a5c7b9f00b Period piece about a Brazil that is no more. This movie is the sequel to &quot;God and the Devil in the Land of the Sun&quot; (Deus e o diabo na terra do sol), and takes place 29 years after Antonio das Mortes killed Corisco (the &quot;Blond Devil&quot;), last of the Cangaceiros. In &quot;the old days&quot;, Antonio&#39;s function in life was exterminate these bandits, on account of his personal grudges against them. His life had been meaningless for the last 29 years, but now, a new challenge awaits him. When a Cangaceiro appears in Jardim Das Piranhas, the local Land Baron (Jofre Soares), an old man, does what seems obvious to him: he calls Antonio das Mortes, killer of Cangaceiros. At first, Antonio is ecstatic. His life has gained new meaning. But soon it becomes obvious that this new Cangaceiro (named Coirana) is no Corisco, but an idealist. An idealist of the sixties in the garb of the forties. A leader to the hopeless and the hungry. Antonio das Mortes begins to reconsider his feelings towards Coirana and his followers… Antonio of the Death is a &quot;cangaceiros&quot; killer. Cangaceiro is the local name for a popular leader. Antonio is hired to kill the one who seems to be the last one in the Pirahna&#39;s Valley. This man is being followed by a strange woman who is considered a Saint. Once Antonio has killed the Cangaceiro, he changes his way of thinking when listening to the Saint&#39;s words. Went into this one not really knowing what to expect. I&#39;m no student of Brazilian history, and am sure this meant many allusions and much else that was interesting about the film passed me by. There were stretches where I felt my eyelids drooping (this was after a couple of beers, admittedly). However, some of the imagery is breathtaking, and the final ten minutes are just astonishing. I would watch it again for the end alone. Music too is great, particularly the final snatch of song/narration. Audience (half Brazilian, half staid English types like myself) was fairly bopping in the aisles… If you watch Hollywood movies only, this one may be hard for you. But it will be a great experience for some lunatics (like me) who believe in the power and in the freedom of the cinematographic images.<br/><br/>The subject is Brazil, the conflicts of a country that crossed a violent dictatorship at the time the movie was made. All the characters are representing groups of the brazilian society. Some of them, like the cangaceiros (poor and revolted people who became outlaws in the early 20th century), and the Saint (portrait of a blended religion that exists in Brazil, with elements of catholicism and african religions) are taken in a mythological approach. The delirious Glauber Rocha takes his characters to moral edges, leads them to crazy bang-bang scenes, to samba and war. There are no linear conclusions in the end. Only some new doubts and unusual beauty.
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295 weeks ago