Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Directed by: Jose Padilha
Written by: Braulio Mantovani, Jose Padilha, Rodrigo Pimentel
Starring: Wagner Moura, Andre Ramiro, Sandro Rocha, Irandhir Santos, Milhem Cortaz, Maria Ribeiro, Taina Muller, Seu Jorge

Years before Incredible Hulk and Fast Five reduced Rio to nothing more than a cool backdrop for Hollywood blockbusters, Fernando Meirelles’ groundbreaking film City of God introduced many of us to life in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Five years later, City of God screenwriter Braulio Mantovani teamed up with documentary filmmaker Jose Padilha for another intense film that took took things to a new level of grittiness: Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite). Although the movie didn’t attract as much attention internationally, it was a massive hit within Brazil, creating massive demand for a sequel. Rather than churn out a quick and easy cash grab, however, Mantovani and Padilha crafted a follow-up that is both classier and more complex than the original.

The original Elite Squad documented life within the BOPE, Brazil’s highly-trained military police unit. Based on a book by sociologist Luiz Eduardo Soares, it followed fictional BOPE Captain Roberto Nascimento and his brutal approach to busting drug runners in the favelas. He was also in search of someone to replace him as he was planning to leave active duty after his wife had their first child. Elite Squad: The Enemy Within picks up some thirteen years later, with Nascimento now rubbing shoulders with politicians after being promoted to Sub-Secretary of Intelligence. That is not to say that there is no action this time around, only that there is a lot more screen time spent setting it up.

As the title implies, the sequel focuses mostly on corruption within the police force and the government itself. Although it is a topic that was touched on in the original, this movie goes further to illustrate the precarious balance that exists in Rio. When Nascimento uses his new position to essentially put several gangs out of commission, the power swings too far in the other direction. A new militia group springs up within the police force, led by Major Rocha with the support of the Governor, who take advantage of the poor residents in the slums. As Nascimento slowly starts to unravel what is going on, he finds his life in danger, as well as the lives of his ex-wife and son.

Elite Squad: The Enemy Within is a sprawling epic with a large cast that covers many different sides of the equation, not unlike Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic or HBO’s The Wire. Nascimento’s ex-wife is now married to a human rights activist named Fraga (Irandhir Santos), who butts heads with Nascimento over BOPE’s tactics. Fraga is friends with Clara (Taina Muller), a journalist who is determined to expose the corruption within the force. Even Nascimento’s son Rafael provides a more youthful perspective of the situation, but gets pulled into the fray when he ends up being arrested himself.

With so much going on, you’d think that the movie would run the risk of being overly dense and confusing, but Padilha and Mantovani do a great job of streamlining the plot without sacrificing suspense. Once again, the narration is a bit superfluous and clunky, but it does prevent the audience from ever getting lost. You also don’t really need to see the first film to understand what’s going on as they summarize the important events with a few quick flashbacks during the opening credits. That being said, watching the first film does help flesh out the relationship between Nascimento and Captain Andre Matias in addition to Nascimento’s character arc.

Elite Squad was criticized by some for its glorification of police violence and fascist undertones. Although the sequel doesn’t necessarily shy away from those things, it does feel a lot more mature in how it deals with them. There are probably a few less action sequences than there were in the original, and even though they are not as gratuitous in terms of blood and guts, they are still riveting and exhilarating. One of the highlights is a massive shootout between Nascimento’s men and the militia group in the middle of the street that borrows heavily from the Michael Mann school of cinematography. There aren’t very many movies about politics that can get your pulse pounding quite like this one does.

Elite Squad: The Enemy Within ended up becoming the highest grossing movie of all time in Brazil, and it was also their submission to the Academy for this year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar. The fact that the movie managed both of these achievements is a testament to just how well-balanced it is. It is both a gripping crowd pleaser and an intelligent, well-constructed work of art, that rare sequel that surpasses its predecessor. It may peddle a few cliches here and there, but ultimately you can sense the real anger and urgency that the movie was built on, and that is what will stay with you long after the credits roll.

The Blu-ray release also contains a pretty decent making-of documentary that runs almost an hour long and features interviews with the cast and crew talking about the state of Brazil and the ideas being expressed in the film. Director Jose Padilha, in particular, has a lot to say, and he considers his documentary Bus 174 part of a trilogy along with the two Elite Squad films. It is definitely worth a watch. — Sean

SCORE: