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Black God, White Devil

Play trailer Poster for Black God, White Devil 1971 2h 0m Drama Western Adventure Crime Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 15 Reviews 79% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
The adventures of hired gunman Antonio das Mortes.
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Black God, White Devil

Critics Reviews

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William Repass Slant Magazine 11/13/2023
3/4
Throughout, Glauber Rocha calls on us to imagine what we’d want a revolution to look like. Go to Full Review
Richard Brody The New Yorker 05/12/2014
For all its heroic energy, hortatory anger, and impulsive youth, it's very much a philosophical work of its time, a majestic fantasy of no way out. Go to Full Review
A.H. Weiler New York Times 04/11/2007
4/5
Simple, black-and-white, more arresting as a shocking polemic than as memorable drama. Go to Full Review
Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid 07/20/2024
3.5/4
A strange film, both of its time and blisteringly immediate. Go to Full Review
Dennis Harvey 48 Hills 01/26/2024
Long, increasingly phantasmagorical, alternately frenetic and soporific, Black God, White Devil remains an uneven viewing experience, but one whose daring—located somewhere between Bunuel and Sweet Sweetback—carries it over the rough spots. Go to Full Review
Yasser Medina Cinefilia 11/15/2022
7/10
Rocha borrows certain compositional elements from the western to build, with his aesthetic expertise, a fairly sober sociopolitical treatise on inequality, corruption, and peasant resistance in times of authoritarianism. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Alexsander F Jun 28 For its iconic cover and for being a landmark in Brazilian ‘new cinema,’ it deserves the highest rating. Here is our ‘Once Upon a Time in the Northeast,’ by Glauber Rocha. See more s r @ScottR 12/19/2020 1001 movies to see before you die. I struggled with this one. Sure it was profound in its symbolic portrayal of many different issues, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. It was on YouTube. See more renaldo d 04/17/2020 the film presents many elements of European cinema, and demonstrates what life was like when the phenomenon "cangaço" happened, despite being a common theme in Brazilian films, this is one of the best films on this theme. Black God, White Devil it's a is a mixture of neo-realism and Eisenstein See more 10/01/2016 Clássico do cinema brasileiro e considerado em várias listas como um dos melhores filmes (senão o melhor), o filme não me cativou. Arrastado, cansativo e algumas vezes sem sentido, Glauber Rocha apresenta aquilo que sabe fazer bem: monólogos intermináveis. Desta vez, no entanto, abusa pouco das piruetas com a câmera como fez em Terra em Transe (que gostei mais). Por outro lado, há cenas boas seja pelo suspense seja pela crueldade como todo o primeiro ato até a fuga do vaqueiro Manoel e sua esposa, o ritual religioso, o momento que Corisco aparece (aliás os monólogos shakesperianos do cangaceiro podem ser chatos, mas Othon Bastos tá foda demais), e todas as sequências com o matador contratado por um padre e um fazendeiro. De qualquer forma, a obra continua atual, tirando o foco do retirante nordestino e passando para os indígebas contra ruralistas. See more 07/11/2014 This film begins wonderfully, brilliantly shot and keenly acted- but right as you're sure it's coming to a close, the music suddenly runs uptempo and the narrator says the equivalent of "Wait, there's more!" and the second segment of the film destroys any credibility the first might have established. Another thing that it should be said about this wonderful movie is that there is no political structure able to stop life, as it is demonstrated in the scenes of the movie.This is a movie to anyone who wants to have a better idea about real life. See more 10/26/2013 Simple, black-and-white, more arresting as a shocking polemic than as memorable drama. See more Read all reviews
Black God, White Devil

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Movie Info

Synopsis The adventures of hired gunman Antonio das Mortes.
Director
Glauber Rocha
Screenwriter
Walter Lima Jr., Glauber Rocha, Paulo Gil Soares
Distributor
New Yorker Films
Production Co
Copacabana Filmes, Produções Cinematográficas Herbert Richers
Genre
Drama, Western, Adventure, Crime
Original Language
Brazilian Portuguese
Release Date (Theaters)
Sep 25, 1971, Original
Box Office (Gross USA)
$6.8K
Runtime
2h 0m
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