harsh c
Relentlessly bleak and boring
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A Portuguese western? What's that going to be like? Well, gorgeous to see, a fun plot, and very violent and wild. Beautifully shot in desert wilderness, never boring, with an interesting sense of humour. It's definitely worth seeing.
A few cultural references were new to me. This can be a little confusing. As an example, family altars with offerings are referred to in the film as "Egum" and I had to google that later for more information. I suspect a Brazilian audience would know who the soldiers called "Monkeys" are. But I also find these elements to be the joy of watching foreign films. Sometimes aspects of the history or religions can be something fascinating to learn about.
A beautiful, violent, interesting film.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Overall, there is an extremely thin plot line. If you are looking for deep characters, this isn't it. It is graphic in sex, more gratuitous than most Hollywood films.
The best watch would be with subtitles unless you know Portuguese.
Like the spaghetti westerns of old it is about nearly senseless gunplay in the old west.
If you haven't watched it, ignore the rest of my comments.
I knew almost immediately that the son would be the story teller. So in that it is fairly predictable.
Admittedly I added a star because of the final line, "Come on Blondie." Which was the only name ascribed to the unknown gunman in "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly ", which implies the heritage is passed down.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/21/23
Full Review
Audience Member
If you go for a classic Hollywood western this is not the movie for you. Portraying a section of the vast barren lands of the state of Pernambuco, Brazil at the begging of the 20th century, this peculiar "western" with a good story telling style unfolds (at times theatrically) the obnoxious life of the killer ( O Matador) Cabeleira in an endless cycle of violence and vengeance where women and children take the worst part. After a somehow slow beginning , once Cabeleira leaves his remote ranch to look for his adoptive father and arrives in town is where the real action starts, and begins the parade of singular characters that shape the narrative till the end. An excellent screen play where the photography, camera angles, scenery and lighting play the role that perfectly fits and recreate the ambient, graphic violence and tone of the movie. The performances are good and the dialogues sometimes resemble the iconic Brazilian soap opera - needed to say, the best in their genre in Latin America-. The history has a bizarre moment when the antagonist Monsieur Blanchard and his wife play an opera, in French, in that that hell of a place. The film also hints by moments that very Latin American literary concept of "Magic Realism". Highly enjoyable to my taste I recommend this movie.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/18/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Depressive, sad and boring movie. Storyline is missing.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
01/13/23
Full Review
Audience Member
As described in the Genre per RT: "Art House & International, Drama, Western." The film reasonably emulates slow-moving Westerns from the 50s & 60s adding the more modern level of violence that we've come to expect in THIS century. BE ADVISED that the film is in Portuguese and SUBTITLED in English. (Why doesn't RT ever tell you that about a feature?!)
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/20/23
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