International Film Festival, the Golden Bear. Soundtrack. The soundtrack of the film was a collection of popular  hits, but even the soundtrack would not escape controversy as the Brazilian authorities demanded the removal of MC Leonardo's "Rap das Armas" from the film, because of alleged promotion of violence like use of illegal arms and drugs. The filmmakers complied two weeks after the official release. Sequel. A sequel, named "Tropa de Elite 2: O Inimigo Agora É Outro", was released in Brazil on October 8, 2010, and in the U.S. on November 11, 2011.