Captains of April

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Audience Member Uplifting and engaging treatment of a critical moment of history that few Americans know about. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Audience Member An absolute must watch. This is truly an unsung masterpiece. I'm not saying it doesn't have flaws but it pushes one to reflect on so much while giving a truly engaging telling of the april revolution that brought down Salazar's dictatorship in Portugal. The writing and directing are really good and the actors are just sublime. While sugar coating nothing, this film provides much matter for reflexion, motivation and hope. Oh, and I almost forgot the excellent soundtrack featuring Madredeus... Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Maria de Medeiros who is probably best known for playing Bruce Willis' pregnant girlfriend in Pulp Fiction is actually also a film director in her native Portugal, and her highest acclaimed film is Captains of April. A film about the Carnation Revolution of 1974. A military coup that was plotted out by a bunch of generals that was displeased with its dictatorial government that continued to send young men to fight for the colonies. The coup was a pretty bloodless process and all the people went to the street and celebrated with the soldiers, putting carnations into soldiers rifles as a sign of peace. We follow three different people in course of this event. Maia, the young general who leads the whole coup. Manuel, a soldier who leads a mission to take control over a radio station, and his wife Antonia (Medeiros), a university teacher who fights for a free Portugal. I did like this film. It's not only an interesting historical piece but it also shows us many different sides from different people. I specially liked the Gervasio character, the Major who constantly jokes about a new dictatorship that will supersede the previous one. But it's not a must see good film, but probably one of the few films about the Carnation Revolution and definitely worth to check out if you are a history buff or need something for educational purposes. Thumbs up. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member Não há palavras. Simplesmente o melhor filmes português de sempre. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review walter m "Capitaes de Abril" is an evocative, yet dramatically uneven, reconstruction of the Carnation Revolution which ended decades of dictatorship in Portugal in 1974. Sadly, its soap opera elements take center stage in its attempt at a more personal story, instead of allowing the events to be at least partially told from the onlookers' perspectives. In contast, there are a couple of great shots which push the movie more in a seriocomic direction. "Capitaes de Abril" starts on April 24, 1974 with a tearful goodbye at a train station in Lisbon, as a soldier's girlfriend begs him to take the train with her to Paris instead of reporting for duty, due to the fact that he might be sent to Angola at any time. This sets the stage for everything that follows in the movie. The Armed Forces Movement, led by Captain Maia(Stefano Accorsi) and other junior officers, sets a coup in motion in order to give the people self-determination in who leads them which is more than the lip service that the colonial officers pay their subjects. Unlike their superiors, these are the officers who do the actual fighting. They are not afraid of dying, they just want the killing to stop, long after it should have. In the process, they trust the citizens greeting them in the streets to make the right call, as they gain their voices.(Hopefully, the paucity of films from Portugal that I have seen is not a sign for pessimism...) In retrospect, it could have turned out much worse than it did(and there is a scene right at the end that displays how frightening), as one commentator references the tragic events in Chile from the year before. That's not discounting the East Timor massacres which are definitely the blame of Suharto and Kissinger. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Interesting historical drama, but I believe it was told in a very "romantic" or idealistic way too corny coming from soldiers. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Captains of April

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