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Black God, White Devil

Play trailer Poster for Black God, White Devil Released Sep 25, 1971 2h 0m Drama Western Crime Adventure Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 16 Reviews 79% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
The adventures of hired gunman Antonio das Mortes.
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Black God, White Devil

Critics Reviews

View All (16) Critics Reviews
William Repass Slant Magazine Throughout, Glauber Rocha calls on us to imagine what we’d want a revolution to look like. Rated: 3/4 Nov 13, 2023 Full Review Richard Brody New Yorker 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. May 12, 2014 Full Review A.H. Weiler New York Times Simple, black-and-white, more arresting as a shocking polemic than as memorable drama. Rated: 4/5 Apr 11, 2007 Full Review Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid A strange film, both of its time and blisteringly immediate. Rated: 3.5/4 Jul 20, 2024 Full Review Dennis Harvey 48 Hills 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. Jan 26, 2024 Full Review Yasser Medina Cinefilia 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] Rated: 7/10 Nov 15, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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s r 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. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review renaldo d 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 Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member 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. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member 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. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member Simple, black-and-white, more arresting as a shocking polemic than as memorable drama. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member This is an arid & jagged Brazilian film where religious class differences are settled with shotguns in the middle of the desert Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Black God, White Devil

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Cast & Crew

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
Genre
Drama, Western, Crime, Adventure
Original Language
Brazilian Portuguese
Release Date (Theaters)
Sep 25, 1971, Original
Box Office (Gross USA)
$6.8K
Runtime
2h 0m
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